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About Us

Learn More About Who We Are

Amy Hero Jones

Operations Manager

Amy is End in Mind’s Operations Manager.

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
For me, living with the End in Mind means being wholly present, honest, clear and open. I try to be clear in communication and say what I mean. I tell my family and friends how important they are to me, and I make sure they know they are loved. I want to know, at the end of my life, that I have lived and loved completely.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
“Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles.

Favorite Bucket List Item:
Traveling. Anywhere. Everywhere.

What habit makes your life worth living?
Taking a moment every day with my children to talk about their lives and hear what they think and feel.

If you had one quote on your headstone, what would it be?
“The memories of me live on through the stories of others.”

What excites you about being the End in Mind Operations Manager?
I’m excited to see how I can help End In Mind flourish. How we can take difficult topics, difficult times in life, and make positive changes in the lives of others. I want to inspire others to live their lives to the fullest, and in doing so, make sure my life has meaning.

Shari Lamke

Program Manager

Shari is End in Mind’s Program Manager.

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
For me living with the End in Mind is thinking of what my legacy will be. That folks can say I lived a full life, had a great family, I enjoyed helping others, telling stories that had an impact for good and I laughed a lot.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
“Wrapped in my Memory” by Shawn Smith

Favorite Bucket List Item:
I would love to travel to central Sweden and visit the homeland of my great grandparents Josef Holmquist and Rebecca Ruckman.

What three words would you want people to remember you by?
Storyteller, Family Historian.

What habit makes your life worth living?
Generosity. And movies.

Cathy Wurzer

Founder, Board Member, Executive Producer

Cathy Wurzer is a broadcast journalist with MPR News and Twin Cities PBS, author, documentary filmmaker, artist, horsewoman and wanna-be dancer.

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
Living with the End in Mind means making friends with my impending death so I can be free to live fearlessly, with purpose and authenticity, until I die.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
What? Only one?!? OK. “Keep Me in Your Heart” by Warren Zevon. Everyone wants to be remembered when they are gone.

Favorite Bucket List Item:
Watching the beautiful, white Lippizan stallions perform their graceful equine ballet in Vienna.

What three words would you want people to remember you by?
Inspired. Dogged. Kind.

If you had one quote on your headstone, what would it be?
Actually, it is a quote from my beloved friend Bruce Kramer, the man who modeled much of what pushes me forward with End in Mind. Bruce wrote, shortly after he was diagnosed with ALS, that he had a choice. He could either shut down and wait to die or continue to live until he couldn’t. He asked himself, “What will you be from here into eternity?” I’d love people, who see my gravestone, ask themselves that same question.

Christy Moe Marek

Board Member

Christy is a certified End of Life Doula and Anamcara End of Life Practitioner in private practice supporting and guiding the dying and their loved ones to remember they know how to die, and know how to tend their dying. She offers talks and facilitates sessions related to the interplay of creativity, soulfulness, and the dying process. Learn more at www.tendinglife.com

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
We are, all of us, always both living and dying simultaneously. So for me, living with the End in Mind means walking wholly through life embodying and allowing myself to be informed by that truth.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
There are soooooo many! A few favorites… Carrie Newcomer, “I’ll Go Too.” Cloud Cult, “Come Home.” Jackson Browne, “For a Dancer.” Josh Groban, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” James Taylor, “Secret o’ Life.” Van Morrison, “Into the Mystic.” Frank Sinatra, “My Way.” And on, and on…

Favorite Bucket List Item:
Experienced – riding elephants in the Thai jungle. To be experienced – pilgrimage to Ireland.

What habit makes your life worth living?
Daily contemplative time outdoors cultivating presence and opening to the wonder of mystery and magic in every moment.

If you had one quote on your headstone, what would it be?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? (Mary Oliver, an excerpt from The Summer Day)

Corey Martin, MD

Board Chair

Corey Martin is a Yale-trained family physician, founder of the Bounce Back Project, practicing private group physician, Bush Fellow, and national speaker on clinician burnout. Driven to do this work by the loss of two colleagues and friends, Corey strives to create an environment of opportunity in which all of us can do the deep, heartfelt work of changing the way we show up and interact in each other’s lives.

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
It means not be afraid to share your feelings, express your love to others and living a life that is true to yourself. One without regrets. It means that at my funeral my kids will be able to say, the one thing that dad taught us was how to be truly happy.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

Favorite Bucket List Item:
Walking the Camino de Santiago.

Write your own epitaph in five words or less.
Dad. Son. Friend. Mentor. Leader.

What habit makes your life worth living?
Traveling with my family and facilitating retreats across the world to help people reawaken their inner teacher and to have the courage to live a life without regrets.

Mary Messina

Board Member

Mary Messina is the Vice President for Operations and Strategic Partnerships with Yousurance. She was in a similar role for Thrivent Financial. She’s a volunteer with her local Chamber of Commerce and a celebrant at a local funeral home for families who don’t have a religious affiliation.

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
It is an examined life while not being terribly significant. It is to be love as best as I can in the moment. It is to just pause and be present. It is to courageously stand for who I am and to share my gifts.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
“Your Life is Now”
“Remember When”
“Better Together”

Favorite Bucket List item:
Not sure that I have a bucket list item per se. . . my desires are more audacious like, being a part of a world that is unified and fearless of differences.

What habit makes your life worth living?
I am a better human being when I spend time in the morning in prayer or mediation. The quiet and stillness helps me. My prayer conversations have gotten me through some very difficult times and has never let me down.

If you had one quote on your headstone, what would it be?
What if?

What excites you about being on the End in Mind board?
I am very excited and honored to be a part of the conversation. Encouraging us to dare ourselves to live the greatest version of the grandest vision of ourselves.

Rev. Amanda Lunemann

Board Member

Rev. Amanda Lunemann is Lead pastor at Silver Lake United Methodist Church in Oakdale, MN. She has also been a volunteer chaplain with the Minnesota Legislature and is a certified Zumba and TRX instructor.

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
Because I was diagnosed with a chronic illness and bumped against The End at one point in time, it has invariably shaped the value to which I see and know Life.

Life is brief. It’s meant to be embraced, and it’s a choice. What a gift and responsibility we have to live this Life in all its iterations of beauty and challenges. For me, to live with the End in Mind is to live courageously each day at a time, here and now, to the best of my ability.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
“Free Life” & “All Will Be Well” by Dan Wilson
“Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison
“May It Be” – Celtic Folk Song
“Sounds of the Eternal” by J. Phillip Newell

Favorite Bucket List item:
To star in a Broadway Musical (or at least have one solo number)

What habit/practice makes your life worth living?
Practicing Human Connection

If you had one quote on your headstone, what would it be?
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 20th century mystic, scientist, priest.

What excites you about being on the End in Mind board?
Working with equally passionate people to help cultivate healing spaces in our communities and in individuals excites me. It affords me the platform to contribute to their exploration of the tender yet unitive experience of “living while dying.”
Additionally, I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow, stretch and be stretched by the experiences I have and the relationships I will make while serving on the board.

Cindi Spence

Board Member

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
It means slowing down to appreciate what the day brings. It means taking time to reach out the people in my life that are important to me, so that they know they are loved and seen. It means not being afraid to move forward with things that are important to me, even if doing so seems daunting or scary.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
“You Can’t Rush Your Healing” by Trevor Hall

Favorite Bucket List item:
Staying at the Lake O’Hara Lodge in British Colombia’s Yoho National Park and hiking with my husband Scott. It is a small, old lodge in an area of the Canadian Rockies that doesn’t allow vehicles and limits the number of people that can day hike and stay overnight. Getting a room is like winning the lottery (and you practically need to win the lottery to afford it!). The hiking and views are spectacular!

What habit makes your life worth living?
Movement. I start every day with some sort of movement – usually running or yoga. Movement focuses my mind and brings me a deep sense of appreciation for the day that I’ve been given.

If you had one quote on your headstone, what would it be?
“Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”

What excites you about being on the End in Mind board?
Having the opportunity to help others become more comfortable with talking about, and preparing for, death. I truly think that if people talked more about death, they would live a more fulfilling life. Talking about death is the quickest way to provide perspective and figure out not only the things that are most important to you, but the things that you are doing in your life right now that you really don’t want to be doing (or want to be doing differently).

Sheryl Ramstad

Board Member

What does it mean for you to live with the End in Mind?
It helps me to focus my life to make it as purposeful as possible. Also, I want to be prepared and prepare my loved ones by getting my affairs in order and making certain that those who survive me understand my intentions and are able to carry on my legacy.

Deathbed Playlist Song Choice:
Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, and I Love to Tell the Story

Favorite Bucket List item:
Spend as much time and share as many experiences with my family as I can. Travel to places that I haven’t been but am very interested in seeing.

What habit/practice makes your life worth living?
Practicing my faith, spending time with family (especially grandchildren) and friends, enjoying the beauty of nature, and making a difference in the world and people’s lives.

What excites you about being on the End in Mind board?
Having the opportunity to be with like-minded people who are trying to live purposefully and assist others in doing so and learning from them how to improve my own life and the lives of others.