Resume - Matilda Garrido, MS, MSB, CT

MEDICAL AND THANATOLOGY EXPERIENCE

5/2025-Present: Developer and Facilitator, weekly bereavement group, Rodkey Kirk Center, Manhattan Plaza, NYC

1/2025-Present: Co-Facilitator, ongoing weekly bereavement support group, Visiting Nurse Service Health

9/2024-Present: Memorial planner, Fitting Tribute Funeral Services, Brooklyn, NY

Work with funeral director Amy Cunningham to plan memorials for funeral families

8/2024-Present: Patient Care Doula, Mount Sinai West Hospital, Palliative Care Department

5/2022-Present: National Funeral Directors Association

Contributor to website Remembering A Life and flagship monthly publication The Director

4/2022-Present: Instructor and Course Developer, End of Life Doula Professional Certificate Programs, University of Vermont

Primary course developer for 8 week Grief Specialist Professional Certificate Program; course content contributor for the 8 week End of Life Doula and 6 week Companion Animal End of Life Doula Professional Certificate Programs
Teach 8 week End of Life Doula program, 8 week Grief Specialist program, 4 week Pediatric End of Life Doula program and 6 week Companion Animal End of Life Doula professional certificate programs offered by the University of Vermont’s Osher Center for Integrative Health.
Co-facilitate monthly Doula support group for alumni
Train and mentor incoming facilitators and instructors
Nominated for the Prelock Online Teaching Award (2023)

12/2021-12/2022: Research Assistant to Dr. Allan Kellehear, University of Vermont

9/22-12/22: Research on journal-published palliative care articles to determine gaps in research and theory. 3rd author. Findings published in Progress in Palliative Care and Wellbeing at the End of Life
12/21-3/22: Conducted academic research and primary review of sources for scoping review on the subject of aging, dying and identity. 2nd author; findings published in Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics

8/2020-3/2022: Story Listener, StoryListening Research Study, UVM Larner College of Medicine

Research interviewer bearing witness to stories of loss during Covid-19 as told by friends, family members, and clinical and medical practitioners; 2nd author of research protocol paper. Findings to be published forthcoming in Palliative Medicine Reports.

1/2020-Present: Invited guest, Visiting Nurse Service Health Hospice Ethics Committee

Attend Ethics Committee meetings as full invited guest with full participation privileges. Contribute to Ethics Matters, committee publication.

8/2018-1/2025: Hospice patient/caregiver volunteer, vigil volunteer, Visiting Nurse Service Health

Provide support and companionship to terminally ill patients and their families. Sit vigil with dying patients at bedside. Caregiver phone support provided during Covid-19 pandemic.

11/2017-Present: Grace Church Brooklyn Heights

End of life programming, including end of life workshops, person/pet loss bereavement group development and facilitation, funeral/memorial service planning, and monthly Death Cafe.

1/2018-5/2018: Hart Island Project

EDUCATION

Ambiguous Loss Certificate, University of Michigan, 2025

Pediatric End of Life Doula Professional Certificate - University of Vermont, 2025

Master of Science in Bioethics – Albert Einstein School of Medicine/Cardozo Law School, 2022

David Kessler Certified Grief Educator – September 2022

Master of Science in Thanatology – Marian University, 2021

Companion Animal End of Life Doula Professional Certificate– University of Vermont, 2021

Certification in Thanatology – Association For Death Education and Counseling, 2019-Present

Foundations in Contemplative Care – New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, 2019

End of Life Doula Professional Certificate – University of Vermont, 2019

Certified Funeral Celebrant – InSight Celebrants (through the NFDA), 2019

New York Open Center Certificate in Integrative Thanatology, 2018

Bachelor of Arts, European History – SUNY Purchase, 1988