MEET JEFF KIMBALL

Jeff's wife, Amy, died when their daughters were 3 and 5.

​

In the years that followed, he also lost his best friend, his only grandparent, his father, his mother, and his 9-year-old niece. That kind of accumulation changes what you do with your life.

​

He processes grief the way he knows how — by living purposefully, and by painting and writing in what he calls "the space before words." He walks his dogs, Waldo and Winnie. He swims. He writes. (You can see his visual work here.)

​

An innovator, lauded grief support export whose character and infectious can-do spirit drive his resilience, his professional life has followed the same current. He was the founding staff person at Elizabeth's Smile, a nonprofit that funded research at Harvard and Georgetown into what families need when a parent dies. He was the first professional hire at Experience Camps for Grieving Children, helping the organization grow fourfold. Before that, he spent years building communities for people living on the margins and in the shadows of humanity — at the United Way, for children in treatment for cancer at Circle of Care and as a longtime trusted aide of US Senator Jay Rockefeller, where the sudden death of his roommate and close friend first turned him toward this work.

​

The Healing Center, which Jeff now runs, is where all of it converged. 

​

His daughters, Lexi and Elyse, are grown now, building lives of their own. They remain the center of his.