MORE ABOUT DORIS ZAGDANSKI
Doris wrote her first book on teenagers and grief in 1990 and has since created an identity as a well known author, educator and trainer in the field of empathy and grief awareness. Whilst Doris began her career as a high school teacher, after the sudden death of her daughter Claire in 1980, due to SIDS or cot death, she found herself in a life and career changing space.
Some years afterwards, she was asked to represent the local Coroner’s department as a home visitor to all families in the local area whose child died of SIDS. This meant supporting grieving parents and basically being a friend with a listening ear. Well before the days of the internet, Doris found herself keenly learning about grief and empathy wherever the opportunity arose.
She also found her voice – and slowly became a popular speaker, firstly about the experience of losing a child to SIDS but then about broader topics about empathy and what to say to someone who is grieving.
The Australian and New Zealand funeral industries were instrumental in her development as a speaker and trainer to their employees, as well as hosting ‘meet the author’ events in their local communities.
In 1992, Doris was employed by Service Corporation International Australia (SCIA) as their National Training Manager. This organisation, was the forerunner for InvoCare as it’s now known – the largest funeral service provider in Australia and New Zealand. In today’s language, she became an ‘influencer’, creating training modules on customer service, creative funeral options and, of course, grief and empathy. For over 30 years, she forged a career in the funeral industry, writing and delivering training programs and working on the front line as a funeral director and funeral celebrant. She retired from InvoCare in 2021 and was awarded a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for her services to the company.
During her career, Doris continued writing books in her ‘spare time’, resulting in conference keynotes and training seminars for people like police, emergency responders, hospitals, churches, schools, cancer and palliative care services, volunteers, support groups – anywhere you find loss and grief.
FROM THE AUDIENCE
One of the things I most admired in our chat was the basic humanity that you bring to conversations on grief and sadly, that comes only with first hand experience. Thank you for sharing and allowing me to share with you.
Funeral Home ManagerI look forward to being able to share with our team your knowledge in the form of future training with you.