RTZ HOPE Support Group Program Facilitators

Alishia Anderson (she/her/hers)

Alishia has always looked at life with a glass half – full perspective. But, when she lost her first-born son DJ at 28-weeks’ gestation (1.18.16) it rocked her to her core. Through her grief journey she has grown spiritually, discovered her purpose, and has become a better wife, [rainbow/golden] mama, pregnancy loss advocate, and mentor to other baby loss families who’ve unfortunately been dealt the same tragic plight of loss. Alishia learned early after her loss that sharing her story helped her heal. Two years into her healing journey she self-published her book “Still Here: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph After Stillbirth” to help eradicate what she coins the 3S’s of baby loss: silence, secrecy, and shame. 

Alishia enjoys writing, singing, traveling, making memories, spending quality time with her family and friends,  and connecting with baby loss families at various points of their grief/healing journey. She resides in Southern California with her husband Derrek and two earth side sons, #boymom. 

Anita Bubany (she/her/hers)

Anita has benefited greatly from the support provided by RTZ HOPE and wants to honor her journey by giving back to others in similar situations. After experiencing the loss of her twin daughters in 2020 and a miscarriage in 2021, she has found ways to bring purpose to her pain by being present with others who have endured the death of their babies. Anita continues to learn how to parent her living children after multiple losses, while incorporating ways to honor her children that have gone before her.

Anita has 15 years of experience working with various non-profits and providing services for underprivileged populations and those on the margins. She holds a BA and MA in Religious Studies. She currently resides near Washington DC, where she enjoys homeschooling her children, hiking, and exploring the outdoors. She and her husband Brent have four living children, Rudy, Augustinos, and Elena, and are the bereaving parents of identical twin daughters, Mary Rose and Elizabeth Leia, and Lucia-Francisco.

Anna Calix (she/her/hers/ella)

Anna was born and raised in Honduras and immigrated to the United States to pursue a college degree, where she has stayed ever since. Anna has dedicated most of her public health career to maternal and child health. When her first child, Liam, was stillborn on his due date in 2016, her profession became her passion. She is committed to supporting fellow bereaved parents in their journeys while working toward reducing perinatal and infant mortality so that fewer families have to live this experience. Anna accomplishes this work through the nonprofit she founded, Gifts from Liam. She lives with her rainbow son, Rio, in the Chicagoland area. They travel to Honduras frequently to visit family and friends. In addition to being a bereaved, single mom and running a nonprofit, Anna works as a medical writer.

RTZ Hope has been a part of Anna’s journey since the beginning. After numerous touches with RTZ in different ways, her path has led her to join the team in supporting other women of color in their journeys of bereaved motherhood.

Susan Jacobsen, ATR-BC, LPC (she/her/hers)

Susan Jacobsen is an artist, art therapist, and bereaved mother. Her son Henry died in 2003 at 37 weeks gestation due to complications related to HELP Syndrome. Susan also experienced two early miscarriages before giving birth to her second son Jens in 2008.

Susan lives in Fountain, CO and practices Art Therapy at her private practice, Henry’s Heart Art Therapy, in Colorado Springs. Through her private practice, she works with individuals who have experienced grief, loss, and trauma. Outside of work, she enjoys oil painting, eco printing/dying, yoga, volleyball, and spending time in the mountains with her husband and son.

Jennifer Kaiton (she/her/hers)

Jennifer is passionate about holding space for those who have experienced a pregnancy/infant loss. Between 2009 and 2019, she and her husband experienced four miscarriages and the stillbirth of their son James. A close friend recommended she attend an RTZ retreat in 2015, and Jen credits it as a truly tranformative experience. Jennifer went on to hold retreats for bereaved women in the Seattle area and co-facilitated an RTZ retreat in 2018. As professional singer, Jen often uses her singing voice in the retreats to help facilitate healing through music.

As a youth and adult program leader, Jen thrives on working with groups to achieve a strong sense of community.

Jill Kottmeier, MS, BSN, RN, CPLC (she/her/hers)

Jill has been a nurse for 25 years and has been, working at Northwest Community Hospital (NCH) in Chicago since 1997.  She worked for 17 years as a labor & delivery nurse, focusing her care on those families experiencing a loss. In 2015 she transitioned to the role of Perinatal Palliative & Bereavement Care Coordinator, so she could focus her career solely on supporting and advocating for families on the continuum of loss. In this role, she has supported countless families through the loss of their baby, ran monthly support groups, and planned biannual memorial services for grieving families to honor their children. Jill has served as the chair of the Alliance of Perinatal Bereavement and Palliative Care Facilitators of Northern Illinois from 2016-2022. Recently, Jill’s role transitioned to be the Director of Wellbeing and Bereavement Services at NCH. Jill understands that grief is not a onetime event but rather a lifelong journey that families integrate into their lives. Because of her passion for the bereaved, Jill recently graduated with her Master’s Degree in Thanatology, the study of death, dying, and bereavement.

Emily Marlowe, LCSW (she/her/hers)

Emily is a licensed clinical social worker in Louisville, KY, who specializes in trauma therapy and mindfulness meditation. She brings both professional and lived-experience knowledge to the RTZ community.

In 2021, she and her husband were thrilled to bring their first child Xavier Thomas into the world. But after receiving a fatal diagnosis at 20 weeks gestation, they made the heartbreaking choice to terminate the pregnancy. At the time, abortion was still legal in Kentucky, but there were many state-mandated obstacles which added trauma to the already devastating loss of their son. 

Emily found RTZ Hope through social media, and joined a support group specific to terminations for medical reasons. Finding this community of people who ‘get it’ has been the most healing part of her grief journey, and she is excited to give back by being a part of the RTZ team.

Maryam Moody, MSW, LCSW (she/her/hers)

Maryam Moody holds a Masters in Social Work. As a bereaved mother and a hospital social worker, she brings both professional and lived experience to the RTZ community. And as an LGBTQ+ parent through IVF, she is familiar with the many layers of loss that come with extraordinary challenges to family formation. RTZ Hope groups helped Maryam find community and support amidst the grief of losing her son in the second trimester of pregnancy. She is grateful to have the opportunity to give back as a co-facilitator to offer presence and compassion to others whose lives have been forever changed by grief. Maryam resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, where she is a psychotherapist in private practice. She enjoys thrift shopping, 90s slow jams, dad jokes, and sleeping in. 

Domenique Rice (she/her/hers)

Domenique resides in Brooklyn with her family.  She is mother to five, four living. Her second child, first son TJ was stillborn in 2017.  She attributes attending a RTZ HOPE retreat in 2018  with providing her the tools to further expand her connection with her son TJ, while also supporting her in navigating the lifelong journey as a parent to both dead and living children.

 She is committed to supporting fellow bereaved parents in their journeys through RTZ HOPE support groups, while also actively working toward reducing perinatal and infant mortality in the US in her role as Director of Operations with Push For Empowered Pregnancy. Domenique is very passionate about sharing her unapologetic grief journey on social media as @stillbirthmamafightingforlight.

Jessica Van Wyen (she/her/hers)

Jessica became involved with RTZ HOPE when she participated in a virtual support group for Ending a Wanted Pregnancy in late 2021. After multiple IVF attempts over a seven year period, she was overjoyed to conceive her first child in late 2020. Unfortunately, after serious fetal health complications were discovered late in the pregnancy, Jessica and her husband made the difficult choice to say goodbye to their beautiful son Jacob at 26 weeks gestation. The RTZ HOPE support group helped Jessica find community and hope as she navigated the early grieving process in the months following her loss. After her own group participation, she trained to facilitate future support groups and has been a facilitator with RTZ HOPE since mid-2022. She is grateful to have the opportunity as a facilitator to offer support and compassion to others who have been changed forever by loss.

Jessica lives with her husband Justin and their two mischievous pups in Lancaster, PA. Their fertility journey ended in early 2023 with the decision to accept a Childless Not by Choice future. She is pursuing a reimagined life with new purpose and joy. When she isn’t working or advocating for the TFMR community, she enjoys reading, traveling, attending concerts and theater productions, and exploring the beautiful outdoors in Pennsylvania.

Ryan Rose Weaver (she/her/hers)

Ryan Rose Weaver is a writer, educator and consultant based in the NYC metro area. After beginning her career as a journalist, stringing for major newspapers and editing travel books, went on to get her M.Ed and to design community-building and educational materials for the likes of foreign and U.S. state governments; startups like Yelp, Readworks and Tinkergarten; and a wide variety of public, private and charter schools. She has taught classes in writing, cooking and gardening to hundreds of children and adults across NYC. She continues to be passionate about creating inclusive spaces for growth that help people foster a deeper connection to themselves, their voices, their communities, and their history. After losing her daughter, Saule, at 21 weeks gestation, while parenting her living child, Neil, she found a community of kindred spirits with RTZ Hope that has helped her move from surviving to thriving. When she’s not teaching online, you’ll find her penning entries for her semi-regular newsletter on reclaiming creativity after loss here, posting photos of her garden on Instagram here, or stocking up on kimchi at H Mart.

Betsy Winter, Director of Community Support (she/her/hers)

Betsy has over 20 years of non-profit programming and executive leadership experience. She has been working alongside organization founder, Kiley Hanish, since 2018. Her role is central to the mission of RTZ in providing trauma-informed, holistic, and inclusive support and resources for bereaved parents. In 2015 she experienced the devastating terminal diagnosis and eventual death of her daughter, Eliza, and has since made helping people find emotional healing, meaning, and connection through community, services, and the embodied experience of grief and love central to her life’s work. She is also a Mind Body Coach who specializes in pregnancy and infant loss, grief, trauma, origin healing, life transitions, and somatic parts work. Betsy lives in Olympia, WA with her husband and two living children, Bennett and Wren. To learn more please visit her website.

Leah Mele-Bazaz

Leah Mele-Bazaz is a wife, mother, teacher, and writer. When Leah gave birth to her stillborn daughter, Laila, she didn't know how to handle this type of grief. She went through depression and isolation and had trouble finding ways to show she was a mother. She started writing her memoir days after she came home from the hospital without her baby and kept a daily journal documenting her grief. With encouragement from her writing mentor, she turned her observations and experiences into a manuscript; Laila: Held for a Moment is forthcoming with Kat Biggie Press (October 2022).

Leah graduated from Drexel University with an MFA in Creative Writing, where she works as an English adjunct faculty member. She loves volunteering for RTZ HOPE and teaching writing classes for bereaved families.