Member Profile

Neshia Alaovae (she/her) cares deeply about connecting cultural wisdom, ancestral resilience and BIPOC joy to create authentic, empowered possibilities for how we live and how we die. For Neshia, death work is an opportunity to offer gratitude and veneration to her Afro-Indigenous ancestors and mentors, many of whom were also death workers. Her first professional experiences of what many refer to as death doula work was in 2012 as a “Compassionate Companion” at a residential hospice in Washington, DC, that serves homeless and housing-insecure people dying of AIDS or cancer. Neshia has been a death companion ever since.

Neshia has worked as a DEI trainer for faith organizations, non-profits and institutions such as the Washington Department of Health and the City of Seattle. She is a licensed mental health counselor who spent over a decade serving people navigating trauma, grief and cultural identity. Currently Neshia runs A Thoughtful Death, a deathcare practice in Seattle, WA, offering end-of-life consultation, death support and grief education for people wanting a more intentional experience with dying and mourning. Many of Neshia’s clients are intergenerational families, vibrant multicultural individuals and their communities and social justice rooted groups working for collective healing. Deathcare is for everyone and Neshia is honored to be a part of this work.