Trudy James, chaplain and film producer, is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a retired interfaith hospital chaplain. She learned hands-on lessons about death, dying and grief in her 50’s while creating a CareTeam program for faith-based volunteers in the early days of the AIDS epidemic in Arkansas. Her ground-breaking CareTeam work with AIDS was honored at the Clinton White House. Nine years later, Trudy created an AIDS Care Team program in Seattle and also served as a chaplain at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. After retiring, she created a business called Heartwork in hopes of using what she had learned to help others. She convened Grief and Loss groups in senior housing, facilitated three-day Aging Wisely Together retreats for women at Whidbey Institute, and spent four years pioneering 4-session community-based end-of-life planning workshops. She then spent two years producing the 30-minute film, Speaking of Dying, which reflects the heart of those workshops.

Trudy has trained eleven facilitators who lead end-of-life workshops and screen the film in the Puget Sound area, Palm Springs, CA, Northwest Arkansas, and Minneapolis, MN. She is on the Advisory Board for End of Life, Washington. She offers one-on-one support for individuals, couples and family members dealing with illness, grief and loss, and end of life. Read her recent blogs here: Speaking of Dying Blog

Trudy James ‘walks the talk’, meaning she has worked for many years with persons in the dying process. Trudy is also the most engaging, lively, entertaining, efficient group facilitator that I have had the pleasure of learning from !!!

— Donna Crews Finney

“Trudy James may ask you some gently probing questions, but she is less interested in giving you her answers than in helping you give expression to your own answers.” –

— Peter G. Beidler, Professor emeritus of Lehigh University, author of the new book, Parkinson Pete on Living and Dying with Parkinson’s Disease

Jennifer Jones is an independent filmmaker/photographer with a special focus on telling stories about aging in America. As a newspaper photojournalist she has won numerous awards during her 20-year career, and served on the Board of the National Press Photographer’s Assn. (NPPA) for 8 years.

She has shot, produced and edited two short documentaries on environmental issues. “Troubled Waters”, a film about the FEMA flood buyout program in Pierce County, and “Hamilton: Town at the Tipping Point”, which details the consequences for those living in the floodway of the Skagit River.

When not doing filmmaking she is working with families as a gerontology specialist, having completed her Certificate in Gerontology at the UW this past year. She assists families who have loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease and other challenges and is a certified coach for the UW’s Reducing Disability with Alzheimer’s Disease (RDAD) Program.

Catherine Wadley is an award-winning independent editor and producer with over two decades of professional experience in the film, video and multimedia industries. She has worked for video production companies, KIRO-TV (CBS), corporate in-house post-production facilities, and non-profit organizations, editing projects in all genres. Her clients include Microsoft, World Vision, MOHAI, Experience Music Project, Group Health, T-Mobile, as well as numerous independent filmmakers.
Active in the Seattle film community, Catherine has served on the boards of 911 Media Arts Center and Women in Film/Seattle. She has worked as a mentor for Reel Grrls, an award-winning non- profit media arts and leadership training program for girls ages 9 to 19.

Catherine also provides post-production consulting, video editing classes and individual instruction. She owns and operates her a nonlinear editing business, Wadley Digital Media, in Seattle, Washington.