Norine Dresser is a folklorist and writer. She is the author of Multicultural Manners: New Rules of Etiquette for a Changing Society; Come as You Aren't: Feeling at Home with Multicultural Celebrations and also wrote the eight-year award-winning Los Angeles Times column, Multicultural Manners. She has a BA in anthropology and an MA in folklore / mythology, both from UCLA. She taught for twenty years at California State University Los Angeles, lectures frequently, and has worked with a variety of government agencies and associations including the New York State Department of Health, Food Stamp and Nutrition Workers; Methodist Hospital of Southern California; Children's Hospital of Los Angeles; and the American Dietetic Association. She is an internationally recognized expert on cultural traditions and rituals from around the world.
||Fredda Wasserman, MA, MPH, LMFT, CT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Thanatologist (an individual who specializes in death, dying, and bereavement). She is the Clinical Director of Adult Programs and Education at OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center, the leading non-profit grief center in California. She received her Masters degree in Health Education tion from the UCLA School of Public Health and her Masters in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University. Fredda presents workshops and seminars on end of life and grief for therapists, clergy, educators, and medical professionals at locations throughout the country including the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Recognized as an expert in guided imagery, Fredda has created a series of guided meditation CDs for relaxation and stress management and maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Los Angeles.|
Grief Support Center provides grief support to thousands of grieving children, teens, and adults each year on their journeys to hope and healing. A nonprofit, nonsectarian agency, OUR HOUSE was founded in 1993 on the premise that grievers need understanding, support, and connection. In addition to age and relationship specific groups offered at our locations, the El Centro de la Esperanza program offers groups in Spanish and the school program serves students in low-income, under-served areas of Los Angeles County. Post-crisis grief interventions are available to schools, community organizations, and businesses after the death of a classmate, client, or co-worker. As the foremost provider of grief education to mental health and community professionals, OUR HOUSE is the most recognized grief support center in California.