Daniel Shaw
Death Doula, VDDN Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer
I became an end-of-life doula in the latter half of 2019. Andrea Sugar reached out to me with her idea to start the Virtual Death Doula Network shortly after the pandemic began. I loved the idea. I brought in Emily Cross to help and have been pouring my energies into building this nonprofit ever since.
I am blessed and honored to be serving in this capacity. It has been exciting to explore exactly what end-of-life doula work can look like, virtually. I also volunteer with Raise Our Voices, where I get to advocate for Afghans (applying for Special Immigration Visas) who helped the US during the occupation of their country. I completed my yoga teacher training in 2023 and am applying skills I learned there to how I perform in my role as a doula.
Fun fact: The VDDN Founders are all graduates (different cohorts) of the End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate run by the University of Vermont.
