She’s received several prizes and distinctions due to her work in bereavement.

Her early work was focused on the needs of the widowed, based on the unique help that widowed people can offer each other. It was the model of the Widowed Person’s Service, an American national program sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons.

Her most recent research has focused on children and adolescent bereavement, and she has been Co-Principal Investigator of the Harvard University/MGH Child Bereavement Study. She has an enormous and up-to-date list of publications about this theme.

She will speak on the reactions of children to the death of a parent, focusing the concept of continuous bonds and the role of the bereaved mother or father. She will also speak of a program she developed, the "Children's Room Program".