About Dr. Kriss Kevorkian, PhD, MSW

Photo by Brian Smith

My paternal grandfather had an enormous influence on my life. He survived the brutality and trauma of the Armenian Genocide. Fortunately, he and his brother escaped, but they had to leave the rest of our family behind. Two years before I was born, my grandmother died. I inherited many things from my grandfather including his love of Nature, the sea, and his empathy. I grew up in Los Angeles and was fortunate to attend Westlake School for Girls, now known as Harvard-Westlake. In 7th grade, we took a field trip to go whale watching and it was the first time I saw whales in the wild. My grandfather understood my love, fascination and sheer excitement at seeing whales in the wild! I knew then that I was going to study whales and become a whale biologist. When I was 16 years of age, I began volunteering at the American Cetacean Society.

After the death of my grandfather, my life fell apart. While I was attending Humboldt State University/Cal Poly Humboldt majoring in zoology and marine biology, the funding for my education stopped. In order to pay for school, I trained to be a radiologic technologist at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. I’ve gotta say that I had never heard of some of the diagnostic exams we had to perform that seemed like torture! If you’ve had a barium enema, I’m sorry! Doctors and nurses told me that I had a great way with children, and suggested that I pursue social work. I did just that, and returned to Humboldt for my bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW). My professor, John Gai, told me that I was going to perform my senior internship at hospice. I didn’t know what hospice was at the time, but I took to it like a fish to water. I finally found my niche! I went on to get my master’s degree in social work (MSW) and after years of working in hospice, I pursued a doctoral degree in thanatology. It was then that I returned to my love of whales as I researched the decline of the Southern Resident Orcas for my dissertation on environmental grief.

It makes sense that I ended up in this field. I knew grief intimately through the trauma and losses my grandfather experienced, as well as my own, and then delved deeper to understand what grief and death meant. Even my experience as a radiologic technologist was helpful because I knew the diagnostic exams that people had to undergo in order to be diagnosed with a life-limiting illness. In addition to hospice work, I was a deputy coroner and got to see death from that perspective. I am forever grateful to have met the people I did through hospice, and I am indebted to them for the valuable lessons they taught me that I share with others.

After teaching in traditional universities in the US and the UK, today I am an adjunct professor at Antioch University. When I’m not teaching or offering support to those in grief and at the end of life, Mourning Meetings, or offering environmental and ecological grief support groups, I spend my time educating my community and elected officials to recognize the inherent rights of the Southern Resident Orcas through an organization I founded, Legal Rights for the Salish Sea. 

If I can be of service to you, or if you want to learn more about the rights of Nature, please contact me.