About 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. When I was born, I should’ve just been handed over to my grandfather because he was my world! I inherited many things from him including his love of Nature and the sea. I grew up in Los Angeles and was fortunate to attend Westlake School for Girls, now known as Harvard-Westlake. In 7th grade, our class took a field trip to go whale watching and it was the first time I saw whales in the wild. My grandfather and I shared the same love, fascination and sheer excitement of seeing whales! 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 my grandfather died, my life fell apart. I was attending Humboldt State University/Cal Poly Humboldt majoring in zoology and marine biology when the funding for my education stopped. In order to pay for school, I pivoted a bit and trained to be a radiologic technologist at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. 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 State 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 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, the science/study of death, dying and grief. I returned to my love of whales as I researched the decline of the Southern Resident Orcas for my dissertation on environmental grief.  It’s not often easy describing my work to people because most don’t know what thanatology is. I make it even more difficult when I add that my specialty is biocentric thanatology, meaning that I not only work with humans, but with all beings. I believe that all beings should be recognized whether or not humans believe they have value. And, yes, I do realize that this isn’t how most people might think, but perhaps they will as time goes on.

It makes sense that I ended up in this field. I knew grief intimately through the trauma and losses my grandfather experienced and shared with me, as well as the grief I’ve encountered in my life, and then I 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 working for hospice in end-of-life and palliative care, I worked as a deputy coroner assisting with autopsies, and I 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.

When I’m not teaching graduate psychology and/or graduate social work students, offering support (Mourning Meetings) to those grieving and/or at the end of life, 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.

I kindly invite you to contact me if I can be of service to you, and/or if you want to learn more about the rights of Nature.