Deana Aulisio Cavan Email & Phone Number

As the founder and executive director of Rett's Roost, I work to bring together families impacted by childhood cancer and child loss by providing peer-to-peer psychosocial support and integrated therapies for healing. Rett's Roost offers a continuum of care for these families as they work to understand this tragic life experience, identify ways to heal the associated anxiety and grief, and create a path forward that brings joy back into their lives. Our signature program is our free, intimate, holistic retreats for families stricken by this inconceivable trauma and tragedy. Since 2015, we've hosted over 100 families at 23 retreats in ME, MA, and NH. Losing my own son in 2015 to cancer changed the direction of my career path significantly. However, my prior work in academia and analytical research prepared me well for the world of nonprofit management and fundraising.Starting my professional career in environmental engineering and sustainability science at the University of New Hampshire, I honed my skills in technical writing, public speaking, and project management. As a budding engineer, I learned to be efficient, organized, and thorough; and to work well in teams and responsibly on my own. I developed the ability to write and present complex technical issues to both professional audiences and laypeople. All that, on top of my aptitude for visualizing information for decision-making and ensuring careful financial management, turned out to be surprisingly relevant to my work at Rett's Roost. Whereas the science of climate change and renewable energy first catalyzed my call to sustainability in engineering school, I was drawn to the humanity and benevolence linked with the social aspects of the work at New Earth. My primary responsibility at New Earth was to gather, organize, analyze, and disseminate global statistical data on social responsibility issues in The Social Hotspots Database (www.socialhotspot.org), and to present this data in Product Category Assessments for external clients. Prior to New Earth, I worked for an environmental consulting company and as an environmental laboratory manager at the University of New Hampshire. During that time, I developed a sustainability rating system for the businesses of The Green Alliance. I interned at the State of NH's Department of Environmental Services to help publish the State's Climate Change Action Plan. I also worked for a short time with Earthshift, a Life Cycle Assessment consulting firm.