PhD, MSW,
Fellow in Thanatology
MISS Foundation CEO and Founder
Dr. Cacciatore is a consummate teacher and professional public speaker specializing in traumatic death and loss. Her area of research focuses on individual and familial bereavement and trauma after a child's death.
Dr. Cacciatore was awarded a Fellowship in Thanatology from the Association for
Death Education and Counseling. She founded the MISS Foundation, an international
nonprofit organization, in 1996, two years after the death of her infant daughter,
Cheyenne.
She initiated the first statewide multidisciplinary program on compassionate bereavement care and crisis intervention in Arizona. She currently serves on the Unexplained Infant Death Advisory Council, and she is founding member of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation. She served at the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office as a Family Liaison from 1998 until 2004.
Dr. Cacciatore has taught for Glendale and Phoenix Fire Departments and at hundreds of conferences, including the National Perinatal Social Work Conference, Perinatal Bereavement Conference, National Compassionate Friends Conference, Forensic Medical Science Courses, Domestic Violence Prevention Conferences, and the Child Abuse Prevention National Conferences. She specializes in uses humor and analogy to help others understand effective communication, intervention strategy, grief and bereavement, and palliative care. In 1997, she began the worldwide movement, The Kindness Project , featured on the Leeza Gibbons and Oprah Winfrey shows.
She graduated from Arizona State University and the Barrett Honors College, Summa Cum Laude, with both her undergraduate degree in psychology and her Masters in Social Work. Her academic career in 2001 ended with a Truman Foundation Scholarship Award nomination. Dr. Cacciatore received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Her most acclaimed accomplishment came in 1999 when she spearheaded the
"MISSing Angels" bill campaign, lobbying the Arizona legislature on House Bill 2416. Arizona is the first state in the U.S. to offer a Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth for infants who die during or prior to childbirth. Since then, Joanne has been active in lobbying other states for this important
change in public health policy and has been featured in People Magazine’s
December 11, 2006 issue, January 15, 2007 issue, CNN, New York Times, Boston
Globe, and countless local newspapers and television shows.
Today, she is a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University.
On a personal note, Joanne has been a vegetarian since 1980. She has her blue belt in Tae-Kwon-Do and Aikido and loves hiking, rock climbing, horses, running, and writing. Her heroes include mentor, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Mohandas Gandhi, and Käthe Kollwitz.
If you ask her how many children she has, she'll reply, "I have four who walk and one who soars."
Awards:
- 2004 - Woman of Influence
- 2007 - Community Service Award
- 2007 - Hon Kachina
Publications:
Published Peer Reviewed Articles
- Cacciatore, J. (2007). Effects of Support Groups on Post Traumatic
Stress Responses in Women Experiencing Stillbirth. Omega:
Journal on Death and Dying. 55(1), 71-79.
- Cacciatore, J. & Bushfield, S. (2007). Stillbirth: The mother’s experience and
implications for improving care. Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative
Care, 3(3), 59-79.
- Barr, P. & Cacciatore, J. (2008). Personal fear of death and grief in bereaved
mothers. Death Studies. 32(5).
- Barr, P. & Cacciatore, J. (2008). Problematic emotions and maternal grief. Omega
Journal of Death and Dying, 56 (4), 329-346
- Cacciatore, J. (2008). Appropriate bereavement practice after the death of a
Native American child. Families in Society. In press.
Peer Reviewed Articles Under Review
- Cacciatore, J., Froen, F., Radestad, I. (2008). Effects of contact
with their stillborn babies on maternal anxiety and depression.
Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. Under review.
- Cacciatore, J., Schnebly, S., & Froen, F. (2008). The effects
of social support on maternal anxiety and depression after stillbirth.
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Under review.
- Cacciatore, J., Bushfield, S. (2008). Stillbirth: A sociopolitical
issue. Affilia. Under Review.
- DeFrain, J., Cacciatore, J., & Jones, K. (2008). Boundary ambiguity
and the death of a baby. Marriage and Family Review.
Under review.
- Cacciatore, J., DeFrain, J., Jones, K., Jones, H. (2008). The
couple and stillbirth: A gender based exploration. Journal
of Marital and Family Therapy. Under review.
Peer Reviewed Articles Under Review
- Cacciatore, J. Contributor. (2006). Tea with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
DeFrain, John, Cacciatore, Joanne, and DeFrain, Alyssa. (2005).
Death. New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Charles
Scribner and Sons. Thomson Gale Publishing.
- Cacciatore, Joanne. (2005). L.A.S.T.: A Paradigm that Truly
Makes a Difference. Perinatal Social Work.
- Cacciatore, Joanne. (2003). Contributor: A Phenomenological
Approach to Child Death. Manuscript submitted to the National
Academies of Science, Institute of Medicine, 2002 for publication,
When Children Die: Improving Palliative and End-of-Life Care
for Children and their Families. Institute of Medicine: National
Academies of Science Press. Washington D.C.
Memberships:
- Golden Key International Honour Society
- Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology
- Association for Death Education and Counseling
- International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
- American Psychological Association Affiliate Member
- American Institute of Healthcare Professionals
- Arizona Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee, Former Member
Invited Presentation Topics:
- Remembering the Dead.
- Facilitating Familial Mourning.
- The Dying Child: Helping Families Facing a Fatal Diagnosis.
- The Power of Compassion: A New Attitude in Healthcare
- Grieving Children.
- Phenomenological Approach to Perinatal Death.
- Stillbirth: The Symbiotic Nature of Love and Traumatic Grief
- Neonatal Intensive Care Units: Psychosocial Care in the NICU.
- Transcending Loss by Using Kindness to Heal Grief.
- When a Child Dies: Understanding and Facilitating Familial Mourning.
- Stillbirth and Early Infant Death: Working Compassionately with Families.
- Cultural Competency and Mourning.
- The Microculture of the Grieving Family.
- Psychosocial Intervention: Post Traumatic Stress Responses in Women Experiencing
Sudden Intrauterine Infant Death.
- Transcultural Responses in Mourning.
- Perinatal Death: Intervention, Etiology, and Pathology.
- The Effects of Support Group Participation on Women Experiencing Sudden Intrauterine
Infant Death.
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