Heather Servaty-Seib, a thanatologist and psychologist, is dedicated to breaking the taboos around discussing death. She argues that by confronting and embracing our death anxiety, we can learn to value our lives and those of others more deeply. Dr. Servaty-Seib is a professor at Purdue University, where her research focuses on death and non-death loss, particularly the challenges faced by the bereaved. She is the lead editor of the Handbook of Thanatology, a former president of ADEC, and has received the 2013 ADEC Death Educator of the Year Award.