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About Zen Caregiving Project
Since 1987, advancing compassionate caregiving education to equip caregivers with the skills, resilience, and presence needed to meet life’s most vulnerable moments with dignity and care.
Transforming care through mindful compassion
We empower caregivers with tools to sustain their spirit. Our work bridges inner strength with outer service.
Our mission
We nurture caregivers and those they care for by teaching skills rooted in mindfulness and compassion while fostering connections.
Our History
A Legacy of Mindful Caregiving
Zen Caregiving Project, formerly known as Zen Hospice Project, was founded in 1986 to address suffering in San Francisco. Rooted in Zen Buddhist tradition, we began training volunteer caregivers to serve dying residents at two sites of service. Our world renowned volunteer caregiver training has evolved to become the foundation of our Mindful Caregiver.
Education which we teach nationally. In 2015, we began taking our unique approach to care out into the world in order to allow caregivers anywhere to benefit from our course offerings.
Our values
Our work is rooted in practice. These values guide how we teach, how we serve, and how we show up in moments of vulnerability.
Our Education
What is Mindful
Caregiving Education?
Mindful Caregiving Education (MCE) has been developed over Zen Caregiving Project’s 35-year history, drawing on 2,500-year-old contemplative teachings and current contemplative research. This program uses mindfulness-based approaches and tools to help caregivers build emotional resilience and strengthen their wellbeing.
MCE is unique as it combines mindfulness, a focus on emotional support, and exploration of loss in the context of caregiving. A recent study looking at the impact of our eight-hour online course found that it reduces caregivers’ sense of burden and enhances their sense of well-being even in high burden caregiving situations.
Rooted in Experience. Grounded in Care.
Meet our Team
A diverse team of dedicated teachers, caregivers, and leaders united by a shared commitment to mindful caregiving and compassionate support.
Staff
Roy Remer
Executive Director
As Executive Director of the Zen Caregiving Project, Roy Remer brings more than two decades of experience in end-of-life care, education, and compassionate service. His background spans bedside caregiving, nonprofit leadership, compassion training, and guiding transformative wilderness-based rites of passage.
Mary Doane
Supervising Instructor for Education Programs
Mary Doane serves as Supervising Instructor of Education Programs at the Zen Caregiving Project, where she leads curriculum design and mentors teachers. With deep roots in mindfulness practice and compassion-based education, she helps shape programs that support caregivers at every stage of their journey.
Tina Snyder
Operations Assistant
Tina Snyder supports the organization as Operations Assistant, ensuring the systems behind Zen Caregiving Project run smoothly. With a background in business information systems and personal caregiving experience, she brings both technical skill and heartfelt understanding to her role.
Haley Kerpan
Relationship Development Manager
Haley Kerpan is the Relationship Development Manager at the Zen Caregiving Project, where she focuses on building strategic partnerships and deepening community engagement to advance the organization’s mission of supporting caregivers and compassionate care.
Marisa Melo
Fractional Development Consultant
Marisa Melo is a Fractional Development Consultant supporting the Zen Caregiving Project’s fundraising strategy. She helps cultivate meaningful donor relationships and build sustainable funding pathways to advance compassionate caregiving and education initiatives.
Instructors
Cassandra Palmer
Course Instructor
Cassandra Palmer facilitates caregiver education programs at the Zen Caregiving Project, drawing from her years of volunteer bedside caregiving and training as an End of Life Doula. She supports mindful caregiver training and open conversations around death and dying.
Mary Doane
Supervising Instructor for Education Programs
Mary Doane serves as Supervising Instructor of Education Programs at the Zen Caregiving Project, where she leads curriculum design and mentors teachers. With deep roots in mindfulness practice and compassion-based education, she helps shape programs that support caregivers at every stage of their journey.
Roy Remer
Executive Director
As Executive Director of the Zen Caregiving Project, Roy Remer brings more than two decades of experience in end-of-life care, education, and compassionate service. His background spans bedside caregiving, nonprofit leadership, compassion training, and guiding transformative wilderness-based rites of passage.
Board members
George "Chip" Feiss
Board Member
George “Chip” Feiss serves on the Board of the Zen Caregiving Project, bringing executive leadership experience as CEO of M2, Inc. and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University. His perspective is grounded in both business leadership and personal volunteer caregiving.
Education advisory panel
Eren Gutierrez
Education Advisory Panel
Eren Gutierrez is a member of the Education Advisory Panel and Deputy Director at San Francisco In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority, focusing on caregiver workforce development and community support systems.
Heather Harris, MD, FAAHPM
Education Advisory Panel
Dr. Heather Harris is a palliative medicine physician and member of the Education Advisory Panel, offering clinical leadership and expertise in serious illness care.
Our volunteer caregivers
Tracy Tingle
Tony Thayer
Tangerine Wiggs
Saskia Biscoe
Samuel Kanewisher
Robyn Valarik
Olivia Addington
Nicole Bonsol
Nannette Mickle
Nancy Lin
Miranda Dickerman
Matthew Wodicka
Mary Scott
Martha Sutherlin
Margret Schroder
Loretta Lowrey
Lindsay Wheeler
Linda Graf
Judy Tang
John Ungvarsky
Jacob Winkelman
Irene Morente
Hephzibah Plotkin
Heidi Hartsough
Hal Oates
Gina Alvino
Diane Schneider
Dharam Kaur Khalsa
David Fraser
Carla Cavalho
Bob Stumpf
Billi Romain
Beth Gorelick
Andy Wolfe
Allison Shields
Alexandra Ashton
Our Published Work
How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others
Caregiving can ask everything of us: our energy, our attention, and our compassion, often while we are already stretched thin.
Zen Caregiving: How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others was created to meet that reality with support, insight, and practical wisdom.
Zen Caregiving invites you to care for your own well-being with the same tenderness you offer others, because sustaining yourself makes compassionate care possible.
Explore the book and discover practices that support both the caregiver and the cared-for.
96%
of caregivers felt the programs helped them understand how to use mindfulness in caregiving
98%
of caregivers would recommend the programs to others.
93%
of caregivers felt better prepared to cope with the challenges of caregiving
Research
Scientific validation of Mindful Caregiving
Zen Caregiving Project’s mindfulness training course is documented in a recent nonrandomized trial published in the peer-reviewed journal Mindfulness — “Investigating the Feasibility and Effects of an Online Mindfulness Family Caregiver Training Program” (May 24, 2023).
The course had significant beneficial effects on caregivers’ depression, anxiety, caregiver burden, and wellbeing scores.
I took this course and it helped me improve my caregiving greatly. Most importantly, I learned how to take care of myself. It was so wonderful to connect with the teacher and fellow caregivers, who understood the stresses and strains of caregiving, and the causes of burnout and how to cope and deal with them. This is real training, not a lecture format with only loads of information."
Hospice caregiver
Edward E.
Family Caregiver
