SARAH BRABANT, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, received her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 1973. She is a Certified Sociological Practitioner and holds additional certifications in Thanatology: Death, Dying and Bereavement, and Family Life Education. In 1981, she designed the first course on Death and Dying at ULL, a course she taught until 2006. She has served as a support person for Compassionate Friends, Acadiana Chapter since 1983, counseled Persons Living with AIDS through Acadiana CARES since 1988 and was appointed to the faculty of the Delta Region AIDS Education and Training Center in 1990. She was one of the founders and served on the Board of Directors of The Grief Center of Southwest Louisiana (now the Healing House), a local program for bereaved children. She is the author of the book, Mending the Torn Fabric: For Those Who Grieve and Those Who Want to Help Them. Other publications on death and grief related issues appear in Omega, The Hospice Journal, ADEC Forum, Illness, Crisis & Loss, Teaching Sociology, International Journal of Addictions, Death Studies, Clinical Sociology Review, AIDS Patient Care, and Journal of Gerontological Social Work as well as a number of edited books. She has presented numerous papers, workshops, and lectures on death and bereavement at the local, state, and national level.