Michelle Hogle Acciavatti

Michelle Hogle Acciavatti (she/her/they), M.Sci., is a natural deathcare worker and the founder of Vermont Forest Cemetery the first natural burial ground in Vermont. She is a licensed funeral director, death doula, pregnancy loss guide, home funeral guide, end of life specialist and natural burial educator. In 2016 after 3 years of serving in the hospice system, she created Green Mountain Funeral Alternatives to help people preparing for the end of life, designing funeral services, caring for their own dead, and exploring natural burial options.

Michelle has trained as a mortician, an advance care planner, an end of life doula, a home funeral guide, a natural burial advocate & educator, a writer, a neuroscientist, and an ethicist. She is a founding member of The Collective for Radical Death Studies. She has practiced death work with people of all ages, including death during pregnancy. Her work has found her in settings as varied as the forest, Boston Children’s Hospital, the State House, and people’s own living rooms as well as the traditional funeral home. She loves being outdoors, ideally in the sun, usually by water, often with a cup of tea, and almost always with a book.