Alissa Drescher is the Senior Director of Psychosocial & Mission Based Services at Alive, where she oversees the Grief Center, Volunteer Services, and The Alive Institute. Inspired by a profound personal loss in 2004, her career evolved into a mission-driven path focused on end-of-life and bereavement care. This journey includes nonprofit leadership, counseling, and teaching. In 2012, she co-founded the Healing Hearts Camp, Oklahoma’s first overnight camp for grieving youth (now Camp Erin Tulsa). After relocating, she founded the Grief Center of Middle Tennessee and joined PESI Education as a sought-after speaker, providing grief education to mental health professionals nationwide. She is also the founder of the Grief Work Network, Tennessee’s only consortium for both laypeople and professionals who support youth and adults experiencing grief, and Night Owl Grief Support, which offers a supportive grief community beyond normal business hours.

Alissa is an LPC, and a Fellow in Thanatology: Death, Dying & Bereavement. She holds a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy with a focus in Play Therapy.

She is a member of multiple hospice, grief and counseling organizations currently serving as the National Alliance for Grieving Children’s Hospice Discussion Hub host.