Our Founder
All’s Well Initiative was founded in 2021 by Emma Lewis Acker who has been working as an End-of-Life Doula since 2017.
Emma trained under Henry Fersko-Weiss (INELDA), and completed the End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate through The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at The University of Vermont.
She founded All’s Well Initiative to provide compassionate end-of-life care across the socioeconomic spectrum of NYC.
Partnering with the Pathways Program at All Angels’ Church on NYC’s Upper West Side, Emma created the Health Care “Proxy Project,” supporting unhoused individuals by connecting their completed proxy form to a simple identification card—helpful to first responders and medical staff in case of emergency. This program helps sustain connection to community during times when many risk getting lost in the city’s systems.
Emma is a founding team member of Here to Honor, growing and supporting death literacy within faith communities.
In 2025 Emma joined University of Vermont's End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate Program, as an academic instructor through the UVM Osher Center for Integrative Health.
Emma lives in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn with her husband and three children and in her spare time, meditates on all things life and death through her art practice.
Emma Regularly Takes on Private Clients
…or is happy to make referrals
depending upon your particular needs
PRESS CLIPPINGS
PRESS CLIPPINGS
Fall-Winter, 2024
Call to Worship, Volume 58.3:
Liturgy in Times of Crisis Arts Journal of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
August, 2024
The interest in using end-of-life doulas, midwives who provide emotional support and guidance for those who are dying and their loved ones, has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic. NBC News’ Zinhle Essamuah reports on how doulas train and prepare for life before and after a death.
July, 2023
Would you like to design your own funeral?
Meet Emma Acker, a death doula, who helps people come to terms with mortality. For Brut, filmmaker Dallin Mello visits a funeral home where end-of-life caregivers are opening up a conversation around an old taboo.