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Meet the Staff
A Supportive Community
Annie Spindler:
Founder, Executive Director
Annie's educational background is about as diverse as the elders she hopes to serve. After obtaining an Undergraduate Art degree from the University of Wisconsin, she moved to Seattle Washington where she found a passion for natural medicine. She graduated with an Acupuncture degree from Wu Hsing Tao School in 2013. Her growing family brought her back to Chicago where she owned and operated Serenity Acupuncture, a multidisciplinary wellness clinic. A love for the Blue Ridge Mountains eventually brought Annie to Asheville to finally put down her permanent roots with her husband of 11 years and their two daughters.
A graduate certificate in Aging, Health and Society from Appalachian State University has granted Annie the education and experience to own and operate an Assisted Living facility in the state of North Carolina and she will soon become a licensed Adult Care Administrator in this state.
A graduate certificate in Aging, Health and Society from Appalachian State University has granted Annie the education and experience to own and operate an Assisted Living facility in the state of North Carolina and she will soon become a licensed Adult Care Administrator in this state.
Maripa Abella:
Head Chef
Maripa Abella is the Head Chef at Elderflower. Her spiritual journey began in the Philippines, continued to Chicago and settled in beautiful Asheville. Her goal is to provide healing and nourishment to the Elderflower community. Maripa sources fresh produce for her creations, always grateful for the area's bountiful local harvest. In her past lives, she has owned two restaurants in Chicago, run a software consulting firm, taught Kundalini Yoga, and is a Reiki healer.
Clare Duplace:
Activities and Volunteer Coordinator
Clare Duplace has lived in and around Black Mountain for 20 years. She currently lives in Swannanoa, with her husband, two boys, a sweet pup named Rosie and a flock of chickens.
Clare received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Warren Wilson College. While living in Vermont after college, she worked as a Waldorf preschool teacher and a children’s librarian at a small library that still stamped books. Clare has received her level 1 & 2 Reiki training, a level 1 course in acupressure, graduated from a local herb school, and is a flower essence practitioner.
Clare makes flower essences for grief and bereavement support, end of life support, for caregivers, and for the cycles of the moon.
Clare is also trained as a children’s yoga teacher through Black Mountain Yoga, trained in girls rites of passage and was a teacher for 11 years at The Learning Community School.
Clare has been on her own grief journey since the death of her mama in the fall of 2017. Since that time, she has been studying, diving deep into, networking, practicing and training in all things grief and death related. She is a part of the positive grief and death movement and is a trained full spectrum doula- birth, postpartum, loss, abortion and end of life.
Clare is a grief consultant through The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. She is an end of life doula, lead of the grief team, after death care/home funeral team member, and story keeper, and is working to bring support for children through The Center for Conscious Living and Dying. She has been certified in numerous grief related trainings- Integrative Thanatology (the study of death), certified grief educator, and as a grief movement guide.
Writing has always been the greatest healing tool for Clare. She has taken both the “Poetry as a Tool for Wellness” facilitator course and a course on using poetry to support those with dementia and Alzheimer’s, through the Institute for Poetic Medicine. She created and facilitated “Writing Your Grief” circles, incorporating cherished poems and excerpts from authors on grief and prompts for writing and reflection, holds monthly poetic medicine and grief tea/story circles monthly at the Center for Conscious Living and Dying, and is currently enrolled in the Narrative Healthcare Certificate program at Lenoir Rhyne University.
Clare received an MA in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University, and focused on the intersection between mindfulness, grief and death, and supporting children. Clare is a certified creative grief practitioner at Be Well Black Mountain Wellness Collective and Boutique and a trained Yoga Nidra Teacher.
Clare wishes to continue this work of weaving stories, creative practices, healing, with bereavement and end of life support, supported with the use of mindful modalities, somatic and trauma-informed/aware practices through a social justice lens and rooted in the remembering of the old ways people would gather in community during all thresholds of life and in death.
Clare received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Warren Wilson College. While living in Vermont after college, she worked as a Waldorf preschool teacher and a children’s librarian at a small library that still stamped books. Clare has received her level 1 & 2 Reiki training, a level 1 course in acupressure, graduated from a local herb school, and is a flower essence practitioner.
Clare makes flower essences for grief and bereavement support, end of life support, for caregivers, and for the cycles of the moon.
Clare is also trained as a children’s yoga teacher through Black Mountain Yoga, trained in girls rites of passage and was a teacher for 11 years at The Learning Community School.
Clare has been on her own grief journey since the death of her mama in the fall of 2017. Since that time, she has been studying, diving deep into, networking, practicing and training in all things grief and death related. She is a part of the positive grief and death movement and is a trained full spectrum doula- birth, postpartum, loss, abortion and end of life.
Clare is a grief consultant through The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. She is an end of life doula, lead of the grief team, after death care/home funeral team member, and story keeper, and is working to bring support for children through The Center for Conscious Living and Dying. She has been certified in numerous grief related trainings- Integrative Thanatology (the study of death), certified grief educator, and as a grief movement guide.
Writing has always been the greatest healing tool for Clare. She has taken both the “Poetry as a Tool for Wellness” facilitator course and a course on using poetry to support those with dementia and Alzheimer’s, through the Institute for Poetic Medicine. She created and facilitated “Writing Your Grief” circles, incorporating cherished poems and excerpts from authors on grief and prompts for writing and reflection, holds monthly poetic medicine and grief tea/story circles monthly at the Center for Conscious Living and Dying, and is currently enrolled in the Narrative Healthcare Certificate program at Lenoir Rhyne University.
Clare received an MA in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University, and focused on the intersection between mindfulness, grief and death, and supporting children. Clare is a certified creative grief practitioner at Be Well Black Mountain Wellness Collective and Boutique and a trained Yoga Nidra Teacher.
Clare wishes to continue this work of weaving stories, creative practices, healing, with bereavement and end of life support, supported with the use of mindful modalities, somatic and trauma-informed/aware practices through a social justice lens and rooted in the remembering of the old ways people would gather in community during all thresholds of life and in death.
Renee Panter:
Head Nurse, Herbalist
Renee received a bachelor's of science in nursing from Western Carolina’s Accelerated Nursing Program. She currently works as a registered nurse in homecare and is in a case management position with Visiting Angels Caregiver service. Renee completed the Advanced Clinical Herbalist Program at the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in 2016 and has worked with several clients since then as a clinical herbalist. She has studied with herbalists Juliet Blankespoor, Rosemary Gladstar, Aviva Romm and several others she admires. It has been her dream to combine the worlds of allopathic and herbal medicine to create a more holistic approach to health. She is dedicated to preventative medicine and believes a good path to this is through educating and applying the art and science of herbal medicine, healthy diet, movement, community, and the arts. She enjoys finding creative and unique ways to make these things work in each individual life. Renee also holds a second bachelor's of Science in Anthropology from Appalachian State University. This degree is a testament to her love of studying and understanding societies, cultures, how they come to be, and can be transformed. She has worked as a professional gardener for over two decades and still currently does this part-time. She completed 220 hour yoga alliance certified teacher program in 2008 and taught for several years after. She is a proud and loving mother of one outstanding 13 year old kid and is dedicated to creating a better world for her to age and grow in.
Dr. Joanie Terrizzi:
Grant-writing Consultant
Joanie is a grief coach, mind-body wellness practitioner, and writer. Joanie spent more than a decade as a school librarian for under-resourced populations, during which time she trained with the organization Mindful Schools. Joanie taught Mindfulness to students, teachers, and parents for more than a decade, and believes firmly in the power of communities as the vehicle to encourage well-being and enact healing. She is a 200-hr Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance and has further trained in Yin Yoga with Biff Mithoefer. Joanie is an iRest® Level 2 Teacher, is attuned to Reiki Level II, has completed Authentic Relating Training through level 3, has certificates in Clinical Hypnosis and Integrative Wellness Coaching through Saybrook University, and is an NBHWC- and ICF-certified coach. Joanie completed two trainings in yoga for children, a Death Doula certification, and she holds a master’s degree in library science; she is the past president of the Midwest End-of-Life Doula Collective and is a member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance. Joanie completed her dissertation research on children’s experiences using mindfulness in daily life and received her doctorate in Mind-Body Medicine from Saybrook University where she pursued her interest in healing modalities and the possibilities for human flourishing.
Joanie's grandmother, who outlived her own memory and died in Joanie's arms two weeks after her 100th birthday, taught Joanie how to see all the beauty elders hold, and how to be present and patient with all that is there, so long as the breath still breathes.
Joanie's grandmother, who outlived her own memory and died in Joanie's arms two weeks after her 100th birthday, taught Joanie how to see all the beauty elders hold, and how to be present and patient with all that is there, so long as the breath still breathes.
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Board of Directors
Katie May, Vice President
Katie is an avid lover of connection, coffee, and creating her own magic. She loves creating safe and sacred spaces for people to reconnect with and embrace their own magic and medicine within so they can live in reverence to their own internal seasons and bloom wildly.
Katie believes in living a soul-led life, one that feels true and beautiful to each of us. She is committed to helping guide, support, and nurture people along their path as a healing facilitator and Clinical Nurse Specialist. With over 16 years of experience as a nurse in palliative and end of life care, she has learned so much about the resilience of the human spirit and also a deep desire for all of us to be seen, heard, and known. She practices in a way that honors the story of each individual and helps to illicit the deeper connection to the healing within.
Katie believes in living a soul-led life, one that feels true and beautiful to each of us. She is committed to helping guide, support, and nurture people along their path as a healing facilitator and Clinical Nurse Specialist. With over 16 years of experience as a nurse in palliative and end of life care, she has learned so much about the resilience of the human spirit and also a deep desire for all of us to be seen, heard, and known. She practices in a way that honors the story of each individual and helps to illicit the deeper connection to the healing within.
Brian Asbill, Treasurer
Brian grew up in Columbia, SC which frankly always felt a bit like “half way to where [he] actually wanted to be” which was either the mountains or the beach! After graduating from Davidson College and then the Medical University of SC (MUSC), he completed his internal medicine training at the University of Virginia and cardiology fellowship at MUSC and moved to Asheville in the summer of 2001 to join Asheville Cardiology Associates as an invasive, non-interventional cardiologist.
Brian and his wife Sarah, an internal medicine doctor, have raised their two boys (Henry 21 and Jacob 17) here and love living in Asheville! Dr Asbill left Asheville Cardiology in 2020 and is now the Chief Medical Officer for a healthcare startup company out of Austin, TX called Love.Life. He believes in the power of lifestyle medicine – nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, toxin avoidance and social connection – to prevent, treat and even reverse the common chronic medical conditions that currently plague us.
He watched his mom slowly lose herself and ultimately succumb to Alzheimer’s at age 76, and the vision of Elderflower community resonates with Brian on a very personal level. He is honored to serve on the board to help make this vision a reality and he looks forward to the journey ahead!
Brian and his wife Sarah, an internal medicine doctor, have raised their two boys (Henry 21 and Jacob 17) here and love living in Asheville! Dr Asbill left Asheville Cardiology in 2020 and is now the Chief Medical Officer for a healthcare startup company out of Austin, TX called Love.Life. He believes in the power of lifestyle medicine – nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, toxin avoidance and social connection – to prevent, treat and even reverse the common chronic medical conditions that currently plague us.
He watched his mom slowly lose herself and ultimately succumb to Alzheimer’s at age 76, and the vision of Elderflower community resonates with Brian on a very personal level. He is honored to serve on the board to help make this vision a reality and he looks forward to the journey ahead!
James Fleming, Secretary
James is an estate planning and elder law attorney in Hendersonville, North Carolina, where he helps families navigate the complexities of government programs like Medicaid and Veterans Administration Benefits. While in college, James worked as a weekend event planner at a local nursing home where he was motivated to become an attorney after witnessing nursing home residents struggle to navigate through their Medicaid and Medicare issues.
James and his wife, Emily, reside in Hendersonville with their two children.
James and his wife, Emily, reside in Hendersonville with their two children.
Rae Booth, Board Member
Rae Booth began her career in corporate America in the human resources field. 20+ years spent working for a Chemical Manufacturing company, Financial Services Company, and a Pharmaceutical Company where she played an active role as the Organizational Development Specialist. Her responsibilities led her to be sought as a change agent who sees people, processes, structures, training, tools used to get the job accomplished and re-engineer the organizational structure to be more proficient and profitable. In 2006, Rae stepped into the entrepreneurial world in the healthcare industry and launched a new brand in a new market in the Appalachian Mountains of NC. Rae is known for creating something out of a blank canvas. She developed a Senior Shelter System in DE, which removed folks from violating situations and into a safe place. Through collaboration and persistence, anything is possible. Outside of work, she loves to spend time with her grandson and family. The nature around the Asheville area brings vitality to her spirit through kayaking, hiking and picnics on the Blue Ridge parkway.
Sarah Lasswell, Board Member
Meet Sarah Lasswell…, artist, farmer, and the driving force behind Moss and Thistle Farm., Sarah is a casket maker and willow weaver, with a passion for green burial and a deep reverence for nature and community. Through her artistic vision and commitment to sustainability, she weaves a legacy of eco-conscious farewells, crafting exquisite willow caskets, burial trays, and shrouds and that embraceing the beauty of our natural world. With each creation, Sarah invites you to embark on a journey of heartfelt remembrance, celebrating and honoring our time here on Earth.
Patrick O'Cain, Board Member
Asheville native Patrick O’Cain has made a marked impact within the community since his 2014 homecoming. As restaurant owner, chef and operator of the Gan Shan restaurant group, Patrick has been proactive and consistent in his public engagement and contribution beyond the walls of his own restaurants. With the timely sale of his Charlotte Street location in January 2020, he decided to direct his ever-expanding creativity, passion and drive toward a new career in Real Estate.
A confident, experienced, and driven entrepreneur, Patrick has taken a “student of the world” philosophy and married it with creative, contagious curiosity to seek out remarkable properties to share with his clients. His desire to listen and learn and discerning, critical eye offer flexibility and confidence to real estate transactions
Patrick brings the same passion and devotion he has for cycling the winding roads of his mountain home to everything he does. During his undergraduate studies at NC State, he spent a year in Paris that resulted in three return trips to live in France. Following a four year stint working in widely acclaimed restaurants in Charleston, SC, he returned to Asheville to open his own.
Throughout the execution and operation of his restaurant group, Patrick has developed and continues to nurture strong bonds within the community that are continuously oriented toward nourishment and improvement.
As is typical of the deeply curious, his passions are continually evolving. Yet, the ones that remain constant are food and cooking, cycling (of all types, and often of an ‘epic’ nature), friends, film, literature & poetry, wine, family, and mountain living. Patrick is surrounded by rich, meaningful friendships of the highest quality and he remains close with his parents, who live nearby, and his brother, an avid flyfisherman, who is the brew master at Starr Hill brewery near Charlottesville, VA. He currently lives with his two dogs — Arthur and Beatrice — in his 1926 brick home in downtown Asheville.
A confident, experienced, and driven entrepreneur, Patrick has taken a “student of the world” philosophy and married it with creative, contagious curiosity to seek out remarkable properties to share with his clients. His desire to listen and learn and discerning, critical eye offer flexibility and confidence to real estate transactions
Patrick brings the same passion and devotion he has for cycling the winding roads of his mountain home to everything he does. During his undergraduate studies at NC State, he spent a year in Paris that resulted in three return trips to live in France. Following a four year stint working in widely acclaimed restaurants in Charleston, SC, he returned to Asheville to open his own.
Throughout the execution and operation of his restaurant group, Patrick has developed and continues to nurture strong bonds within the community that are continuously oriented toward nourishment and improvement.
As is typical of the deeply curious, his passions are continually evolving. Yet, the ones that remain constant are food and cooking, cycling (of all types, and often of an ‘epic’ nature), friends, film, literature & poetry, wine, family, and mountain living. Patrick is surrounded by rich, meaningful friendships of the highest quality and he remains close with his parents, who live nearby, and his brother, an avid flyfisherman, who is the brew master at Starr Hill brewery near Charlottesville, VA. He currently lives with his two dogs — Arthur and Beatrice — in his 1926 brick home in downtown Asheville.
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