About JOAN.

Luke Cripps

President & Public Officer

As President of Dead Matters and a Director of Alluvium Water Cremations, Luke is a dedicated advocate for death literacy in Tasmania who approaches end-of-life care through a lens of careful philosophical inquiry. His work asks us to reframe mortality—viewing the conscious awareness of our own end not as a burden, but as a profound human privilege. Because we are uniquely capable of understanding our own impermanence, Luke believes our approach to death holds up an unflinching mirror to how we choose to live. Through his leadership and advocacy, he challenges us to engage fully in conversations about legacy, relationships, community, and the environment, using our awareness of the end to cultivate a life of deep intention even, and perhaps especially, when this seems out of reach.

Bec Lyons

Senior Vice President

End-of-life doula, independent funeral director, author, educator and advocate. Bec brings extensive experience in home-based death care, family-led funerals, death education and changing approaches to death and ceremony. In 2018 Bec was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake international research exploring alternatives to contemporary ceremony and body disposal. Bec’s Churchill research culminated in her book, ‘A Heartfelt Undertaking’ and then in 2022 Bec was selected to give a TEDx Talk on home funerals in 2022 in Hobart titled Three Steps into the Heart of Home Funeral. Bec is the President of the Natural Death Advocacy Network (NDAN) in Australia and also the Australian Home Funeral Alliance (AHFA). More recently, Bec and Luke were both finalists at the Palliative Care Tasmania Awards 2026.

Kylie Cripps

Vice President

Jason Gray

Secretary

Zach Wells

Treasurer

Engineer, community participant and former member of the Bar(r)ed Subjects collective, with experience across community theatre, advocacy, neighbourhood projects and creating spaces for exploring challenging ideas. He brings a strong interest in philosophy, community and creating opportunities to engage with the unknown and uncomfortable. Zachary is also skilled in construction and event production.

Simon Lowe

Member

Co-founder and Joint CEO, The Ageing Revolution and CEO, People Tech Revolution, with expertise in partnerships, design thinking, behaviour change and creative approaches to social issues. He co-created Carked It!, an award-winning card game designed to get people talking about death and dying, and brings experience in developing engaging, playful ways to approach challenging subjects. Simon has run multiplayer games of Carked It! in pubs, cafes and community spaces over the past 2 years, in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

Leonie Sanderson

Member

Social innovator, community engagement specialist and Joint CEO of The Ageing Revolution, with more than 30 years’ experience bringing people together around complex social issues. Her work spans ageing, mental health, care and social change, with a strong focus on co-design, creative engagement, events and creating spaces for difficult conversations including at Vivid Festival Sydney, Darwin Festival, Woodford Folk Festival and more.

Anneke Rose

Member

Arts manager, event producer and administrator with more than 20 years’ experience across the arts, cultural and events sectors. Based in lutruwita/Tasmania, she brings extensive experience in event operations, community arts, production and business management, alongside a personal focus on grief, death and loss.

Kate Brennan

Member

Born and raised on the large northern island, Kate relocated to lutruwita/Tasmania in 2019, where she made the bold decision to establish a blueberry nursery in the Huon Valley. She is passionate about social justice and meaningful change, First Nations rights, solastalgia, child and family wellbeing, grief, and the ways we navigate living, death and dying. Throughout her career, Kate has worked alongside communities to co-create meaningful and sustainable outcomes. Her emerging areas of interest include advocacy for people experiencing altered states and mental or emotional distress, as well as regenerative farming. Alongside life and work in the valley, Kate works with Palliative Care Tasmania, delivering grief literacy education and helping to strengthen community connection and resilience. This role builds on her longstanding personal and professional engagement with death literacy and community building.