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This entertaining talk will explore goals, strategies, and tactics we can adopt to live meaningful, fulfilled, and productive lives. Chris will lead us in a reflection of our own lives, contemplating what matters deeply to us, considering how we find purpose and meaning, devising a personal mission statement, examining how to take better care of ourselves, and exploring how all of these practices can impact on the quality of our death. Our daily lives create the person we will be when we die and, thus, the kind of death we will experience.

Chris Palmer is an author, speaker, wildlife filmmaker, conservationist, educator, professor, and grandfather. He dedicated his professional career to conservation but now devotes his life to advocating for reform in aging, death, and dying. His 10th book, Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life, will be published in October. He serves on the board of six nonprofits, most devoted to aging and end-of-life issues. For over 35 years, he spearheaded the production of more than 300 hours of original programming for prime-time television and the IMAX film industry, which won him and his colleagues many awards, including two Emmys and an Oscar nomination. All proceeds from Chris’s books go to fund scholarships for students at American University. Starting in 2004, Chris served on American University’s full-time faculty as Distinguished Film Producer in Residence until his retirement in 2018. While at AU, he founded and directed the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at the School of Communication. Chris was a stand-up comic for five years and has advanced degrees from London and Harvard.