Marc A. Markell, PhD, lives with his spouse and son in South Minneapolis. He is a professor at St. Cloud State University in the Department of Special Education. His primary areas of interest at St. Cloud State include teaching literacy instruction for students with special needs, behavior management techniques, and grief and loss education. Marc is a certified thanatologist (the study of death, dying, and bereavement) through the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and certified in death and grief studies from Colorado State University through the Center for Loss and Life Transition. In addition to publishing in the area of grief and loss, he facilitates grief support groups and presents on grief and loss issues for a variety of audiences (colleges, foster care and adoption agencies, churches, hospices, and parent groups).

He also teaches graduate-level courses on grief, loss, and death education, and he is a hospice volunteer. As a hospice volunteer, he works primarily with children and individuals with disabilities who have experienced a death loss of a significant person.