The Coming Home Project - Cedar Tree Institute

A Training and Support Project For Hospice and Palliative Care Medical Providers in Rural Northern Michigan

January – December 2026

An Initiative of the Cedar Tree Institute in partnership with The Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan Foundation, Michigan Health Endowment Fund, Superior Health Foundation, The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Harvard Medical School, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Upper Peninsula Education Corporation, Northern Michigan University’s Department of Social Work and NMU Center for Rural Health.

PROJECT GOALS

“Coming Home” is a year-long training and support project for hospice and palliative care providers serving Michigan’s rural Upper Peninsula, where care is shaped by distance, weather, and attachment to land and community.

Through overnight retreats, community gatherings, and consultations, this project brings providers together to share wisdom and strengthen relationships. It features nationally respected medical voices, the lived experience of those receiving hospice care, and cross-cultural insights from medical providers with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. This initiative coordinates culturally grounded care – helping providers stay connected, resilient, and fully present to patients and families at the end of life.

Overnight retreats will take place at the historic Thunder Bay Inn in Big Bay, Michigan.

March 19-20, 2026
June 11-12, 2026
September 17-18, 2026
November 12-13, 2026

The four retreats for Hospice and Palliative Care Providers on themes of Fear, Loss, Grief, and Hope:

In Being with dying, we arrive at a natural crucible of what it means to love and be loved. And we can ask ourselves this: Knowing that death is inevitable, what is most precious today?
-Joan Halifax, author of Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

Sophina Manheimer Calderon, MD, is Chief Medical Officer of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. She was recipient of Arizona’s 2021 Rural Health Exceptional Health Professional of the Year Award. She is a member of the Navajo Nation.
“Fear and Hope: An Indigenous Perspective on Illness and Health.”
Marquette Regional History Center, Marquette, 7 P.M. Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Larry Skendzel, MD, is the Medical Director and Program Director for Hospice and Palliative Care Fellowship at Gundersen Medical Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
“End of Life and the Paradox of Loss”
Messiah Lutheran Church, Marquette, 7 P.M. Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Greg Fricchione, MD, is Director of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine in Boston and Associate Chief of Psychiatry at Massechusets General Hospital. He also serves at MGH as Mind Body Medicine Professor of Psychiatry.
“The Tribute of Grief”
Messiah Lutheran Church, Marquette, 7 P.M. Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Natalia Leontovich, PhD, is Senior Research Coordinator for Critical Care and Resuscitation Research at New York University Grossman School Medicine. She provides oversight for studies on the brain and consciousness in end of life care.
“The Near Death Experience: What We Know.”
Messiah Lutheran Church, Marquette, 7 P.M. Wednesday, November 11, 2026

PLANNING TEAM

Mike Grossman, M.D.
Stuart Johnson, D.O.
Jon Magnuson, MDiv., MSW
Melissa Cavill, BSN-RN
Doug Russell, Grant Administrator
William Sharp, MSW Graduate Intern
Caroline Cheng, PhD, NMU Social Work
Elise Bur, BFA, NMU Rural Health
Megan Murphy, MPA, SHF

This project is being coordinated by The Cedar Tree Institute, a nonprofit organization that initiates projects and provides services in the areas of mental health, interfaith collaboration, and the environment.

Its work has included collaborative projects with five American Indian tribes, Harvard Medical School, and Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine. Since 2000, CTI volunteers and staff have planted over 30,000 cedar trees to heal threatened forests and landscapes across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.