Navigating Widowhood

Jill Kaufman Rose Ph.D. had a 30-year technology career at IBM where her responsibilities included teaching technology classes all over the world. In 2015, Jill began a widowhood journey to understand how to survive and move forward in widowhood, after her husband died from cancer. Initially, Jill participated in a widow group and grief seminars held by a local Hospice Grief Center. She read numerous books on widowhood. Jill did not know any widows when she became a widow- so she sought out other widows to learn from and exchange ideas with.

Since 2017, Jill has been facilitating a Loss of Spouse Group at the Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church for widows and widowers who were adjusting to widowhood and seeking to build the next phase of their life. She has presented on widowhood at a local Hospice Grief Center. Jill developed and taught Navigating Widowhood, a muti-session class, at both Duke University Olli and NC State University Olli (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) programs.

Seeking a deeper understanding of widowhood, in 2019, Jill returned to graduate school to pursue a Masters of Liberal Studies from Duke University with the specific purpose of researching widowhood. Jill wrote her Master’s thesis on widowhood and graduated in May 2022.

Jill continues her volunteer work teaching and facilitating widowhood workshops. She continues her passion for lifelong learning, enjoys spending summers at the Chautauqua Institute, dabbling in music, playing pickleball, and enjoys taking her 5.5-pound poodle, Bisou, for walks. In 2021, Jill remarried a wonderful man who is an amateur musician, lifelong learner, and her pickleball partner.

Jill has a B.S. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University, a M.S. in Telecommunications from PACE University, a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and a Masters in Liberal Studies from Duke University.