Lennon Flowers

Co-founder & Executive Director, Los Angeles, she/her

Lennon lost her mom during her senior year of college, following a four-year fight with lung cancer. Three years later, she hitched up her wagon and headed West. Three-thousand miles away from home, she found she no longer had anyone with whom she could talk about her mom, and explore the way in which her life, death, and absence continued to affect her. When Carla, a friend, colleague, and soon-to-be roommate, invited her over for dinner, it was a no-brainer. In January 2017, she, together with partners at Faith Matters Network and Hollaback!, launched The People’s Supper: a nationwide effort to create healing spaces that strengthen our individual and collective resilience and wellbeing, and to repair the breach in our interpersonal relationships across political, ideological, and identity differences. Lennon previously served as Community Director for Ashoka’s Start Empathy Initiative. She has written for CNN, Fast Company, YES!, Forbes, Open Democracy, and others. She is an Ashoka Fellow and an Aspen Ideas Scholar, and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. 

Sofia Bair

Managing Director, San Diego, she/her

A Northern California native, Sofia now calls sunny San Diego home. With a decade of strategic planning and marketing experience in the sustainable food industry and a background in Human Geography, she is passionate about building bridges of connection by illuminating unseen human experiences and shifting cultural narratives.Sofia was a primary caregiver to her Father for most of her life, before he passed away in 2018 from a rare terminal illness. She has found such healing and connection by speaking openly about loss and the complexities that come with it.Outside of her work at The Dinner Party, she spends her time as a community organizer, leveraging music, movement, and meals to unite people across both sides of the highly politicized US-Mexico border.

Mary Pauline Diaz-Frasene

Senior Community & Learning Manager, Denver, she/her

Mary Pauline (or MP) grew up in a Pilipinx immigrant family with that “Did you eat yet?” kind of love, where hospitality is forefront and tangible, where the labor that nourishes us is never just for ourselves. She leads our Workplace Resilience offerings and supports other TDP Labs partnerships. Prior to TDP Labs, her work included developing and leading staff care resources for the largest social services non-profit in Washington state; supporting patients, their communities, and staff as a hospital chaplain during the first year of COVID-19; direct services roles with people experiencing homelessness; and local community organizing. She has a Master of Arts in Theology & Culture, where her culminating work explored grief as a practice in collective resistance to unjust and dehumanizing systems.

Tommy O’Neil

Senior Product Manager, Brooklyn, he/him

Tommy was born and raised in California, but he calls Brooklyn home these days. He’s a former medical student, elementary science educator, and a graduate of Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service. As an LMSW, he’s passionate about equitable access to mental health care and expanding bereavement support services.

His father, Richard Roan O’Neil Jr., brings him to The Dinner Party. When he was 15, his world was terraformed by loss, and over the last 13 years, his grief has grown into a beautifully complex companion. As a former TDP program participant, he loves connecting with others to hold space for the complexities of loss and healing.

He has found grief to be the mirror between us and those we have lost.Outside of The Dinner Party, you’ll find Tommy bopping around New York City as he frequents his favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. His simple pleasures include listening to music, photography, reading on the train, and seeing live shows—Broadway, jazz, comedy, dance, his favorite bands, you name it. When the weather permits, he loves to bike, surf, and garden too!

Aggie Fitch

Senior Communications & Development Manager, Brooklyn, she/her

Raised in a home that continually held spontaneous dinner parties of all sizes, Aggie learned about emotional intimacy, community, and joy around a table. So, three years after the death of her older brother, Sam, in a motorcycle accident, it was only fitting that she finally found a voice to talk about her brother and her grief over his loss at The Dinner Party table. After graduating with a degree in Urban and Environmental Policy she went looking for mission-driven organizations she cared about. She is grateful to be given the opportunity to work on a cause so close to her heart.

Sundari Malcolm

BIPOC Grief Educator and Care Curator, Traveling the Country, she/her

Sundari is a native New Yorker and now a full time traveler. In 2007, and after 7 years of being her Caregiver, Sundari lost her mother to Breast Cancer. 4 years later, she lost her father to Brain Cancer. Since then Sundari has made it her mission to equip people with the tools they need to manage life’s greatest transitions. She sits as the BIPOC Grief Educator and Care Curator for The Dinner Party. She is a Birth, Grief and Death Doula and the founder of A Healing Doula.  She's also the Author of Grief Gems! She is obsessed with her dogs, crystals, the moon and baking bread.

Shavonne Bell

Senior Community Support Coordinator, New York City, she/her

Since losing her mother at age 18, Shavonne’s been on a journey of deep healing and remembrance. She has come to realize how precious life is and is moved by explorations of the human condition – joy, grief, and all of the mess in-between. She believes in the transformative power of vulnerability, emotional alchemy, open hearts, and learning from the shadow aspects of ourselves that often go unloved. Shavonne’s excited to be on-board, helping to collectively nurture such a sacred mission. Bubble tea, candles, and inside jokes with her inner child are just a few things that also spark joy for her.

Rachel Stout

Program Manager, Buddy System, Brooklyn, she/her

Mostly because of the alliteration, but also because it’s true, Rachel’s go-to answer for what she enjoys in life is always “coffee, crosswords, books, and bikes. Each of these things also elicits strong memories of her mom, who Rachel lost when she was twenty-five years old to effects of treatment for breast cancer. As can be the nature of these things, it all happened very quickly, within the span of only a couple months. Though Rachel has had endless support from friends, and has joined her fair share of New Age-y group therapy (not focused on loss, but definitely focused on dancing around a circle of candles in a dark room), she was drawn to The Dinner Party seeking that response of understanding, of “getting it,” and has found in it exactly what she was looking for. Rachel lives in Brooklyn, where she’s been for ten years. Outside of The Dinner Party, she works as a freelance book editor and book proposal writer, where she gets to inhabit the minds of others and help shape their stories.

K Scarry

The Dinner Party Labs, Washington D.C., she/her

K (yes, just the letter!) has always been curious about community formation, people's stories, and what it takes to create a shared future where everyone is able to flourish. She's the Director of Partnerships at TDP labs: working around the country to help people build trust and connection to combat isolation and fragmentation in their communities. In recent years, she has led partnerships with Mayor of Erie, PA and the United Methodist Church, among others. When she's not at TDP, she is delighted by journaling, a good thrift find, her dogs, and her latest scheme (currently: a vending machine that vends local art!)

Mary Horn

The Dinner Party Labs, Brooklyn, she/her

Mary is passionate about creating strong community infrastructure and support systems that serve people well. After losing her mom in 2015 and Dinner Party-ing her way through grief in the years that followed, Mary joined The Dinner Party staff in 2019. She started at TDP as a Regional Fellow, matching Tables in the Northeast, before pivoting to build and manage TDP’s Virtual Table program when COVID hit in 2020. Today, Mary runs the Community Experience Team for the organization. Before her grief-inspired career pivot, Mary worked in Academic Editorial at Oxford University Press and completed her doctorate in Music History at Yale University. After growing up in Boulder, CO, Mary now makes the most of the outdoors in and around Brooklyn. You’re likely to find her baking sourdough or hiking with her happy dog, Lucy.