By illustrating how the grief following a violent death is remarkably different from the grief following the more common natural death, Red acknowledges the unique challenges and isolation faced by survivors of violent loss and empowers the community to better support these survivors as they work to make meaning out of the worst day of their lives.

Melissa Red Hoffman is a surgeon and a hospice physician. She practices acute care surgery (a mix of trauma, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care) in a large community hospital in Asheville, North Carolina and serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

As one of only 100 surgeons in the United States also board certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Red has focused her career on integrating palliative medicine into the care of surgical patients, through her clinical work, writing, research, speaking, and podcasting. She is the co-founder of the Surgical Palliative Care Society and the host of the Surgical Palliative Care and the Surgical Soul podcasts.