Katie Abbott
Founder & Chief Operating Officer, MitoKhon Advisors
Grief Doesn’t Clock Out
Inspired by our convening at 2025 Dignified Futures:
Grief is not something to fix or rush through—it’s something to nourish. In the aftermath of loss, grieving employees often return to workplaces that expect productivity over presence, silence over story, and resilience over rest. This human-centered design workshop invites social impact leaders, healthcare professionals, and changemakers to explore how we can design systems that honor grief as part of our shared humanity.
Together, we’ll ask: How can we move beyond productivity-centered bereavement policies to cultivate cultures of respect and dignity for those navigating profound loss?
Grounded in real-world examples and trauma-informed practices, this session offers a path toward moving from suffocating grief to nourishing it—creating environments where healing and humanity can coexist at work and in our communities.
About Katie
Katie Abbott, MHA, FACHE, is a healthcare leader and grief advocate who believes that grief is not something to fix or rush through—it’s something to nourish.
Katie’s journey with grief began early. Her dad, Phil, died of cancer when she was four, and at eleven, she lost her cousin, Michael, to suicide. These formative losses shaped her calling and taught her that grief—especially in children and young adults—needs space, care, and community to be witnessed and tended.
For over 15 years, Katie has volunteered as a grief group facilitator for children, teens, and adults. Sitting with people in their grief is not just a service—it’s the reason her heart is on this planet.
Katie brings this same heart-centered approach to healthcare leadership. She specializes in simplifying complex operations, leading strategic growth, and designing human-centered care systems that work better for patients, families, teams, and communities.
As co-founder of MitoKhon Advisors, Katie partners with health and health-adjacent leaders to build compassionate, future-ready systems. Her team blends operational rigor with healing-centered leadership—helping organizations move from reactive problem-solving to upstream, systems-level change.
Whether walking alongside those who are grieving or redesigning systems of care, Katie leads with empathy, vision, and a steadfast belief in creating spaces where healing, humanity, and leadership coexist.