About Martha
A compassionate strategist for leaders navigating the human side of high-stakes communication.
“Loss shows up at work every day, not only through death, but through transition, conflict, change, and unmet expectations.”
For more than 30 years, Martha Thayer has worked at the intersection of grief psychology, communication strategy, and organizational leadership. Her career began on the front lines of the mortuary science field, where she became a licensed mortuary science practitioner and spent decades supporting individuals and families through some of life’s most difficult moments. It was there she learned, long before it was common corporate language, that emotional safety, clarity, and confident leadership are essential in times of crisis.
Today, she brings that rare expertise into boardrooms, HR departments, and leadership teams across the country. Martha holds a master’s degree in Strategic Communication and a master’s degree in Thanatology (the scientific study of grief, loss, and the human experience during crisis). This combination gives her a distinctive ability to help leaders navigate organizational loss, including layoffs, restructuring, team conflict, unexpected medical diagnoses that impact workplace dynamics, missed promotions, and the morale-shifts that come with change.
Because Martha has guided thousands of people through real, high-stakes emotional experiences, she sees what many corporate leaders miss: loss shows up at work every day, not only through death, but through transition, uncertainty, and unmet expectations. And when leaders don’t know how to address it, performance, trust, and psychological safety suffer.
Martha is widely regarded as an expert in training executives, managers, and emerging leaders to communicate with clarity, compassion, and confidence. Her approach blends
loss-informed leadership principles with practical corporate communication tools, helping leaders have the hard conversations that most organizations avoid because they simply don’t know how to begin.
Through keynotes, corporate workshops, executive training, and her nationally recognized Mortuary Training Academy, Martha equips organizations with the scripts, structure, and skills they need to lead well during emotionally complex moments. Her mission is simple: to help leaders support their people, strengthen their culture, and communicate effectively, especially when the stakes are highest.