About the Author
About the Author
Cindy Cohen holds a Master of Science in Child Life from Wheelock College in Boston, with an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan. She is a Certified Child Life Specialist and has worked in the healthcare setting since 1985. In this role, she has worked with acute and chronically ill children, some with life threatening illnesses. She helps the children and their families to understand and cope with their illness, hospitalization and loss. She serves as a consultant, educator and resource on the psychosocial needs of children and families for other health care professionals. She also serves as a resource for children of adult patients, helping them to understand their parent or loved one's illness.
John Heiney holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications with a minor in Journalism from Oakland University. He worked in the healthcare setting for eleven years, writing for health information newsletters and internal employee and physician publications. He spent 10 years in public relations at a community based hospital. Representing the hospital, he had a long-standing partnership with local schools, arranging for health professionals to speak to students on various health and wellness issues. As part of the partnership he helped students develop a health information newsletter for family and friends. He served as a consultant and resource for various hospital departments, helping them create patient information and educational materials.
Collaboratively, Cindy and John have worked with hospital professionals to create and develop many programs for children and families.
Cindy and John have been published in national journals and have presented at national conferences.
Together they wrote three childrens books, and founded Promise Publications in 1997. Their first book, Daddys Promise, was published in 1997. Their second book, My Daddys Cancer, was published in July, 1999. Their third book, My Mommy's Cancer, is due to be published in late 1999.
Since publishing Daddys Promise, Cindy and John have presented on the subject of Helping Children Cope with Grief and Loss at regional conferences for educators of young children. They have appeared as guest authors at Association for Death Education and Counseling national conferences as well. They have spoken to several community groups on subjects ranging from grief and loss to publishing books. They have also developed a Web site with free resource material on children's issues. www.promisepubs.com.
