Azurae Redmond

Azurae lost her husband to lung cancer, at just 27 years old, while 5 months pregnant, with their 10-month-old on her hip. Three years later, during the pandemic in 2020, she founded the progressive nonprofit Young, Black & Widowed Inc. She became a certified Grief Coach and her global nonprofit has now provided peer grief support to more than 3,000 widow(er)s of every age, nationality and religion worldwide. For her efforts in grief support, as well as her service to the Chattanooga, Tennessee community through her advocacy on nonprofit boards, she was named as one of Tennessee’s Top African-American Women in 2022 by the state-wide Tennessee Tribune.

As an educator she presents her research on young adult grievers in Welcome Home Hospice’s “Demystifying Death” series for university students. As a speaker who stepped away from her background in chemical engineering post-loss, she hosts her “Fuel Your Transformative Passion” seminars, for people who want to choose a new path after experiencing different forms of loss. She is a the forward writer and contributing author to the newly released book, “Widowed Parents Unite,” spearheaded by famous Podcaster Jenny Lisk. She was awarded the NAACP Ruby Hurley “Community Activist” Image Award in November 2023, and she was nominated “Best Nonprofit” by Chattanoooga Business Elite.