Evelynn Moon
Evelynn Moon is the Director of Learning & Content Strategy at Good Grief, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Princeton, New Jersey dedicated to supporting children, families, and communities navigating grief and loss. With approximately 15 years of experience in the nonprofit and education sectors, she has built a career centered on grief education, social-emotional learning, curriculum development, and professional training. Her work focuses on creating meaningful learning experiences that help schools, educators, and organizations become more grief-informed, empathetic, and responsive to the needs of those they serve.
Evelynn began her career at the Center for Supportive Schools, where she advanced from an entry-level role to Senior Program Manager, gaining extensive experience in program implementation, training design, and school-based initiatives. She later joined Good Grief, where she now leads the organization’s learning and education strategy. In her current role, she develops workshops, facilitates trainings, oversees curriculum creation, manages volunteer education programs, and serves as a public-facing thought leader through speaking engagements, podcasts, and collaborations. She also played a key role in expanding grief education initiatives across New Jersey, including contributions to the New Jersey Grief Collaborative following statewide grief education policy developments.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Rutgers University and a Master’s degree in Educational Theatre from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Her academic and professional background informs her human-centered approach to learning design, combining storytelling, facilitation, and education to foster connection and understanding. Guided by a core belief in empathy and relational learning, Evelynn is deeply committed to creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, and empowered to grow through life’s most challenging experiences.
• Mental Health First Aid
• Certificate of Completion - Coaching Foundations
• Instructional Design Essentials: Models of ID
• Leading with a Heavy Heart
• Learning Salesforce
• Become a Project Manager
• Project Management Foundations: Integration, Quality, Communication, Risk, Stakeholders, Schedules, Teams, Change
• Microsoft Project 2016 Essential Training
• Certificate of Eligibility for the State of New Jersey in English Education Grades 5-8
• Certificate of Eligibility for the State of New Jersey in Elementary Education Grades K-6
• NYU Steinhardt School - MA
• New Jersey Grief Collaborative
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to hard work, dedication, and consistency in everything I do.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to just ask for the things that you want and the things that you need. You can't assume that other people are mind readers or that they are just going to know and sort of push you along in the right direction in your career. It's good to have an idea of where you want to go, and then be able to ask for what you need, whether that's a title change, a promotion, or different responsibilities. In my case, I asked for certain professional development opportunities that really helped me ultimately grow my career to where it is now. But if you don't speak up, if you don't ask, then the answer is always no.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice I would give to women entering the nonprofit industry is to protect your boundaries. When you are doing mission-driven work, it can be very easy to overextend yourself for a cause, but you have to be whole. There's a saying, someone has to be home to receive a guest. You have to be there for these people, and that means being able to take care of your physical, your mental, and your emotional well-being, because it very easily could start to have a little bit of that overextension of yourself, especially if you're incredibly passionate about the work you're doing. You have to also be conscious of yourself and your wellness.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, and it's not just our organization but across nonprofits, funding has been very challenging. I've seen several nonprofits that I personally enjoyed very much that have actually had to sunset their operations due to either federal or state funding no longer being available because of changes in the funding structures at the federal or state level. Also, individual giving is a little bit down. Whenever there's economic uncertainty, people will sometimes either cut down on what they're providing to charities and nonprofits, or they start redirecting it towards other much-needed things, like food insecurity, housing insecurity, and medical care. We saw this also during COVID, a little bit of that redirection towards other things. I do believe that we will weather this and ultimately come out just as strong as ever, but I think it's really heavy on a lot of nonprofits' minds, where they're having to make some really hard decisions right now.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Something that I value in both my work and personal life is balance. I am very fortunate in that I am at an organization that allows some flexibility, and I think being able to be a present parent also allows me to be present at work. I do believe I would have been a great employee whether I became a mom or not, but being a parent did change how I lead and how I interact with my employees. It just really broadened my abilities and, I think, my drive and my purpose. So, to me, they are very intertwined, my home life and my work life as well.
Locations
Good Grief, Inc.
Woodbridge Township, NJ 07095