NDE Radio: Franne Whitney Nelson Franne Whitney Nelson, Ed.T., CSDS, is a native Vermonter, an Educational Thanatologist, Sudden Death Trauma Specialist and director of Death Education Consulting in Montpelier, Vermont. She is a nationally known death and grief expert and lecturer who specializes in the biochemistry of grief and how grief differs according to the manner of death. The Death Lady is the moniker bestowed on her by the Vermont State Police in 1995 when she started their Sudden Death Trauma Program.