Joyal's Story

Joyal Mulheron is a Washington, DC, public policy expert with more than twenty-five years of service to the nation’s governors, The White House, and nonprofit organizations. She has worked with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as with corporate executives and policy advocates in order to bring national attention and substantial policy responses to the devastating effects of bereavement. She contributed to the passage of paid bereavement leave for the U.S. Armed Forces following the deaths of their children and spouses. She has successfully championed multiple bereavement provisions in the U.S. appropriations process, under both U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Joseph Biden, to reshape how the federal government attends to grieving individuals and the people who serve them. She has been a chief advisor for multiple federal agencies on the topic, as well as the U.S. Congress, and The White House. Joyal is responsible for the first Report to Congress on grief and bereavement, the first federal systematic review of psychosocial interventions for bereaved people, and wrote the U.S. government community bereavement response guide in the wake of child fatalities. She’s served as an advisor to the federal government’s first report on orphanhood benefits issued by the Social Security Advisory Board and a series of fact sheets on grief and bereavement published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, among many other advances to improve the well-being and the aftermath for all people living in the United States.

Like millions of Americans, she has experienced tragic loss: her terminally ill infant daughter, Eleanora, died in 2010. During Eleanora’s brief life, her health insurance provider would call frequently to ask if Eleanora would live ten days or less than ten days because they had “different paperwork to fill out.” Her employer requested her resignation, as her daughter slowly died. Eleanora’s pediatric hospice provider instructed Joyal to call funeral homes to determine which provider would manage her daughter’s remains. With Eleanora on one shoulder, and the phone on the other, Joyal called funeral directors, some of whom said they would “broker her a deal” if her daughter died soon.
A decade later, Joyal’s father, a veteran who helped set her moral compass and unabashedly believed in her dreams, died by suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic. His remains are laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Born in West Point and growing up in communities across the United States, Joyal believes that every person has a unique but important story, each of which contributes to the success of America and its full potential in the world. She is an ardent believer in quality science and responsible use of taxpayer dollars. The federal changes Joyal has championed have not come at the expense of everyday Americans. Fiscal responsibility and making difficult choices are central tenets of policymaking, regardless of political affiliation.

Following a series of high-profile death events – the Hot Shot Firefighters unit, the Sandy Hook Massacre, Chicago homicides, and more – Joyal left her position as chief strategy officer of a nonprofit organization chaired by the East Wing of The White House, to begin understanding grief in America.

She started her education by walking the streets of Washington, DC, meeting with families and professionals, each of whom had experienced tragic deaths. Soon thereafter, her work grew substantially as families from all walks of life welcomed her into their homes, places of worship, and community centers to share their heartfelt stories of love and loss. During these conversations, Joyal began to uncover chronic and persistent hardships that children and families face in the aftermath of grief. Trained as a scientist, Joyal began aligning personal stories of loss with evidence-based literature and realized that bereavement is a significant medical, social, and economic crisis hiding in plain sight. To address these concerns, she founded Evermore, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all bereaved people. Her work with the organization has been featured in the PBS NewsHour, the Washington Post, USA Today, Good Morning America, ABC News, NBC News, and many other media outlets.

Prior to advising The White House, Joyal spent several years at the National Governors Association (NGA), including supporting one NGA chairman’s national initiative to reshape the way America thinks about healthy living. During her time at NGA, she advised both Democratic and Republican state executives on commonsense policy solutions to advance the health and well-being of people in every corner of the nation.

Joyal started her career at the American Cancer Society in Washington, DC, researching emerging science and trends, building its genetics portfolio, and coordinating legislative priorities. During this time, she translated Institute of Medicine (now the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) reports into plain language for state legislators, taught basic biology at community colleges, and earned her master’s degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University. Joyal is a graduate of Virginia Tech (go, Hokies!) with degrees in biochemistry and English, a minor in chemistry, and concentrations in World War II and Black American literature.

Joyal is married to her college sweetheart of thirty years, has four children (including a biochemist, a musician, a sweat, and a milkatarian). She is dedicated to staying active, loves to cook dairy-free, gluten-free meals for her family (which they are more than enthusiastic about), and doubles as an emotional support human for the family’s Golden Retriever (who seemingly is not golden).