KAREN WYLIE, EdD

Executive Director of Animal Hospice Group, Co-Founder & Director, BrightHaven Caregiver Academy

Karen_Navy

Educator in Animal Hospice, Palliative Care, and Caregiver Support

Karen Wylie, EdD is an educator, author, and leader in animal hospice care and caregiver education. As Executive Director of Animal Hospice Group, she oversees advanced training and certification programs for veterinary professionals and allied animal care practitioners in compassionate end-of-life care.

As Co-Founder and Director of BrightHaven Caregiver Academy, she brings hospice philosophy and practical caregiving education directly to pet parents, helping them navigate serious illness, aging, and natural death with confidence and compassion.

Karen’s work focuses on the belief that caregiving is a learnable skill — one that can be strengthened through education, thoughtful observation, and partnership with veterinary professionals. She teaches that comfort, dignity, and quality of life are not abstract ideals, but practical goals that can guide everyday decisions when a beloved animal faces a life-changing or terminal diagnosis.

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A Foundation in Learning, Leadership, and Life Transitions

Karen holds a Master of Education in Life Stage Counseling and a Doctor of Education in Organizational Learning from Vanderbilt University. Her early career centered on guiding organizations through complex transitions — including mergers, ethical challenges, and large-scale cultural change — across healthcare systems, manufacturing organizations, and military environments.

This deep background in organizational learning and life-stage development now informs her work in animal hospice and caregiver support. The skills required to navigate corporate change — clarity in uncertainty, ethical decision-making, emotional resilience, and systems thinking — are the same skills families need when facing serious illness and end-of-life decisions for their animals.

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Bridging Veterinary Medicine
and Home Care

Through her leadership at Animal Hospice Group, Karen has worked to expand professional education in animal hospice care and pet palliative care. She advocates for a collaborative model in which veterinary teams and informed caregivers work together to prioritize comfort, dignity, and thoughtful decision-making.

Recognizing the increasing demand for at-home caregiving — especially amid veterinary workforce shortages — Karen emphasizes that pet parents are not passive observers in their animals’ decline. They are active participants in care. Her educational work helps caregivers understand how to monitor comfort, recognize changes, and make grounded decisions aligned with both medical guidance and family values.

Creator of Practical Frameworks for Caregivers

Karen is the creator of the Animal Hospice Care Wheel™, a structured framework outlining the physical and emotional journey from diagnosis through bereavement. She also developed the LIVING Quality of Life Care Assessment, a multidimensional tool designed to help caregivers track comfort, connection, vitality, environment, and adaptation throughout the course of their pet’s illness.

These tools are intended not to replace veterinary guidance, but to support thoughtful conversations and shared decision-making between caregivers and professionals.

"As a lifelong educator, I've come to understand that caregiving, like any other skill, is something we learn and refine throughout our lives. Whether it's adapting to a pet's changing needs as they age or rising to the challenge of a life-changing diagnosis, we're constantly evolving as caregivers. My goal is to empower pet parents with the knowledge and skills they need to navigate these transitions with confidence and compassion."

- Karen Wylie, EdD

Peace of Mind for Pet Parents

Karen co-hosts the weekly Peace of Mind for Pet Parents podcast with Gail Pope, founder of BrightHaven. Together, they explore hospice philosophy, natural dying, caregiver resilience, anticipatory grief, and practical strategies for supporting animals through serious illness and end-of-life transitions.

Through the podcast, online education, and published resources, Karen works to normalize compassionate discussions about aging, illness, and death in companion animals — while helping families feel less alone and more prepared.

A Lifelong Commitment to Animal Care

Karen Wylie with her pet brown dog smiling

Karen’s dedication to animal caregiving is rooted in decades of personal experience managing multi-pet households across all life stages — from newborn care to advanced age and terminal illness. Her approach integrates careful observation, practical skill-building, and emotional presence, recognizing that both animals and caregivers experience change throughout the journey.

She believes that hospice is not about giving up — it is about aligning care with comfort, dignity, and love.

Selected Publications & Educational Resources

Karen has contributed to and co-developed a growing body of educational resources designed to support both professional practitioners and pet parents navigating aging, illness, and end-of-life care.

Her publications include:

These works reflect Karen’s commitment to practical education grounded in experience, ethical clarity, and compassionate presence.

Looking Forward

Today, Karen continues to lead at the intersection of professional education and caregiver empowerment. Through Animal Hospice Group and BrightHaven Caregiver Academy, she is helping reshape how animal hospice care and pet palliative care are understood — not as isolated medical events, but as deeply relational experiences that call for knowledge, preparation, and compassionate presence.

Her mission is simple: to help caregivers make informed, thoughtful decisions — and to support animals in living fully until their final breath.

Begin Where You Are

You don’t have to know the whole path. Just take one gentle step forward.