Dr. Gordon’s research is the first near-death-studies or death-and-dying studies project to use the ethnographic method, and a health-education and culture-studies framework, to situate near-death experience (NDE) survivors as the insider-experts on the first-hand experience of dying. Her research was supported by research grants from the University of Maryland and the International Association of Near-Death Studies; and it was recognized with an international graduate research award for cross-cultural scholarship in death and dying by the Association for Death Education and Counseling. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE), and a founding member of the National Women’s Studies Association’s International Task Force on Women’s Spiritualities. She is a lecturer in the Departments of Communication and American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.