Workshop: From Fatality Review Findings to Action
February 3 - 5, 2027
3-Day In-Person Training in Seattle, WA
Many fatality review teams reach the same point: solid case reviews, thoughtful findings, well-intentioned recommendations, and then a stall. The path from “we found this” to “we changed this” isn’t always built into how reviews are structured, and it’s rarely taught.
This three-day workshop is designed for coordinators, facilitators, practitioners, and team members involved in established fatality review processes, including overdose, suicide, violence, withdrawal-related, and other fatality reviews. It allows individuals who are ready to take a deeper look at how their review is structured and how to turn findings and recommendations into implemented prevention strategies. This is not a facilitation training, and it is not an introduction to fatality review.
This training is designed for teams who are already doing the work and want to do more with it.
ABOUT THE TRAINING
3-Day In-Person Training
When: February 3-5, 2027
Where: Seattle Central Public Library (1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104)
Parking information is available here
THROUGHOUT THE TRAINING, YOU WILL
Examine how your review's structure, from case selection to discussion design, shapes whether findings point toward prevention or just describe what happened.
Learn to build findings and recommendations that are structured for action from the start, not retrofitted after the fact.
Use data to identify local themes and strategically select cases that can illuminate opportunities for prevention and systems change.
Bring the right partners to the table for each review, engaging guests with the expertise, authority, or connections to help move findings toward action.
Build the bridge from recommendation to program development (feasibility, ownership, workplans, and accountability).
Discuss communicating successful implementation.
Hear real examples of how recommendations became funded and/or created operational change.
Work directly with your own team's findings and recommendations throughout the training.
Connect with peers doing this same work in other jurisdictions.
Practice self-care and pacing your work to avoid burnout.
Enjoy good food, real conversation, and a few moments to breathe.
This is a working training. Come ready to bring your own data, findings, and recommendations, and leave with a concrete, feasible plan for moving at least one priority from finding to action.
PRICING
Includes lunch, snacks, and coffee/drinks daily.
$800 — Early registration (before December 1, 2026)
$850 — Standard registration (December 2, 2026 – January 19, 2027)
$900 — Late registration (January 20-29, 2027)
TRAINING LOCATION
Seattle Central Public Library
1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104
TRAVEL AND LODGING INFORMATION
We encourage you to reserve your seat now. If the minimum number of participants is not met by December 15, registration fees will be fully refunded/not charged. Please wait to make travel arrangements until you receive confirmation after December 15 that the workshop will proceed. Travel and lodging information is provided to assist with a budget estimate for internal travel approvals.
U.S. General Services Administration Federal Rates
Daily Lodging (Excluding Taxes) - $188
Daily Meals - $92 (lunch is covered in the training registration fee and is $26 per day)
Recommended Hotels
$180 per night
3-minute walk from training
$152 per night
1- minute walk from training
Crown Plaza Seattle- Downtown by IHG
$117 per night
3-minute walk from training
TRAINING HOSTS
Training is co-hosted by Salus Consulting LLC and Overdose Prevention Collective
TRAINERS
Melissa Heinen is the founder of Salus Consulting LLC and a facilitator who specializes in leading groups through the hardest conversations in the room. Her expertise was forged in fatality review facilitation — training practitioners across the country, to lead high-stakes, emotionally complex meetings with clarity and care. Beyond that specialty, she has facilitated national communities of practice, advisory boards, strategic workgroups, and internal staff meetings — building the same clarity, engagement, and follow-through into rooms of every size and stakes level. This training draws on that full range of experience: practical techniques tested from the boardroom to the case review table, adapted for any facilitator who wants to lead with more confidence and skill. Learn more about Melissa here.
Mallory O'Brien, PhD, MS, has spent more than 30 years bringing together people who see problems differently and helping them find common ground. As an Associate Scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she works at the intersection of public health, public safety, and community where progress depends on getting law enforcement, medical examiners, clinicians, treatment providers, community organizations, and families to talk openly, trust one another, and act together.
Much of that work happens in the room. Dr. O'Brien has facilitated fatality reviews where participants examine deeply painful cases, share sensitive information across agency lines, and work through disagreement to reach concrete recommendations.
Trained as an epidemiologist, she brings a data-informed perspective to facilitation, helping groups move from individual stories to patterns and from patterns to system change. Her work has been recognized with the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award, the U.S. Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods Outstanding Contribution by a Researcher award, and the Johns Hopkins Excellence in National Public Health Practice award. Learn more about Mallory here.
Emily Dalgo is the Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) Coordinator for King County, Washington, based in the Medical Examiner’s Office. She convenes and facilitates a multidisciplinary committee of more than 40 agencies—including public health, behavioral health, law enforcement, housing, and healthcare partners—to review overdose deaths, identify system-level interventions, and advance strategies that prevent future fatalities. Under her coordination, the OFR has implemented several impactful recommendations, including training and equipping all Sound Transit safety staff with naloxone and overdose response education. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Overdose Prevention Collective, a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to overdose prevention through naloxone distribution and substance use education. Previously, Emily served as Associate Director of Regulatory Policy for a national healthcare association, and as Executive Director of a patient safety advocacy coalition in Washington, D.C. She holds a master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Washington. Learn more about Emily here.
QUESTIONS
Contact Melissa Heinen at Melissa@Salusconsultingllc.com
or visit www.salusconsultingllc.com
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