Dr. B. Elias Snyder, PhD, NP-C, ACHPN (he/they) is the Founder of River Rock Global Collective and leads the Communal Grief Project. He has roots in Baltimore (Piscataway lands) and mixed Syrian/Lebanese and European ancestry which all inform his work. Elias is faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, a nurse practitioner double board certified in primary care and palliative care/hospice, and a global health researcher.

His research focuses on reciprocal, global learning in palliative care and grief, bridging Indigenous science with evidence-based Euro-Western science through a lens of decolonization. He is leading various research projects including: improving models of palliative and end-of-life care in the U.S. and Tanzania, Understanding the needs of Indigenous Elders in Costa Rica, and Strengthening communal grief rituals in the US, Mexico, and Tanzania. He was named a 2025 Emerging Leader in Palliative Care by the National Hospice & Palliative Care Nurses Foundation.

Elias has spent years living in East Africa, working on projects related to healthcare access, health systems strengthening, and health equity. Some project highlights include co-authoring trainings incorporated into the Rwandan National Policy on Nutrition, co-developing curricula with Gardens for Health International, used by UNICEF and the World Food Program, and formalizing a global clinician education program at FAME hospital in Tanzania.

https://riverrockglobalcollective.org/