Dr. Liza Barros-Lane Bio
When Loss is Traumatic: Reflections from Life and Research
UHD Social Work professor, Dr. Liza Barros-Lane, knows how profoundly life can shift when loss comes without warning. In 2020, her husband died in a tragic boating accident, an event that reshaped her identity and her world. Since then, she has explored what it means to mourn a loved one when the death is sudden, accidental, intentional, violent, or deeply tragic.
This three-part series weaves together her personal story and traumatic bereavement research to explore how trauma complicates grief, and how people find ways to survive and slowly rebuild their lives in the aftermath of devastating loss.
Part 1: When Loss is Traumatic
Wednesday, September 24th from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Part 2: The Burden and Beauty of Remembrance after Traumatic Loss
Thursday, October 23rd from 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Part 3: Carrying Grief into the Holidays
Thursday, November 20th from 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Register for November 20th
All events are both live in C100 and via zoom.
Dr. Liza Barros-Lane
Dr. Liza Barros-Lane, Ph.D., MSW, is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Houston-Downtown, where she explores how traumatic grief reshapes identity, family, and community, particularly for those widowed too soon. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Young Widowhood Project, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting people navigating premature spousal loss.
Widowed at 36 after the sudden death of her husband, Dr. Brent Lane, she brings both lived experience and scholarly expertise to her work. Her research on traumatic loss and young widowhood has been published in leading journals, including Death Studies, OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, and the Journal of Loss and Trauma. She has also presented nationally and internationally, with recent talks at the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition and the Association for Death Education and Counseling.
Dr. Barros-Lane names the difficult realities of grief, the disorientation, the unraveling of identity, and the challenges of parenting and rebuilding in the wake of loss, while also highlighting the uneven and deeply human ways that meaning and connection can take shape. Her writing has appeared in The Conversation, HuffPost, and the Houston Chronicle, with pieces translated and syndicated across Latin America and Europe, including in BBC News Mundo.
In the Vital Voice series on traumatic loss, she offers an honest, compassionate perspective on what it takes to survive and live forward after profound loss, reminding us that while grief fractures the world, it can also create unexpected paths to solidarity, purpose, and new connection.