Leann Catherine Harris
Jan. 22, 1974 – Dec. 28, 2020
Leann Harris, 46, of Richmond, Virginia passed away from a cardiac event on December 28, 2020, at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital.
Leann was a senior business analyst & scrum master. She supported the IT department for Verus Underwriters in this role. She was responsible for bringing the agile process to the company and assisted with transforming the way they approach their IT work while implementing several new systems.
That was Leann’s day job. To tell her complete story we have to talk about what she loved. Leann loved reading, dogs, and giving her time and skills to help those in need. She was a tremendous advocate for certified therapy dogs and many of her dogs were therapy dogs. Her love of dogs and reading led to a natural pairing of Leann with the Paws to Read program.
Leann participated in the Paws To Read program with her golden retriever, Ash, in the Richmond area.
Leann did work with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. She was a Type 1 diabetic who used her dreadful experience with the disease to help and mentor others. She took part in many experimental trials related to diabetic supplies in hopes of helping to find better management tools for Type 1 diabetics.
Leann was an ardent proponent of organ donation. She worked for years in IT at United Network for Organ Sharing on the liver team. She was able to donate organs that will save others. It is certainly fitting that this is the last thing she does. If you have never considered organ donation, please do, it can save lives.
Leann was also passionate about getting people the proper therapeutic help they need. She was a part of the ACBS and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy community. She was recently appointed Lead of the Digital Pillar of ACBS, She also held a l eadership position in ACBS Coaching SIG, and was a founder and mentor of ACBS group “Promotophobic No More” – a group designed to increase support for and promote networking among mental health professionals who struggle with marketing and self-promotion.
Leann’s first love was reading. She believed that books could educate, empower, and heal. She had a special love of self help books. She was quick to suggest the perfect helpful book for a person’s situation.This love of matching self-help books to their needed readers led her to develop her podcast, Shelf Aware Books Podcast and her online Instagram presence. She was a champion of any reading cause whose goal is to get people
reading.
Leann was one of the true “helpers”. Her kind and helpful spirit will be missed. She was a hero to many and will continue to inspire long after her time here. We must say farewell to her but she will continue to live on in each of us and the kindness and compassion that we can show towards others. Survivors include her husband, Brandon, her mother Patricia Ann Diehl, her sister Heidi Diehl-Burton, her nieces and nephews Ava, Penny, Sage, Zander, and Gary. Also, survived by many aunts, uncles, cousins, and numerous friends around the world. She was preceded in death by her father Roderick Diehl, her half-sister Wendy Diehl Lindon, her half-brother Steven Diehl, her grandparents Henry and Catherine Langlitz & Welty and Sallie Diehl.
There will be a celebration of her life later in the year when family and friends can gather safely.
Memorials may be made to Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund https://www2.jdrf.org/ or Sprite’s Hero http://spriteshero.org/donate-2/
My dear, dear friend who I’ve known for around 15 years but never managed to meet. If everyone was half as nice as your beautiful kind soul then this would be one amazing world for both humans and our furry friends.
I have lost count of the number of times your name and face have been on my mind over the past week. If people will remember me with half the love they’ll remember you then I’ll have done well.
You always had a story to tell, and always told it well.
Much love and peace to you Leann, Brendon, your family and all your friends from me, your friend from the Scottish Highlands.
We had great laughs in high school. Wonderful memories. She will be missed but so happy to see she touched so many. Condolences to everyone.
We are all so heartbroken over this untimely death of our beautiful cousin. She meant so much to so many. While she did leave quite an impression with her helpfulness to others, and the gift of her organs , her family all wish that she could have stayed with us just a little bit more, til we could see each other again. Rest in peace, sweet one!
Beautiful obituary, and I had no idea how involved Leann was with so many organizations. She truly was a “helper,” and that is how I met her. I worked with her at Anthem when I started in 2013, and she was immediately a mentor to me. She was kind, knowledgeable, relatable and funny. She definitely shined bright during her (too short) time on this earth. She will be missed. Love to her family and friends.
Oh Leann! All I can say is thank you!💖
So very heart breaking. Sorry for your loss, Leann was such a kind soul and helped me with all things dogs and help me train my Golden years ago while she was doing that. I had the pleasure of working with her at UNOS and she was always smiling and so kind. I will be praying for your entire family.
Leann was a friend through the dog training community, and we bonded over our meditation practices. She was a wise person and I miss being able to reach out to her for guidance or companionship from a like-minded person.
My love to all of you in Leann’s family, and to her friends. She was a bright light in this world.
There are no words to help with this loss. My condolences to the whole family. Leann was such an amazing person and soul! I know she will live on through all who had the pleasure of coming across her path in life. She will be dearly missed! Our family is so grateful that she was a part of our life. Love and comfort to all. 💗✨💞
I knew Leann through her mother Pat. Also she started the Meetup group for goldens. She was a compassionate young lady who left us way too soon. So sorry
Our hearts are broken and we still are in shock. Such a wonderful, kind, intelligent, incredible helper. You left this world a brighter place by having shared your light, Leann. Godspeed sweet one ❤️
My thoughts and prayers are with Leann. I know that she will be missed by everyone. My sympathies go out to Brandon and all of Leann’s family.
Rest in Peace Leann.
Leann, you inspired me to do and be better. My world is better for having had you in it.
My heart bleeds for you cousin. She was taken much to young. My thoughts are with you. I don’t pray. If I did it would be for you big boy..
I can not tell you how sorry I am for you and your families loss.
Brandon & Family,
Most sincerely you have my condolences. Brandon, I know you through our dealings in the work setting. Although I have never met Leann, it is very heartwarming to read of her kind and generous spirit. No doubt she was a gift to those who knew her and her work in soo many areas was a gift to those who didn’t know her.
God has blessed me to have two daughters that I did not give birth to. Leann was one of them. I loved her so very very much. Her loss is devastating and we will never be the same. She was a kind and caring soul who helped hundreds of people. I will miss her forever. Rest In Peace my sweet, sweet girl😢
I have no idea how to say goodbye to someone who was such an anchor for so many. She is missed beyond measure. I can never thank you enough for what you did for me, my dear friend.
Leann & Heidi were good childhood friends through our parents’ friendship, whom I’ve been in & out of touch with over the years because of long distance. My dad & their dad were fishing & flying buddies. I have only fond memories of them both, and was shocked & saddened to hear of Leann’s untimely passing. There are no words to ease this kind of pain & loss. I am thinking of you all & sending my love.
Much love and healing to Leann friends and families. I met Leann through the ACT community. We spoke several times, and she was planning on helping me with some book coaching. My husband developed COVID and was in the ICU several weeks before she died. She was so kind to check in and offer help and support. She was a lovely human whom I so wish I could have known more deeply and longer. It is such a tremendous shock. Yet it sounds like Leann lived every day as a gift. There are no words.
With deepest sympathy to Leann’s husband, Brandon and her family. Leann was extraordinary and truly beloved in the ACBS community. She will remain in our hearts and we will miss her in so many ways. We were fortunate to know her. May flights of angels sing her to her rest.
Leann, reading through all of the wonderful tributes and memories, I am so very very grateful to have known and worked with you, not once at Berkley Mid-Atlantic Group, but a second time when you returned to the Berkley family at Verus Underwriters. I remember having some great conversations with you in passing through our work day. Your passion and smile were such a gift, and will be truly missed. We are all so very fortunate to have had the honor of knowing and working with you. Your commitment to so many important causes, your love of books and dogs will continue to be an inspiration to all. Our world was a better place with you in it, thank you.
Rest in peace dear friend.
I am so deeply sorry for your loss. She seemed like a beautiful light in this sometimes dark world. My heart goes out to you in this very somber time. Please let Matt or me know if there is anything we can do.
I cannot remember how I got to know Leann because it seems a lifetime ago in internet years, but I am so glad we became online friends.
I run a group that now has over 6,000 coaches and from the start, Leann was an important and much-loved member. I don’t think I ever saw her post anything or leave any comment that didn’t improve the tone of the group. She always had time for others.
I cannot pay her a higher compliment as a human being than by saying I have ever been more upset by the passing of a person I never even talked to or met in-person. She is already being sadly missed and that will remain so.