River Bauman Staines

Born in Los Angeles, CA, River grew up in Lexington, MA. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she started her career in digital marketing for music. River received an MBA at NYU Stern School of Business and spent two years as a consultant at McKinsey. She then founded the holistic consulting business Clear Resonance Lab.

River traveled to 40 countries and lived in 10 of them. She wrote 8 books. She documented her cancer journey through her Substack blog, “Rebellion Just by Existing.” But her proudest achievement was her music. She wrote over 200 songs, nine of which she recorded. Her song “Better (The Chemo Song)” has comforted many fellow cancer patients in the Boston area. She released her EP “Notes from the Liminal Space” in the weeks prior to her death.

River is survived by her mother, Linda Kames; father, Edward Bauman; brother, Alexander Bauman; sister-in-law, Lauren Bauman; nephew, Oscar Bauman; ex-husband, Josh Staines; and their dog, Kaia.

Services are private. If you would like to honor River, please listen to her music by searching “River Ayla” on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, or YouTube; and/or make a donation in River’s memory to the Ehlers-Danlos Clinical Research Program at www.bu.edu/holickehlersdanlosfund