diff --git a/taskflow/engines/action_engine/executor.py b/taskflow/engines/action_engine/executor.py
index 5d063c5b..b1e969d0 100644
--- a/taskflow/engines/action_engine/executor.py
+++ b/taskflow/engines/action_engine/executor.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import abc
 import functools
 import multiprocessing
+from multiprocessing import managers
 import os
 import pickle
 import threading
@@ -120,17 +121,20 @@ class _JoinedWorkItem(object):
         self._args = args
         self._kwargs = kwargs
 
+    def _on_finish(self):
+        w = timing.StopWatch()
+        w.start()
+        self._queue.join()
+        LOG.blather("Waited %0.2f seconds until task '%s' emitted"
+                    " notifications were depleted", w.elapsed(), self._task)
+
     def __call__(self):
         args = self._args
         kwargs = self._kwargs
         try:
             return self._func(self._task, *args, **kwargs)
         finally:
-            w = timing.StopWatch().start()
-            self._queue.join()
-            LOG.blather("Waited %0.2f seconds until task '%s' emitted"
-                        " notifications were depleted", w.elapsed(),
-                        self._task)
+            self._on_finish()
 
 
 class _EventSender(object):
@@ -231,6 +235,8 @@ class _EventDispatcher(object):
 
     def reset(self):
         self._stop_when_empty = False
+        while self._targets:
+            self.deregister(self._targets.pop())
         self._dead.clear()
 
     def interrupt(self):
@@ -396,16 +402,25 @@ class ParallelProcessTaskExecutor(ParallelTaskExecutor):
         super(ParallelProcessTaskExecutor, self).__init__(
             executor=executor, max_workers=max_workers)
         self._manager = multiprocessing.Manager()
-        self._queue_factory = lambda: self._manager.JoinableQueue()
         self._dispatcher = _EventDispatcher(
             dispatch_periodicity=dispatch_periodicity)
         self._worker = None
 
+    def _queue_factory(self):
+        return self._manager.JoinableQueue()
+
     def _create_executor(self, max_workers=None):
         return futures.ProcessPoolExecutor(max_workers=max_workers)
 
     def start(self):
         super(ParallelProcessTaskExecutor, self).start()
+        # TODO(harlowja): do something else here besides accessing a state
+        # of the manager internals (it doesn't seem to expose any way to know
+        # this information)...
+        if self._manager._state.value == managers.State.SHUTDOWN:
+            self._manager = multiprocessing.Manager()
+        if self._manager._state.value == managers.State.INITIAL:
+            self._manager.start()
         if not threading_utils.is_alive(self._worker):
             self._dispatcher.reset()
             self._worker = threading_utils.daemon_thread(self._dispatcher.run)
@@ -418,6 +433,8 @@ class ParallelProcessTaskExecutor(ParallelTaskExecutor):
             self._worker.join()
             self._worker = None
         self._dispatcher.reset()
+        self._manager.shutdown()
+        self._manager.join()
 
     def _rebind_task(self, task, clone, queue, progress_callback=None):
         # Creates and binds proxies for all events the task could receive