"Serving with Integrity in Funeral Service Leadership"

 A dedicated funeral professional shares their experience serving on Virginia’s state board, highlighting the responsibility of upholding industry standards, ensuring accountability, and supporting ethical practices while collaborating with peers and advancing professional development. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:21

So in the past few years, you've had quite the opportunities with a few different things. So kind of walk us through how you got to that point, but also what kind of awards you got and uh currently what you're doing now.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Sure. Um so um of course you have state and national associations um that you can be a part of and you know, member of those. Um but uh in the last few years, uh I guess was back in 2022, um, Governor Yuncan appointed me to be on the state board of funeral directors and bombers for Virginia. And um there are uh funeral directors that are a part, and then there are two citizen members. Um and so having that opportunity has been uh tremendous. Um it's not always easy. Um being the board and a part of it, uh you have to uphold the rules and regulations. Um you have to have have the hard part of if if there's complaints from the public or things like that, we have to investigate. Um staff does an amazing job of of doing that. Um so sometimes there are hearings, you have to um bring down monetary penalties, um fines, you have to, um, sometimes suspension of license, things like that for a director, even in even funeral home establishments. Um so that's not always easy, but uh we have to be held accountable. Yeah um because the funeral industry there have been some bad apples and there's been a lot of issues, um sure most people have heard in in Georgia and the the cremations that did not happen and the bodies found in the in the uh in the yard of the funeral home, things like that. And there's so many things that have happened over the years that can give the funeral industry a bad name, and there are some bad uh funeral directors and and those that have done done completely wrong things, but there are a lot of good funeral directors, those that care, funeral homes that care about their families, and so we have to all myself included be held accountable. Yeah. So that's what the board does. Um, a lot of interesting cases, things like that. But um being able to do that and see what goes on behind the scenes as far as license, licensure um, you know, applications, uh, frigate in education um providers, uh things like that, that's really been a good experience to be a part of the board. Um and then through that, I've been able to go to the International Conference, uh, which is the uh company that makes and develops the national board exams. And so being able to see what goes on with that and how they come up with the exams, uh things like that has definitely been been interesting.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Wow. Wow, that's actually really neat. Wow. So uh you I know you had uh recently, I don't know if it's been the last few years, you had won some awards. So talk a little bit about that. Or am I right or am I wrong?

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Um no particular awards, just I thought you had. Just being um being a part of the board has definitely been been a thing. Um president of our local association as well. So that's probably what what it was. So uh doing that has uh you know definitely been a good experience as well. Um and and getting together to get ideas from other people um makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah. It's uh it's a quite the honor at a at a young age still, you know. There's you always can say there's plenty of qualified people, but when you're in this to be in those positions, it's definitely quite the honor.