By Sara A. Giustino (MCCC Funeral Service Program Director)

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston S. Churchill

I never much cared for writing about myself, so I’ll keep this part succinct.

Since 2009, I’ve worked as a funeral director in both private and corporate funeral homes throughout the state. For 12 of those years, I taught as an adjunct professor in the Mercer County Community College Funeral Service Program.

As of the new year, I have been appointed to the humbling position of program director, with the obligation of overseeing students in the funeral service program and ensuring all standards in accordance with the American Board of Funeral Service Education are upheld.

The opportunity to support and foster the future of our profession is not one to be taken lightly. I give my solemn word to each of you that I will carry out this role with attention, care and respect for what we do every day.

However, the responsibility to shape the future of our profession requires more than just a professor, colleague, preceptor or program director. Slightly fewer than two thirds of the students who are enrolled at MCCC come from a family of funeral directors (some being second, third, or fourth generation). Most are the first in their families to seek professional and personal fulfilment through funeral service. This means that most funeral service students have never worked in a funeral home in any capacity. Let that sink in.

For this reason, it has become clear that my first order of business should be to implement a Mentorship Program. The Mentorship Program is the first of its kind in funeral service education. Each student will be assigned a designated mentor, responsible for fostering trust, guidance and overall professional development as they begin their funeral courses.

While each student is required to register as an intern and report to their preceptor through the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey, a mentor serves as the listening ear and support system, meant to boost professional understanding and taper students’ inaccurate expectations. Further, and most importantly, a mentor provides students with an outlet of confidentiality and trust. Being the primary resource for a student who may feel uncomfortable posing questions to a manager or owner is a sacred responsibility.

To pilot this important program, mentors must be graduates of the MCCC Funeral Service Program who have graduated on or before 2020. Further, mentors must be willing to respect confidentiality and perpetuate the ethical and professional standards of the deathcare industry. Lastly, it is imperative that all mentors are committed to the future of funeral service by way of progressive thinking and a steadfast dedication to developing their mentee and themselves.

The downloadable details of the mentorship program can be found here. I humbly ask that if you are interested in expanding professionalism, understanding and guidance through the future of funeral service, to please contact me through giustinos@mccc.edu.

In our bonds through service, as caretakers and as community leaders, I look forward to positioning the MCCC Funeral Service program in the forefront of funeral service education. In addition to our successful anatomical donation program and working preparation room, our mentorship program will begin a foundational standard for funeral service education. With your trust and commitment to success, we will keep our profession in the highest esteem–where it belongs.

The information contained in this column is a report of the actions taken by the board members who were present during the open public session portion of the meeting only. It is not a transcript of the official board minutes or an official record of attendance. It does not address board member attendance or actions taken during the executive session that typically follows the open session and is closed to the public.

January 6, 2026

Members Present

Charles F. Bechtold, CFSP, President; Bruce Van Tassel, Secretary; Gregory Aseltta; Peter Chubenko; Garrett C. Jones; Aladar Komjathy; Curtis Macysyn; Eleanor Rudolph; Kara Whigham.

Executive Staff Present

Quin Archer, Executive Director; Dan Roman, Deputy Attorney General; Tom Giordano, State Investigator.

Public

George R. Kelder Jr., CFSP, Samantha L. Link and Jonathan R. Bender, New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association; and nine members of the public were present.

Executive Director’s Report

The Board received 14 complaints in December for a total of 66 complaints received in 2025.

February 20, 2026 is the next scheduled Jurisprudence Examination.

Applications

The credential application of Helen Andrews was approved.

Approved Internships

• Lonnie Clark, The Family Funeral Home LLC
• Thomas Costello, Costello-Greiner Funeral Home
• Dominic Eosso, Old Bridge Funeral Home
• Lauren Gryskevicz, Quinn Hopping Funeral Home
• Ruben Marrero, Lowenstein-Saraceno Funeral Home
• Ashley Pierri, AK Macagna Funeral Home
• Julianne Pracko, Bordentown Home for Funerals
• Kaylie Reeves, Krowicki McCracken Funeral Home
• Quincy Ruffin, Charles A. West Funeral & Cremation Service LLC

New Licensees

By Application

• Jianelle Rodriguez
• Delon Chung

Licensed by Application for 2025: 22
Licensed by Credentials for 2025: 9

New Funeral Home Registrations

• Mark C. Tilghman Funeral Home, Maple Shade; Manager, Patrick Daley

The Board registered one mortuary in December and 24 mortuaries in 2025.

Continuing Education Report

The Board approved the courses listed on the meeting agenda, with several exceptions, and will post the approved courses on the Board’s website under the licensee tab.

Correspondence

• Dustin Wardlow, Examination Program Director, provided the Board with a copy of International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards’ 2026 Annual Letter of Understanding, which outlines their policy and procedures for the National Board Examination.
• The Board was sent a copy of the Attorney General’s failure-to-cooperate rule language. The Board took no position on the matter.

Disciplinary Actions

• The following licensees accepted Settlement Offers for violations of N.J.A.C.13:36-10.3, failure to complete the minimum requirement of 10 continuing education credits for the 2021-2023 licensing period. Each licensee was ordered to pay a civil penalty in the amount of $100 per incomplete credit, up to $1,000, and make up the missing credits within two months of the settlement offer: Steven Thiele, Donald Kenworthy, Pasquale Megaro and John McKnight.
• A settlement offer was accepted by George Layton III, manager of Layton Funeral Home, for violation of N.J.A.C. 13:36-6A (a) and (b). The violation occurred when Layton failed to renew the certificate of registration for the Layton Funeral Home for the 2023-2025 registration period and continued providing mortuary services. Layton has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1,500 for the violation.
• A final consent order has been issued against Daniel R. Simone Jr., CFSP, for violation of N.J.S.A. 45:1-21(e). Mr. Simone failed to properly identify a decedent prior to cremation which led to the wrong cremation of another decedent. It is also alleged that Simone engaged in unprofessional communications with the decedent’s next of kin, including sending the decedents remains to her without authorization. Simone settled the matter and is ordered to pay civil penalties in the amount of $10,000, with $5,000 of the penalty being stayed. Simone’s license has also been suspended for a period of four months. The suspension has also been stayed and will be served as a period of probation.

Public Comment

Adam Guziejewski of Katz Government Affairs, on behalf of SCI/Dignity Memorial advised the Board that new legislation has been introduced that pertains to the funeral industry. Assembly Bill No. 6308, the “Safe Communities Act” would require the Attorney General’s Office to develop model policies on how certain locations interact with federal civil law enforcement to ensure that people have access to vital services including funeral homes.

Next Board Meeting

The Board moved into Executive Session at 9:44 a.m. and noted that the next Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom.

Archeologists believe they have discovered the earliest known instance of adult cremation. A hospital mortuary in Malaysia allegedly was run by gangsters. And a writer explores which method of disposition is the most environmentally friendly. These stories and more are in the week in funeral news.

NEWS

Archaeologists Discover the Earliest Confirmed Adult Cremation
By Michelle Starr (Science Alert)
In an ancient rock shelter in the heart of Malawi, archaeologists have found the world's oldest evidence of a funeral pyre for an adult. The charred remains, 9,500 years old, reveal that the deceased was a woman aged between 18 and 60 years old when she died, and that her body was carefully prepared for cremation on a large pyre that burned for many hours. This took place as part of a deliberate funerary ritual at a site that had already served as a place for death rites for at least 8,000 years. Read more here.

After Cemetery Sold the Same Plot Twice, a Burial Is Undone
By Tony Schick (OPB)
Paula Tin Nyo sobbed as three men dug shovels into the cemetery ground where she’d buried a vault with her 20-year-old son’s keepsakes, baby teeth and umbilical cord, along with some of his ashes. She had buried them there four years ago not knowing the funeral company had sold her a gravesite that already belonged to someone else. Now, after a lengthy court case, a judge had ordered the vault removed. Read more here.

U.S. Removal of Panels Honoring Black WWII Soldiers Buried in Netherlands Sparks Anger
By Kevin Damask (Military.com)
The removal of two memorial displays at an American cemetery in the Netherlands honoring Black veterans who helped liberate Europe from Nazi rule has drawn the ire of many. Last spring, the American Battle Monuments Commission, which manages memorial sites outside U.S. soil, took down the panels from the visitors’ center at the cemetery in Margraten where nearly 8,300 American troops are buried. Read more here.

Hospital Mortuary in Malaysia “Dominated” by Gangsters, Says Ex-Doctor
By Anne Muhammad (MSN)
A former doctor has alleged that a gang, acting as agents for funeral services, has “dominated” the mortuary of a public hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia. The former civil servant who asked to be known as Johan said that gang members often showed up as soon as a death was reported in the emergency department or hospital wards, sometimes even before the death was officially confirmed. Read more here.

TRENDS

Cremation or Casket? Here’s the Most Eco-Friendly Burial Option
By Jennifer Byrne (Popular Science)
Most of us try to be responsible global citizens while we’re alive. We sort recyclables. We avoid fast fashion. We try to be good sports as we sip from soggy paper straws. After a lifetime of trying to put things in the right bin, we eventually arrive at the ultimate recycling dilemma: what to do with our bodies after we die. And with several new “eco-friendly” body disposition methods now available, it’s almost enough to cause decision fatigue. So, what is the most environmentally friendly option for handling human remains? Despite all the new technology, experts say there’s one clear answer, and it’s surprisingly old-school. Read more here.

Cremation Overtakes Burial as People Rethink Death, Cost and Tradition
By Trib Live
A generation ago, burial was the default and cremation the exception. Today, the roles are rapidly reversing. By 2035, 80 percent of Americans will opt for cremation over burial, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. That’s a stunning figure, considering that just 55 years ago, only 5 percent of people chose cremation over burial. Attitudes towards “final disposition” have undergone significant changes in recent years, and funeral directors attribute these shifts to several sweeping social factors. Read more here.

Deaths from drug overdoses in New Jersey have plunged between 2023 and 2025, marking a decided shift in the long upward trend of drug deaths in the state.

Through November 2025, there were 1,208 unconfirmed drug deaths recorded in New Jersey, which is nearly half the number registered in 2023, when 2,391 deaths were reported through November, according to figures from the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner. In 2024, 1,711 deaths were reported through November.

As more data becomes available, those figures will likely be revised upward, but the drop in drug deaths has been precipitous by any metric. For example, in 2022, 3,171 confirmed unintentional drug overdoses were recorded in New Jersey, according to data from the New Jersey State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System. By 2023, that confirmed number had dropped to 2,816.

The data shows that drug deaths decreased among all ethnic groups. White, Black, Latino and Asian populations all saw fewer deaths from overdoses between 2022 and 2023, with Whites seeing a drop of more than 16 percent, the greatest decrease among any ethnic or racial group.

The encouraging numbers are the result of a years-long effort in New Jersey to combat drug deaths, which began spiking dramatically in 2015, according to state health experts and political leaders.

“New Jersey has been doing a lot of things all at once over the last several years, and I think we’re starting to see the payoff,” Stephen Crystal, the director for the Center for Health Services Research at Rutgers University, told NJ.com in March 2025, when the decrease between 2022 and 2023 was first noticed.

Harm Reduction Centers, mandated by the state’s 2022 Syringe Access Law, are now located in all 21 New Jersey counties. Naloxone, a drug that can quickly counteract the effects of certain overdoses, is widely available. According to NJ CARES, a state agency created to oversee New Jersey’s fight against drug addiction, 8,844 doses of naloxone were administered between January 1 and October 31, 2025.

While the decrease is a cause for optimism, the tragedy of drug overdose deaths has not disappeared. Between December 22 and December 28, 2025, for example, 20 unconfirmed drug deaths occurred, according to the state Medical Examiner. Half of those reported cases were White, while seven were Black and three were Hispanic. Men are still more likely to die of overdoses than women, according to statistics.

Drug deaths also remain disproportionally high among Blacks and Hispanics, according to the data. The numbers for those ethnic groups are “unacceptably high,” according to a press release from the office of Governor Phil Murphy.

“Substance use disorders were also the leading cause of pregnancy-associated deaths in New Jersey, driving maternal mortality,” the release stated.

George R. Kelder Jr., CFSP

If there’s one thing last year made abundantly clear, it’s this: Ignoring reality does not slow it down. It just ensures we’re unprepared when it arrives.

We learned that change doesn’t always come with a warning label or a polite explanation. Sometimes it shows up in the form of new laws, new licensees, new expectations from families and new conversations that make people uncomfortable. And instead of asking why those changes are happening, too many of us often jump straight to why we don’t like them. Which, to be fair, is faster than learning something new; it’s just not nearly as productive.

That response may be human, but it’s not particularly helpful.

Last year also reminded us that hearing only part of the story is a dangerous habit. When information is incomplete, reactions tend to be loud, emotional and confidently wrong. We saw it play out repeatedly when concerns were raised before details were understood and conclusions were drawn before questions were asked, with frustration aimed in every direction except the one that might actually solve the problem.

We learned that transparency works both ways. Leadership has an obligation to communicate clearly, but members also have an obligation to listen–not selectively, not impatiently and not with the sole purpose of confirming what they already believe. Listening to understand is different from listening to react, even if the two get confused.

We also learned the profession is changing whether we like it or not. The number of competent new licensees is not increasing significantly. Expectations around service, communication and accountability are evolving. Families are more informed, more vocal and less willing to accept “that’s how it’s always been done” as a sufficient explanation. None of this is a threat unless we treat it like one.

What 2025 made painfully clear is that the future of funeral service will not be preserved by gatekeeping, nostalgia or resistance. It will be sustained by mentorship, professionalism, adaptability and a willingness to let go of practices that no longer serve the families who rely on us.

We also learned that there is no such thing as a “quiet” year in funeral service. There are only different kinds of busy, different pressures and different versions of the same responsibility: showing up for people on what may be the worst day of their lives. That responsibility doesn’t pause for holidays, personal fatigue or our collective discomfort with change.

And finally, last year reminded us that honesty still matters. Honest conversations. Honest assessments of what’s working and what isn’t. Honest acknowledgment that sometimes the frustration we feel is less about policy or progress and more about uncertainty. Uncomfortable? Yes. Fatal? No.

So, as we step into 2026, let’s not pretend we didn’t learn these lessons. Let’s not repeat the same arguments, the same misunderstandings or the same resistance out of habit. Growth doesn’t require abandoning our values; it requires applying them to the reality in front of us, not the one we remember fondly.

The year ahead will bring more change. That’s a certainty. Whether it brings progress is entirely up to how willing we are to learn from what last year already tried to teach us.

Ryan Buckland, President

The start of a new year provides a chance for people to reassess their lives and improve themselves.

Throughout the year, your choices lead to your trajectory, affecting both the path and the quality of your own personal growth. Decisions can be grouped into two distinct categories–the choice between a positive or a negative outcome, with each choice having its own set of consequences which then go on to shape that person’s experiences in life.

Individuals who form positive New Year's resolutions find themselves growing personally and begin to feel a sense of fulfillment. Setting goals that we form gives the ability to achieve greatness, which also aligns with personal objectives and beliefs that help to build purpose and an internal drive. By concentrating on personal relationships, enhancing one's physical condition or developing life skills, a person can open themselves up to the potential for growth and success.

By adopting such an attitude, individuals are able to cultivate resilience and a growth mindset. This mindset means people will see challenges as opportunities to learn. Setting and meeting goals has a direct impact on an individual's self-esteem. This leads to increased confidence in their capabilities.

Negative choices are detrimental to personal growth as they can create feelings of frustration and inadequacy. If unrealistic expectations are embedded in the resolutions we make, then a cycle of disappointment is likely to follow. This cycle may cause our resolve to be weakened. Setting a goal, for instance, to reach a certain weight or to earn a specific amount of money, based on the requirements of others rather than personal goals, may give rise to an unhealthy preoccupation with self-esteem.

Making such choices can ultimately lead to individuals experiencing a lower level of fulfillment in life. This happens because individuals get caught up in a pattern of self-destructive behavior and of regret. Negative thought patterns can develop into a cycle which prevents individuals from making progress and achieving their goals.

In addition to the initial scenario, the choices regarding the pursuit of a resolution extend to the actions taken to maintain the commitment to such resolutions throughout the year. A conducive environment for personal development can be promoted through forming supportive relationships, holding oneself accountable and learning to pardon oneself when things go wrong. The significance lies not only with the terms of the agreement, but also with the choices which led to it.

Setting New Year's resolutions has far-reaching effects on personal growth and happiness. In instances where decisions turn out to be positive, the outcome can be an increase in self-esteem and self-actualization. On the contrary, choices that have a negative outcome can result in reduced self-esteem and stagnation.

The way people make these choices really determines how their year unfolds and the kind of personal growth they will experience, thereby highlighting the relationship between goals and goals attainment as a means to achieve personal satisfaction.

As we kick off 2026, let us all set the bar high. Dream new dreams, establish new goals and foster within us a better understanding of life and how to navigate through it on a daily basis.