President & CEO at Johnson Consulting, Jake began his career at Keystone Group Holdings (now Dignity Memorial Network) as Associate Director, Corporate Development.  This job included financial analysis, bank and equity partner presentations, along with accounting and system setup with acquired funeral homes.  Jake then went on to work at Palm Mortuaries and Cemeteries in Las Vegas, NV which at the time handled 6,500 funeral home families and over 2,200 cemetery cases out of 6 locations.  There Jake conducted funeral directing, funeral arranging, funeral home management, cemetery operations management, and sat on the executive board.  Jake’s ability to problem solve business issues contributes to his success in currently owning a funeral home and cremation center in Sun City, Arizona along with a small-town funeral home in Batesville, IN. Jake’s education includes a BSBA degree in Management with an emphasis in Accounting and Financial Analysis from Xavier University. His foundation in accounting and EBITDA forecasting is complemented by technology savviness and management qualifications in business development and operations.  He is also a licensed REALTOR in Arizona and a Register Investment Advisor Representative and is currently a member of the Entrepreneur Organization (EO) Arizona Chapter. Jake is also a member-emeritus of the Funeral Service Foundation Board.

How to Enhance the Customer Experience and the Value it Brings to Your Organization

1 Hour, C CEU

Employee development and retention is key to the success of our business, ultimately maintaining or increasing the value of the business. In this presentation Jake covers customer experience (CX) culture and training, how to implement it, and how the impacts of improved customer service affect the value of business.

Objectives:

• How to improve your customer service culture through employee development and retention.
• The value customer experience (CX) brings to your business.
• How to measure a family’s satisfaction.
• What gets measured gets done!

Jenny Krulewich uses person-centered practices, empathy, and humor to help individuals and families enhance quality of life during challenging times. She believes our differences are strengths that support independence, safety, dignity, and happiness. Jenny holds a BSW from the University of Iowa and an MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her career began as a care manager and guardianship representative for individuals with developmental, intellectual, and physical disabilities. Since relocating from Chicago to Denver in 2015, she has served both private pay and Medicaid populations, supervised clinical staff, and managed agency operations. She has presented on care audits and elder care at Colorado Bar Association Elder Law Retreats. In her free time, Jenny enjoys biking, swimming, playing with her puppy, and exploring new foods and adventures with her family.

Aging with Dignity and Next Steps Beyond the Funeral

1 Hour, C CEU

This engaging seminar provides a roadmap for securing dignity, protection, and peace of mind in later years — and guidance for the critical steps following a funeral. From an elder law perspective, we explore three essential pillars: estate planning, guardianship and conservatorship, and life care planning.

Building on these foundations, we turn to the often-overlooked responsibilities after death, including navigating probate, administering trusts, and honoring a loved one’s final wishes. Attendees will gain actionable insights, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of how to support families with professionalism, compassion, and confidence.

Rory has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer for over 30 years. Since 2013, Rory has served as a sales representative with The Dodge Company, covering Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Rory spent much of his funeral directing and embalming career in the Chicago area.

Meeting Families Requests with Formaldehyde Free Embalming.

1 Hour, A CEU

Taking the opportunity to serve families with most any reasonable request needs to be part of our plan if we want to survive in a changing market. We will discuss procedure, cosmetics, and presentation of formaldehyde free embalming along  how to bridge the gap between immediate, or viewing prior to ground burial, human composting and alkaline hydrolysis.

Terri Waibel, LCSW, FT is a licensed psychotherapist & certified Fellow in Thanatology who has been working and volunteering in the field of social work for over 20 years. Terri is the founder and clinical director of Center for Compassion, a multi-provider therapy practice located in Chandler, Arizona whose primary focus is supporting the traumatically bereaved after the death of a beloved person. Center for Compassion is creating a more compassionate world so that no person has limited support for grief, trauma, or suffering. Terri is also the founder of the Southwest Institute for Grief and Trauma Studies, an education and training body that focuses on closing the gap in grief education for helping professionals. Terri is simultaneously honored and heartbroken to be present with grievers and proud to call herself a grief activist. She devotes herself to this work in memory of her brother and her beloved daughter, Kyndrid.

“Our Hearts Matter Too: Mitigating Compassion Fatigue in Death Care Work”

In this session, we will explore the often-overlooked emotional toll that death care workers experience and the profound impact of compassion fatigue on their well-being. Those who dedicate themselves to providing end-of-life care—whether in hospice, funeral services, or other death-related professions—are deeply impacted by the emotional weight of their work. While they offer critical support to grieving families and individuals during some of life’s most challenging moments, their own emotional and psychological health can often be compromised.

This presentation will focus on identifying, managing, and mitigating compassion fatigue in death care professionals through both research-based approaches and practical strategies. We will introduce the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) Scale, a tool designed to assess the balance between compassion satisfaction (the positive feelings derived from helping others) and compassion fatigue (the emotional toll caused by prolonged exposure to others’ suffering). Participants will learn how to assess their own professional quality of life and use this tool to better understand their emotional responses to their work.

In addition, we will explore practical strategies for building emotional resilience, creating boundaries, and fostering well-being through self-care. Attendees will be guided in the creation of a personalized self-care plan, focusing on both short-term coping strategies and long-term practices to maintain mental and emotional health.

1 Hour, C CEU