January 2019

Page A24 JANUARY 2019 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A Hydraulic Body Lift $1074 1-800-604-9576 info@imsmail.com Slider Board Regular $99.95 Oversized $119.95 Crematory Scissor Lift Hydraulic $2795 Battery Operated $3600 Hydraulic Oversized Embalming Table $2795 Cantilever Rack 3 Tier $874 4 Tier $1024 5 Tier $1174 End Loading Mortuary Roller Rack 3 Tier - $1089 4 Tier - $1364 News Educational ContinueD Meg Dunn to Retire as President of American Academy McAllister Institute NEW YORK,NY— Amer- ican Academy McAllis- ter Institute of Funeral Service (AAMI) president Mary Margaret “Meg” Dunn announced she is re- tiring on December 31. An innovator, Dunn has led the nation’s largest mortu- ary science school for the last 24 years and created the school’s groundbreaking distance learning program. In all, Dunn has been with AAMI for 34 years. Executive vice president Dr. George P. Connick will serve as interim presi- dent as of New Year’s Day. Dunn will remain on the AAMI faculty and as a con- sultant to the school, as well as a member of the board of trustees. “It has been an amaz- ing journey for me. I start- ed as a part-time instruc- tor in 1984, then went on to be dean of students, ex- ecutive vice president and president,” Dunn said in an email to faculty and staff announcing her retirement. “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with each and ev- ery one of you and appre- ciated all the opportunities that AAMI has given me. I look forward to many more years of association with AAMI as a consultant and especially as a faculty mem- ber.” Dr. Connick said: “I’m honored to have worked so closely with Meg and seen first-hand how she’s led and nurtured the nation’s finest funeral school in the coun- try. I look forward to work- ing with Meg and the rest of AAMI’s tremendous fac- ulty and staff to ensure not only a seamless transition, but to see that AAMI con- tinues to find the best ways to educate the next genera- tion of America’s funeral di- rectors.” With Dunn’s leadership, in 2005 AAMI created an online learning program that allowed the school to dramatically expand en- rollment and within five years become the largest fu- neral school in the United States. AAMI is the oldest and only funeral school in the New York metropolitan area. Dunn also implement- ed dozens of initiatives that made AAMI more acces- sible for students to attend. Those included replacing the school’s mandatory full- time, block-schedule pro- gram with a part-time, flexi- ble schedule on-campus and online. Current and future students may choose from five attendance options: full- time or part-time on cam- pus, full-time or part-time online, or a hybrid of on campus and online. Dunn, whose family has been in the funeral business since 1907, is a fourth-gen- eration funeral director. As an educator, she has educat- ed and trained more than 2,200 current and future funeral directors. Dr. Connick joined AAMI in 2006 as a con- sultant to help develop the school’s online program and was appointed execu- tive vice president in 2012. A graduate of Stanford Uni- versity, he earned an M.A. from San Jose State Univer- sity and his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. During a 31-year associa- tion with the University of Maine System, Dr. Con- nick served as an assistant professor, vice president for academic affairs at the Uni- versity of Southern Maine, nine years as president of the University of Maine at Augusta and three years as founder and president of the Education Network of Maine, the statewide dis- tance learning network of the University of Maine System (since re-named University College). Over the past four de- cades, Dr. Connick has consulted for more than 50 institutions in 25 states on issues related to distance learning and accreditation. He has also consulted in Canada, Puerto Rico, Eng- land and Ireland. From 1985 to 2001, Dr. Connick served as a team chair for 42 American Board of Funeral Service Educa- tion (ABFSE) accreditation teams and was a member of the Committee on Ac- creditation. He served as ABFSE’s executive director from 2001 to 2006 and is a former chair of the Na- tional Advisory Panel for the Office of Technology Assessment of the United States Congress.  American Academy McAllister Institute of Fu- neral Service offers its fu- neral service associate de- gree program online and on-campus and students may attend either full- time or part-time. Physical- ly located on Manhattan’s West Side and accredit- ed by the American Board of Funeral Service Edu- cation (ABFSE), AAMI has been the nation’s lead- er in funeral service educa- tion for over 90 years. For more information, visit www.aami.edu. Digital Directory Now Available 1-800-321-7479 Only $125.00 Visit www.nomispublications.com Read the Funeral Home & Cemetery News Electronic Version Search the Online Directories L i k e Us On Facebook!