Journey to Serve

Virtual Kick-Off Event

April 22, 2021 | 1:00 p.m. CST

Join us for a first look at this exciting initiative aimed at recruiting military veterans into the funeral service profession!

Keynote

Lisa Rosser, CEO of The Value of a Veteran will deliver a keynote on "Regard, Recruit, Retain: 5 Reasons That Hiring Veterans Makes Good Business Sense – And How to Find Great Hires.” Registered event attendees will receive a free PDF copy of Rosser’s book The Guide for Human Resource Professionals to Regarding, Recruiting & Retaining Military Veterans.

Moderators

Bob Arrington, founder and president of Arrington Funeral Directors in Jackson, Tennessee, and Jay Dodds, president & COO of Park Lawn Corporation will host the one-hour event, which will also showcase valuable recruiting tools and feature a question-and-answer session with Rosser.

Schedule of Events

• Journey to Serve Video World Premiere
• Bob Arrington & Jay Dodds Welcome
• Testimonials by Veterans Currently Working in Funeral Service
• Keynote Presentation by Lisa Rosser
• Recruiting Toolkit Debut
• Live Q & A

Meet your Keynote Speaker

Lisa Rosser, CEO and Founder of The Value of a Veteran

Lisa Rosser started The Value Of a Veteran in 2006, after recognizing an unmet need. At the time, the veteran unemployment rate was skyrocketing and there was an erroneous perception that the reason for that high unemployment rate was because veterans lacked skills that were valued in the civilian workplace.

“The men and women who serve their country and have successful military careers exhibit certain skills and traits – such as dedication, perseverance, and organizational ability – that are also well-suited to the funeral profession,” says Rosser, whose organization has helped more than 400 of the Fortune 1000 and many smaller organizations design and execute veteran recruitment and retention programs that get results.

Lisa combined her 22 years of military experience (both active Army and Army Reserve) with her 16 years of human resources / recruiting / diversity programs and training development experience and created training content specifically for recruiters, hiring managers and supervisors who wanted to improve recruitment and retention of veterans. The content was first deployed as a simple hiring guide in 2007 and quickly grew to include workshops, web seminars and consulting services.

Meet Your Moderators

Bob Arrington, Founder and President of Arrington Funeral Directors

Bob Arrington, CCO, founder and president of Arrington Funeral Directors in Jackson, Tennessee, is the immediate past president of Funeral Service Foundation, and served as the president of NFDA in 2015-2016.

“The veterans on staff at Arrington Funeral Directors bring value to our firm and comfort to the families we serve,” says Arrington, Funeral Service Foundation immediate past chair and 2015-16 NFDA past president. “We’re honored to have Ms. Rosser join us for this exciting event and help us learn how we can engage our military heroes in our profession.”

A first-generation funeral director, Arrington has been working in the funeral service profession for more than 50 years. He began his career helping out a neighbor’s funeral home after school and on weekends. After completing mortuary science school, he received his funeral director's license in 1978, and his embalmer's licenses in 1979. In 1995, he founded Arrington Funeral Directors.

Jay Dodds, President & COO of Park Lawn Corporation

Jay Dodds has over 37 years of experience in the funeral and cemetery profession. He holds a funeral director's and embalmer's licenses in both Texas and New Mexico. In addition, he is a certified cremation operator. Jay served as founder, owner and President & COO of the Signature Group. Prior to founding Signature, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of another U.S. publicly traded company, Park Lawn, where he served in a senior operations leadership role for 17 years.

"Encouraging military veterans to deploy their talents into all areas of our work benefits the entire profession,” says Dodds, ICCFA president, and Funeral Service Foundation trustee emeritus. “Professionals across the funeral service spectrum will find value in the program including cemeteries, cremation facilities, funeral homes, suppliers, mortuary science programs, and national, state and regional funeral associations.”

Over his career he has directly managed businesses in every region of the country. Jay currently serves as President of the International Cemetery Cremation and Funeral Association, Trustee Emeritus for the Funeral Service Foundation, Trustee of the ICCFA Educational Foundation and a board member of the Pierce Mortuary Colleges.

About Journey to Serve

Connecting mission-driven veterans to a profession that is driven by a mission to serve is at the heart of the joint collaboration between the ICCFA Educational Foundation and the Funeral Service Foundation. The two non-profit organizations have teamed up to launch “Journey to Serve,” an initiative aimed at recruiting veterans for employment throughout the deathcare profession.

Funded equally by both foundations, and endorsed by ICCFA and NFDA, the initiative features tools and resources to aid in veteran recruitment on a local, regional and national scale, available at JourneyToServe.com.