Lisa Meehan is on a mission to reshape Amarillo College’s mortuary science program. As the program’s new director, she has taken steps to improve the program so it may regain accreditation from the American Board of Funeral Service Education.
“Funeral service is a calling, and I was called my sophomore year of college with my grandmother’s death,” Meehan said. “I went from pre-med to pre-dead.” Meehan was active in the Oklahoma Funeral Director’s Association and served as District II governor. She began teaching at AC in 2005 as a part-time online instructor. “I fell in love with teaching so much,” she said. “When a full-time position was needed in fall of 2006, I applied. “I was hired and moved with my three children here from Broken Arrow, Okla. I never have skipped a beat since the move.” The program, which recently moved to Allied Health, lost its accreditation Sept. 2 after the student exam scores fell below the minimum requirements. In order to maintain accreditation, “there are a number of qualifications that include curriculum content, faculty qualifications, financial ability of the institution to support the program, success on national board examinations, facilities and so forth,” said Dr. Michael Smith, executive director of ABFSE. Smith said AC’s outlook for the program is positive.
“I am optimistic that candidacy, the first step toward becoming accredited, will be approved at the April 2010 meeting of the committee on accreditation and that accreditation may be restored as early as October.” To strengthen the program, steps have been taken to ensure that no student who has not completed certain program-specific requirements be certified to take the National Board Exam. Meehan also plans to implement a point system to determine which students are eligible to enter the associate degree program.
“All students may enter the MRTS.CERT and on completion of that will make application to the MRTS.AAS,” Meehan said. “I have not finalized the exact point calculation, but it will, of course, be fair to all who apply.” In addition to curriculum and requirement adjustments, the facilities are getting a facelift.
“Currently, we are updating our cadaver lab and demonstration embalming room,” Meehan said. “I would eventually like to do more in regard to the hands-on experience for students. I hope that in the future, we may be able to have an active embalming facility as well as offer cremation certification.
“Right now, my main goal has been focusing on accreditation and taking care of students that were in the program prior to the accreditation loss.” Smith said the ABFSE “has taken care to ensure that students are protected when a program’s accreditation is lost. “That is, all students enrolled at the time accreditation is lost are considered throughout their remaining time in the program to be enrolled in an accredited program and, when they graduate, to have graduated from an accredited program. “However, the Texas Funeral Service Commission has taken the position that despite the ABFSE protection and despite the fact that students remain eligible for the National Board Examination, that there will be licensing restrictions on those students until such time as the program once again achieves accreditation.” “When the loss of accreditation happened, I put everything I could into helping the students and hopefully maintaining a much-needed program in this area,” Meehan said. Last semester, 124 students were enrolled in the certification and associate degree program combined. This semester, 99 are enrolled. Under the ABFSE, there are 57 accredited programs nationwide, three of which are in Texas. Those in the state include Commonwealth in Houston, San Antonio College and the Dallas Institute.
“Amarillo was the fourth,” Smith said, “and hopefully, soon will be the fourth again.”
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