AAMI Newsletter — Pioneers & Independence (Issue No. 11)
Preparing compassionate professionals for the world’s most dignified, AI-proof career.
Welcome to this new issue of the AAMI Newsletter. We promise not to clutter your inbox — only updates once or twice a month on all things AAMI. In this edition:
The Humanity Premium: Why Funeral Service Defies AI
Fall Semester Starts in Aug (Apply By Jul 17)
The Big Story: Pioneers of the Profession: Charting Your Course in Funeral Service
Hot Topics (Quick headlines)
As automation reshapes the global labor market, professionals are searching for future-proof careers rooted in human trust and presence. While artificial intelligence excels at administrative paperwork and logistics, it completely falls short in moments requiring genuine emotional awareness.
Funeral service stands apart as a uniquely AI-resistant profession because its very foundation relies on compassion and real-time empathy. Supporting a grieving family requires an experienced human touch that no algorithm can replicate.
The numbers reflect this enduring stability:
Steady Job Growth: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment for funeral service workers to grow 4% through 2034, driven heavily by an aging population and retirement-driven openings.
Macro Demand: This demographic shift is massive - by 2030, nearly 1 in 5 Americans will be aged 65 or older.
Market Resilience: Driven by these trends, the global funeral services market has expanded to $79.93 billion in 2026, with projections climbing to $119.38 billion by 2032.
Technology can streamline the paperwork, but it will never replace the human heart.
A degree geared for Job Security. Steady Income. Personal Integrity.
It takes one minute to apply. We saw our highest application numbers in years during our summer enrollment season. Why? Because our graduates enter an AI-proof career with a 90% employment rate.
Apply now and secure your seat for the fall semester.
The Big Story
When Dr. John McAllister founded the McAllister School of Embalming in 1926, he did so with a singular conviction: that funeral service deserved rigorous, scientific education. This wasn’t a natural choice. After graduating from Albany Medical College and spending years as a pathologist, coroner’s physician, and anatomist studying under Europe’s finest minds, McAllister had options. He could have remained in prestigious medical circles. Instead, he saw a gap that no one else was willing to fill. The funeral service profession had no standards, no rigor, no framework for real excellence.
So he built one.
That decision—charting an entirely new course for an entire field when doing so offered no conventional reward—matters because it shaped everything that followed. It shaped your institution. More importantly, it shaped a profession built on the principle that standards matter, that education matters, that people matter enough to do this work right.
McAllister’s example raises a question you should ask yourself: What does my profession actually need, and am I willing to build it? That question has echoed through a century of funeral professionals who answered it differently, each time.
The history of funeral service belongs to people who refused to accept the path handed to them.
William Banting rose to prominence as the official funeral director to the British Royal Household, conducting services for kings and queens. A position of significant prestige and security. After retirement, he pursued an entirely different calling: he became obsessed with diet and health, publishing research on low-carbohydrate living that would later inspire the Atkins revolution. He didn’t stay in his lane because the lane was comfortable. He recognized that his true passion lay elsewhere. Banting teaches us that charting your own course sometimes means leaving the applause behind.
English undertaker, William Banting (1796-1878)
Beginning in 1840, Seth G. Tufts opened his first Carriage and Undertaker business in the heart of Maineville, Ohio. By 1870, at the height of his success, he handed it to his son. Not out of retirement or decline, but out of conviction. He wanted to invent. He wanted to solve problems others hadn’t seen. So he did, filing multiple patents and creating the first foldable undertaker chair; innovations that rippled far beyond funeral service itself. Independence meant knowing when to walk away from what was working in order to pursue what truly mattered.
Founded one of oldest funeral homes in the United States in 1840, S.G. Tufts (1796-1878)
Today’s practitioners continue the legacy of pioneering and independence. Laura Sussman, of Kraft-Sussman Funeral and Cremation Service, helped make alkaline hydrolysis—known as aquamation—a legal option for Nevada residents. A respected Las Vegas funeral director, she recognized families’ growing interest in gentler, greener alternatives to flame cremation and worked to bring that choice to her community. Aquamation uses roughly 90% less energy than flame cremation, produces zero direct emissions or toxic gases, and yields about 20% more cremated remains—giving Nevada families a meaningful new way to honor their loved ones.
Laura Sussman, of Kraft-Sussman Funeral Services
AAMI graduate Joanna Boccio has made history as the first female assistant manager at Frank E. Campbell – The Funeral Church, the renowned firm on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Since its founding, Frank E. Campbell has set the standard for compassionate funeral service in New York City, building its reputation on the founding belief that every family deserves dignified, courteous care regardless of background, faith, or means. Over more than a century, the firm has served families from every walk of life, including dignitaries, royalty, and celebrated figures from the arts and entertainment world.
Frank E. Campbell - The Funeral Church in New York City
As you move forward in your career, whatever that looks like, remember this. The education you received wasn’t designed to lock you into a single path. It was designed to equip you for whatever path you choose to build. Choose it with intention. Own it and be proud of it.
You have the education. You have the tools. Now, chart your course.
✍️ AAMI Blog: Can You Work During Mortuary School? - Read Now
💻 NFDA: NFDA Broadens Music Licensing for Funeral Homes - Learn More
🏅NFDA: Apply Now for Pursuit of Excellence Awards – Apply by Jul 15
📅Leadership Conference: National Funeral Directors Assn. - Attend Aug 2-5
