SPEAKER BIOS

Opening Remarks

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter was sworn in as a Federal Trade Commissioner on May 2, 2018. Commissioner 

Slaughter has extensive experience in competition, privacy, and consumer protection. She builds 

consensus for a progressive vision, and staunchly advocates for our nation’s consumers and workers. 

Commissioner Slaughter believes that the FTC’s dual missions of promoting competition and protecting 

consumers are interconnected and complementary, and she is mindful that enforcement or rulemaking 

in one arena can have far-reaching implications for the other. A proponent of greater resources, 

transparency, and comprehensive use of the FTC’s authorities, Commissioner Slaughter is outspoken 

about the growing threats to competition and the broad abuse of consumers’ data. Targeted merger 

retrospectives, corrective enforcement, and expansion of the Commission’s rulemaking authorities are 

among the approaches that she has championed during her time at the FTC. Along with advocating for 

consumers, particularly those traditionally underrepresented and marginalized, Commissioner 

Slaughter strongly supports working families and work-life balance.

Panel 1: Online Disclosures: Is it Needed? The Pros/Cons

Rebecca Plett is an attorney in the Division of Marketing Practices of the Federal Trade Commission’s 

Bureau of Consumer Protection. Her primary duties involve enforcement and policy matters, including 

serving as a co-coordinator of the FTC’s Funeral Rule program. Before coming to the FTC, Rebecca

worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where she focused on consumer financial 

protection regulations and compliance with those regulations. She received her undergraduate degree 

from East Carolina University and her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Lacyn Barton is Manager of Funeral Revenue and Merchandising for Service Corporation International. 

SCI’s more than 1,300 funeral service locations care for over 300,000 families per year. Lacyn has 

worked over 20 years as a licensed funeral director and embalmer in many areas of the country and 

she leverages that experience in her current role supporting the pricing and merchandising needs of 

nearly 400 funeral homes in North America and Puerto Rico. She serves on the Virginia Board of 

Funeral Directors and Embalmers and on the Board of Directors for the International Conference of 

Funeral Service Examining Boards as District 2 Director representing Delaware, District of Columbia, 

Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Shopping for Funeral Services

Dr. Hari P. Close, II is the Chairman of the Board for the National Funeral Directors & Morticians 

Association, where he previously was the longest-serving President. He is a certified funeral service 

practitioner and owns and operates his own funeral home in in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Close has 

served in a variety of positions in the death care industry, including as the President of the Maryland 

State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors. Dr. Close has served as a Professor of Mortuary 

Science and is deeply invested in the education and professional growth of young professionals in the 

death care industry.

Chris Farmer is General Counsel for the National Funeral Directors Association, the world's leading and 

largest funeral service association, serving more than 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 

11,000 funeral homes in the United States and abroad, and founder of The Farmer Firm in Houston, 

Texas. He has been serving funeral services for 20 years. Mr. Farmer has been in-house with publicly 

traded funeral service companies and in private practice representing funeral homes, cemeteries, and 

crematories of all sizes across North America. Mr. Farmer was General Counsel for the Texas Funeral 

Directors Association and General Counsel and on the Board of Directors for the Cremation Association 

of North America for over 7 years each. He provides counsel on business matters, regulatory matters, 

buying and selling, litigation, employment law, and any other legal matters the funeral profession 

faces.

Poul Lemasters has a unique background as a licensed funeral director, embalmer, and attorney with 

over 30 years of experience specifically tied to deathcare. He works with several deathcare 

associations, including serving as General Counsel to the International Cemetery, Cremation and 

Funeral Association (ICCFA) which represents over 10,000 locations and more than 50,000 

professionals in the deathcare profession worldwide. As part of his role with ICCFA, Poul regularly 

reviews general price lists for compliance. Poul operates a private practice where he advises deathcare 

professionals on legal, regulatory, and operational issues. He is regarded as an expert on deathcare 

issues and is a keynote speaker and educator across North America on a range of topics including 

deathcare liability and FTC Funeral Rule compliance. He is licensed in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, 

and Ohio, where he is based. 

Sarah Pojanowski is General Counsel of Selected Independent Funeral Homes, an association of 

independent funeral homes of the highest character, professional ability and reputation. Sarah is an 

expert in all aspects of law relating to the death care profession, with nearly twenty years’ experience 

in the industry. Sarah is also an expert in small business law, as Selected funeral homes are primarily 

small, family-owned and -operated businesses (like over 80% of funeral homes in the United States 

today). Prior to joining Selected, Sarah was an associate in the Washington, D.C. offices of Paul 

Hastings and Heller Ehrman. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and is a former 

adjunct Assistant Professor at Notre Dame Law School.

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Shopping for Funeral Services

Erin Witte is the Director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America. Erin leads 

CFA’s advocacy efforts in consumer protection, including advocating for consumer protections in 

Congress and at regulatory agencies, communicating policy positions to the press and the public, 

organizing meetings with stakeholders on consumer protection issues, and providing educational tools 

for consumers to help them navigate marketplace challenges. Erin has over a decade of experience

fighting for consumers as a consumer protection attorney. Prior to joining the CFA, Erin was an 

Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she litigated consumer 

protection cases in Virginia state and federal courts. Erin handled matters involving various abusive, 

predatory and fraudulent business practices, and was able to provide relief to tens of thousands of 

consumers. Erin also worked in private practice at Surovell Isaacs & Levy in Fairfax, VA, where she 

represented individual consumer clients against used car dealers, abusive debt collectors, insurance 

companies, predatory lenders, subprime auto lenders, and medical providers.

Panel 2: Online Disclosures: Practical Considerations

Melissa Dickey is an attorney in the Division of Marketing Practices of the Federal Trade Commission’s 

Bureau of Consumer Protection where she works on a variety of enforcement and policy matters, 

including serving as a co-coordinator of the FTC’s Funeral Rule program. Prior to joining the FTC in 

2015, Ms. Dickey worked at the U.S. Department of Justice and in private practice. She received her 

undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and her Juris Doctor from 

Northwestern University.

Effie Anolik is the co-founder and CEO of Afterword, a technology startup that helps funeral homes 

support families in making informed decisions in-person and online. Effie’s interest in bereavement 

started after her dad died in August 2018 and she planned her first funeral. She was surprised by how 

different the process was from everything else she had done. Prior to starting Afterword, Effie worked 

at Shopify, an e-commerce platform used by millions of businesses. She has been featured in Fortune, 

TechCrunch, Business Insider, and Bloomberg.

Jim Bates is President of the Board of Directors for the Funeral Consumers Alliance of North Texas, 

serving as a volunteer with FCA for over 30 years. He has served primarily as legislative liaison at the 

Texas Capitol, as well as consumer help for deathcare issues in the North Texas area. He has served on 

the national board for the Funeral Consumers Alliance and Chair of the National Home Funeral Alliance 

Ethics Committee. He is a trained and experienced home funeral guide, and a family cemetery survey 

and legal dedication expert. Mr. Bates is a retired helicopter/tilt-rotor manufacturing engineer, 

specializing in computer aided technology, web development and database systems. He holds 

undergraduate and graduate degrees from two public universities in Texas. Both of his grandfathers 

were horse-mounted cowboys, who gave to their communities with the extra time available when they 

switched to pickup trucks.

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Shopping for Funeral Services

Layng Guerriero is a 25-year veteran of the funeral service industry who is currently the President of 

AskTheDirector.com, a marketing agency, and co-owner of FuneralKinetics.com, a funeral consumer 

and market data analytics firm. He has held various positions in the industry, including Vice-President 

of Continental Computers, President of Davidson Software, Director of Business Development, and 

Director of Marketing at Service Corporation International. Mr. Guerriero regularly works with many of 

the top funeral service operators in North America.

Barbara Kemmis, CAE, has served as Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America 

(CANA) since 2011. Founded in 1913, the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) is an 

international organization of over 3,500 members, composed of funeral homes, cemeteries, 

crematories, industry suppliers, and consultants. CANA members believe that cremation is preparation 

for memorialization. CANA provides competency-based training on crematory operations and services 

and conducts internationally recognized research on cremation trends and consumer preferences.

Barbara's volunteer activities include serving as President of the International Cremation Federation, 

board member of the National Museum of Funeral History, and committee member for the American 

Board of Funeral Service Education and International Conference of Funeral Service Examining 

Boards. Barbara earned a master’s degree in library science from Dominican University, a graduate 

certificate in nonprofit management from North Park University and a B.A. from Earlham College.

Isabel Knight is the President of the National Home Funeral Alliance, an organization that educates 

families and communities to care for their own loved ones after death. She is also a home funeral 

guide, death doula, and a volunteer for the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Pennsylvania. Outside of 

volunteer work, she is a human-centered designer and founder of The Death Designer, a company 

which helps end of life businesses and nonprofits with web design, service design, strategic visioning, 

and online courses for their members and clients. 

Post Lunch Introduction

Dotan Weinman is an Assistant Director in the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices, Bureau of 

Consumer Protection. He has managed investigations, litigations, rulemaking, policy issues, and 

outreach and education efforts targeting deceptive and unfair practices in diverse areas, including 

payment processing, cryptocurrency, investments and investment training, healthcare, government 

services and grants, debt collection, credit repair and monitoring services, real estate, business 

coaching, business opportunities, multilevel marketing, nutraceuticals, and telecommunication 

services, among others. Before becoming an Assistant Director, Dotan was Counsel to the Director of 

the Bureau of Consumer Protection and Staff Attorney in the Division of Marketing Practices. Prior to 

joining the FTC, Dotan was a litigator in private practice in New York, where he focused on complex 

commercial litigation and antitrust matters. 

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Shopping for Funeral Services

Panel 3: Basic Service Fee

Rebecca Plett is an attorney in the Division of Marketing Practices of the Federal Trade Commission’s 

Bureau of Consumer Protection. Her primary duties involve enforcement and policy matters, including 

serving as a co-coordinator of the FTC’s Funeral Rule program. Before coming to the FTC, Rebecca

worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where she focused on consumer financial 

protection regulations and compliance with those regulations. She received her undergraduate degree 

from East Carolina University and her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Poul Lemasters has a unique background as a licensed funeral director, embalmer, and attorney with 

over 30 years of experience specifically tied to deathcare. He works with several deathcare 

associations, including serving as General Counsel to the International Cemetery, Cremation and 

Funeral Association (ICCFA) which represents over 10,000 locations and more than 50,000 

professionals in the deathcare profession worldwide. As part of his role with ICCFA, Poul regularly 

reviews general price lists for compliance. Poul operates a private practice where he advises deathcare 

professionals on legal, regulatory, and operational issues. He is regarded as an expert on deathcare 

issues and is a keynote speaker and educator across North America on a range of topics including 

deathcare liability and FTC Funeral Rule compliance. He is licensed in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, 

and Ohio, where he is based. 

Erin Witte is the Director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America. Erin leads 

CFA’s advocacy efforts in consumer protection, including advocating for consumer protections in 

Congress and at regulatory agencies, communicating policy positions to the press and the public, 

organizing meetings with stakeholders on consumer protection issues, and providing educational tools 

for consumers to help them navigate marketplace challenges. Erin has over a decade of experience 

fighting for consumers as a consumer protection attorney. Prior to joining the CFA, Erin was an 

Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she litigated consumer 

protection cases in Virginia state and federal courts. Erin handled matters involving various abusive, 

predatory and fraudulent business practices, and was able to provide relief to tens of thousands of 

consumers. Erin also worked in private practice at Surovell Isaacs & Levy in Fairfax, VA, where she 

represented individual consumer clients against used car dealers, abusive debt collectors, insurance 

companies, predatory lenders, subprime auto lenders, and medical providers.

Panel 4: General Price List Updates: Fee Disclosures and Mandatory 

Embalming Disclosures

Melissa Dickey is an attorney in the Division of Marketing Practices of the Federal Trade Commission’s 

Bureau of Consumer Protection where she works on a variety of enforcement and policy matters, 

including serving as a co-coordinator of the FTC’s Funeral Rule program. Prior to joining the FTC in 

2015, Ms. Dickey worked at the U.S. Department of Justice and in private practice. She received her 

undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and her Juris Doctor from 

Northwestern University.

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Shopping for Funeral Services

Chris Farmer is General Counsel for the National Funeral Directors Association, the world's leading and 

largest funeral service association, serving more than 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 

11,000 funeral homes in the United States and abroad, and founder of The Farmer Firm in Houston, 

Texas. He has been serving funeral services for 20 years. Mr. Farmer has been in-house with publicly 

traded funeral service companies and in private practice representing funeral homes, cemeteries, and 

crematories of all sizes across North America. Mr. Farmer was General Counsel for the Texas Funeral 

Directors Association and General Counsel and on the Board of Directors for the Cremation Association 

of North America for over 7 years each. He provides counsel on business matters, regulatory matters, 

buying and selling, litigation, employment law, and any other legal matters the funeral profession 

faces.

Barbara Kemmis, CAE, has served as Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America 

(CANA) since 2011. Founded in 1913, the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) is an 

international organization of over 3,500 members, composed of funeral homes, cemeteries, 

crematories, industry suppliers, and consultants. CANA members believe that cremation is preparation 

for memorialization. CANA provides competency-based training on crematory operations and services 

and conducts internationally recognized research on cremation trends and consumer preferences. 

Barbara’s volunteer activities include serving as President of the International Cremation Federation, 

board member of the National Museum of Funeral History, and committee member for the American 

Board of Funeral Service Education and International Conference of Funeral Service Examining 

Boards. Barbara earned a master’s degree in library science from Dominican University, a graduate 

certificate in nonprofit management from North Park University and a B.A. from Earlham College.

Isabel Knight is the President of the National Home Funeral Alliance, an organization that educates 

families and communities to care for their own loved ones after death. She is also a home funeral 

guide, death doula, and a volunteer for the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Pennsylvania. Outside of 

volunteer work, she is a human-centered designer and founder of The Death Designer, a company 

which helps end of life businesses and nonprofits with web design, service design, strategic visioning, 

and online courses for their members and clients. 

Sarah Pojanowski is General Counsel of Selected Independent Funeral Homes, an association of 

independent funeral homes of the highest character, professional ability and reputation. Sarah is an 

expert in all aspects of law relating to the death care profession, with nearly twenty years’ experience 

in the industry. Sarah is also an expert in small business law, as Selected funeral homes are primarily 

small, family-owned and -operated businesses (like over 80% of funeral homes in the United States 

today). Prior to joining Selected, Sarah was an associate in the Washington, D.C. offices of Paul 

Hastings and Heller Ehrman. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and is a former 

adjunct Assistant Professor at Notre Dame Law School.

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Shopping for Funeral Services

Wendy Russell Wiener, Esq. is the Managing Member of WRW Legal, PLLC. WRW Legal is a boutique 

law firm exclusively serving the deathcare industry and profession, representing cemeteries, funeral 

homes, crematories, the owners and operators of those businesses and the professionals who are 

licensed to work in such facilities. She leads a team of four lawyers and other professionals and has 

been representing the deathcare industry and profession since she was licensed to practice law in 

Florida in 1993. Her firm represents 1000s of deathcare licensees across the country, in Florida, 

Indiana and Texas as counsel, and as a regulatory compliance consultant in all other states. Wendy is 

Regulatory Counsel for the Florida Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association and on the faculty for 

the Cremation Association of North America teaching its Crematory Operator Certification Program.

Erin Witte is the Director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America. Erin leads 

CFA’s advocacy efforts in consumer protection, including advocating for consumer protections in 

Congress and at regulatory agencies, communicating policy positions to the press and the public, 

organizing meetings with stakeholders on consumer protection issues, and providing educational tools 

for consumers to help them navigate marketplace challenges. Erin has over a decade of experience 

fighting for consumers as a consumer protection attorney. Prior to joining the CFA, Erin was an 

Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she litigated consumer 

protection cases in Virginia state and federal courts. Erin handled matters involving various abusive, 

predatory and fraudulent business practices, and was able to provide relief to tens of thousands of 

consumers. Erin also worked in private practice at Surovell Isaacs & Levy in Fairfax, VA, where she 

represented individual consumer clients against used car dealers, abusive debt collectors, insurance 

companies, predatory lenders, subprime auto lenders, and medical providers.

Panel 5: Alkaline Hydrolysis, Natural Organic Reduction, and Other New 

Trends in the Funeral Industry

Sammi Nachtigal is an attorney in the East Central Region of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of 

Consumer Protection where she works on a variety of consumer protection matters and is the East 

Central Region's Funeral Rule coordinator. Prior to joining the FTC in 2022, Ms. Nachtigal practiced 

criminal defense. Ms. Nachtigal received her undergraduate degree and her Juris Doctor from the 

University of Minnesota and a Master of Laws in food and agricultural law from the University of 

Arkansas School of Law.

Sarah Chavez is the Executive Director of funeral reform nonprofit The Order of the Good Death whose 

mission is to create a more equitable, eco-friendly, and meaningful end-of-life experience. For over a 

decade the Order has worked to inform the public about their rights and choices surrounding death by 

creating a wide variety of educational content and practical resources that enable people to make 

accurate and informed decisions about funerals. The organization has fostered mentorship through 

their Good Death Fellowship offering grants to innovative leaders and establishing the Henrietta 

Duterte Endowment to support Black women pursuing mortuary science studies. The Order’s impact 

extends to legislative efforts, with members playing crucial roles in the creation of death care bills, 

providing testimony to both the Senate and Congress, and expanding public awareness and support for 

laws that expand access to a good death. What began as a small collective has grown into the global 

Death Positive Movement, uniting diverse minds, including funeral professionals, activists, and the 

public to challenge stigmas, foster open dialogue, and reimagine how our society approaches death.

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Shopping for Funeral Services

Tanya Marsh is a law professor at Wake Forest University School of Law. She has written several books 

and numerous articles on the laws and regulation of the funeral industry and the disposition of human 

remains. Currently, she is writing about the history of the regulation of burial and cremation in the 

United States and the challenges to that regulatory framework created by new emerging technologies 

in death care, specifically natural organic reduction and alkaline hydrolysis. Professor Marsh is the 

creator of Death, Et Seq. a podcast discussing the relationship between the living and the dead. 

Professor Marsh holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University and Juris Doctor from Harvard 

Law School.

Katrina Spade developed the concept of human composting while earning her Master of Architecture 

from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2013. She went on to invent a system that transforms the 

dead into soil and founded Recompose, a company based in Seattle, Washington, which offers the 

service to the public. Recompose led the successful legalization of the process in Washington State in 

2019 and began providing the service of human composting in 2020. Human composting is now also 

legal in Oregon, Colorado, Vermont, California, New York, and Nevada. Katrina and her team have been 

featured in Fast Company, NPR, BBC, and the New York Times. Katrina is an Echoing Green Fellow, an 

Ashoka fellow, and a Harvard Kennedy School Visiting Social Innovator. Her TED Talk has been viewed 

over 1 million times.

Beverly Tryk is the Communications Manager for People's Memorial Association. Beverly founded 

People's Memorial when she was preparing for her Peace Corps service and had to create her own end 

of life plan. That process gave her a deep appreciation for the value of open conversation about death 

and dying. Through her volunteer work, she has become very at-home in uncomfortable conversations 

and is happy to help families find the answers to difficult questions. People’s Memorial Association has 

been the thought-leader for funeral choice, education, and advocacy in Washington State for almost 85 

years. 

Closing Remarks

Lois C. Greisman heads the Division of Marketing Practices in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer 

Protection. Under Ms. Greisman’s management, Marketing Practices leads the FTC’s law enforcement 

initiatives tackling telemarketing fraud (including Do Not Call/Robocall enforcement), fraudulent 

business and investment opportunity schemes (including multilevel marketing), mail fraud (including 

sweepstakes and lotteries), illegal spam, and Internet frauds (including technical support scams). Ms. 

Greisman also directs the FTC’s work to curb fraud in connection with different payment systems, as 

well as its enforcement of the Funeral Rule and Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Before joining 

Marketing Practices, Ms. Greisman headed the Division of Planning and Information, where she 

managed the FTC’s Identity Theft Program, the Consumer Response Center, and also supervised 

implementation of the National Do Not Call Registry. Previously, Ms. Greisman served as Chief of Staff 

to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris. She also served as Attorney Advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky 

and Chairman Janet D. Steiger. Ms. Greisman worked in private practice in Washington, D.C. before 

joining the FTC. Ms. Greisman received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, and her law 

degree from George Washington University. 

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