Dr. Tyler J. O’Brien delivers engaging presentations that encourage funeral service professionals to think more deeply about their work, their organizations, and the future of the profession.

Programs are available for conventions, leadership academies, continuing education events, colleges, webinars, workshops, student programs, and professional meetings. Presentations can be customized to reflect the experience level, goals, and concerns of each audience.

Topics may include leadership, workplace ethics, employee retention, professional responsibility, burnout, organizational culture, career development, indigent funeral service, funeral rituals, religious literacy, and emerging issues within funeral service.

AFSRF helps funeral homes, professional associations, colleges, and death care organizations better understand complex professional and organizational challenges.

Advisory services may include organizational assessment, leadership development, workplace culture, employee recruitment and retention, succession planning, professional education, ethics, regulatory considerations, and program development.

The purpose is not simply to identify a problem. AFSRF helps organizations understand why the problem exists and consider practical responses supported by research and professional experience.

Strong organizations depend upon leaders who understand the experiences of the people they supervise.

AFSRF provides education and guidance related to leadership practices, employee development, communication, workplace expectations, professional identity, burnout, retention, and organizational culture.

Dr. O’Brien’s doctoral research examined the experiences of Ohio licensed funeral directors during their first five years of practice, with particular attention to the factors that influence whether professionals remain in funeral service. His leadership experience also includes managing funeral home operations, supervising professional teams, guiding interns, and directing educational programs.

AFSRF assists colleges, associations, funeral homes, and professional organizations with the development of meaningful educational programs and resources.

Services may include curriculum development, continuing education content, conference programming, classroom presentations, faculty resources, assessments, surveys, literature reviews, professional handouts, distance learning programs, and customized training materials.

Dr. O’Brien’s educational leadership experience includes mortuary science instruction, religious education, curriculum implementation, distance learning, student programming, professional development, and the administration of a learning center that served approximately 5,000 students and family members each year. He has also collaborated with the NASA Glenn Research Center and served as a curriculum reviewer for the Ohio Department of Education.

Religious belief continues to shape how many families understand death, grief, funeral ritual, remembrance, and the hope of an afterlife.

AFSRF provides educational programs that help funeral service professionals better understand religious traditions and communicate respectfully with families whose beliefs may differ from their own.

Programs may address Catholic funeral theology and ritual, beliefs about death and the afterlife, religious customs surrounding funerals, religious literacy, pastoral sensitivity, comparative religious perspectives, adult faith formation, inclusive religious education, and ethical questions within death care.

Dr. O’Brien holds a Master of Arts in Theology and completed doctoral studies in Educational Leadership with a concentration in Religion and Ministry. His theological research examined purgatory within the Latin Roman Catholic tradition, including foundations in Judaism and comparisons with Orthodox and Protestant theology. His experience as a Director of Religious Education included sacramental preparation, adult formation, curriculum leadership, catechist development, and inclusive programs for individuals with disabilities.

AFSRF’s work is grounded in direct funeral service experience.

Dr. O’Brien’s professional background includes funeral directing, embalming, restorative art, family arrangement conferences, funeral home management, prearrangements, funeral financing, regulatory compliance, military funeral honors, veteran benefits, national cemetery interments, indigent funeral service, mortuary internships, and clinical embalming education.

This experience allows AFSRF to connect research and education with the realities funeral professionals encounter each day.