UFDA CONVENTION 2025

April 9th & 10th, 2025

To be heldat the Salt Lake County Viridian Event Center in West Jordan, Utah.

Wednesday, April 9

Keynote Speaker—Ty Detmer

9:30

Ty Detmer was born in San Marcos, Texas. He attended Southwest High School in San Antonio, Texas. He earned letters in golf, football, basketball, baseball, and track. As a senior, Detmer won high school All-American honors in football and was the Texas Player

of the Year. He also won all -state honors in baseball and all -district accolades in basketball.



Ty attended BYU, where he played for the BYU Cougars football team from 1987 to 1991. In deciding which college to attend, he was in part attracted by BYU's alcohol -free environment. Ty became the full -time starter his sophomore year and then went on to win the Heisman Trophy along with the Davey O ’Brien and Maxwell Award his junior season in 1990.

In total, he finished his college career with 59 NCAA records and tied for three others. Including statistics from bowl games, Detmer amassed 16,206 passing yards and 127 touchdown passes at BYU. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in recreation administration. In 2012, Detmer was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Ty was drafted in the 9th round of the NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers. He spent 4 seasons there as the backup to Brett Favre. He then went on to play with the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Falcons, 14 seasons in total.

Ty was married to the former Kim Herbert while attending BYU in 1991. The two have 4 daughters, 4 son -in -law’s and a year and 5 grandkids. Ty currently coaches at American Leadership Academy Gilbert North in Gilbert Arizona.

Speaker—Timothy Copeland

11:00

Timothy Copeland brings over 35 years of experience in the funeral service and end-of-life care fields. As a licensed funeral director, educator, and consultant, Tim specializes in ethical decision-making, grief education, and compassionate care for individuals and families navigating loss. He is certified in Dignity Therapy and co-authored a chapter on end-of-life decision-making in the Handbook of Thanatology.

Tim's career spans leadership roles, including owning and operating Copeland Funeral Home, teaching at Hudson Valley Community College, and serving as a trustee for the NYSFDA

PrePlan trust. He is dedicated to enhancing funeral service practices through education, community engagement, and innovative solutions.



Tim holds a Master of Science in Thanatology from Marian University and frequently speaks at national and state conventions, sharing insights on ethics, communication, and compassionate care in funeral service.

Speaker—Deirdre Amaro, MD

1:20

Deirdre Amaro, MD is the Chief Medical Examiner for the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner. Having practiced Forensic Pathology in a wide variety of systems, she has an appreciation for the challenges and complexities of the current landscape of medicolegal death investigation and aspires to shed light on how the majority of work we do in “death” is actually for the living, in the hopes that more resources, training, and education can be provided to medicolegal death professionals, no matter the jurisdiction.

Speaker—Damon De La Cruz

2:45

Damon de la Cruz, PhD, is a licensed Embalmer and Funeral Director and serves as the Director of Education for Frigid Fluid Company. He is an educator for multiple funeral service programs and has contributed to the American Board of Funeral Service Education through various committees. A frequent national and international speaker, his embalming career spans multiple states, countries, and continents.



Damon holds a bachelor's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology and earned a PhD in Pathobiology from the Keck School of Medicine at USC for his research on stem cell homeostasis. He co-authored Turning Art into Science: Applying Chemistry to Funeral Service, bridging embalming, funeral service, and chemistry. Recognizing the role of technology in the field, he also developed Embalm Calc, a widely used free embalming app.

Thursday, April 10

Speaker—David Kasperson

9:00

David P. Kasperson is co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Trust & Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others. He has been building high-trust partnerships and innovative solutions for clients of FranklinCovey’s Global Trust Practice for more than 15 years, and has been instrumental in developing and teaching

the Speed of Trust content. David is a collaborator with Stephen M. R. Covey, managing his speaking business and custom client solutions as the Director of Business Development. An expert on trust, he has served clients via consulting, coaching, program design, and keynote

speaking in more than twenty countries.

Prior to leading the Speed of Trust speaking business, David managed the Leading at the Speed of Trust Executive Workshop program held in Sundance, Utah, a premier senior-level leadership training, where he worked with hundreds of senior level and influential leaders from across the globe.His client experience includes work with multinational organizations, Fortune 500 companies, franchising, nonprofit, small businesses, educational and governmental agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and financial institutions, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Adventist Health, Kash Group, Lockheed Martin, Nestle, Real Estate Board of New York, Chevron, Yale New Haven Health Center, Astellas, eBay, LinkedIn, Lend Lease Asia, and Utah Valley University.

David graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA & an AA in Communication Theory & Practice from Utah Valley University. He recently served on the Board of Trustees at Mountainville Academy, a “Leader in Me” school that incorporates The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People into its curriculum.

David resides with his wife and children in Utah’s beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Speaker—Greg Norris

10:45

Greg Norris joined Homesteaders in 2004 and spent the next six years serving funeral home customers and agents in Texas. In 2010, he was named Regional Director of the West Region. Prior to joining

Homesteaders, he spent 10 years as a preneed sales counselor, territory manager and preneed marketer. Greg has a degree in Marketing and Management from Emporia State University and is a two-time recipient of Homesteaders’ Account Executive of the Year award.

Speaker—Brandy Vega

1:00

Brandy Vega is a leader in mental health advocacy and the founder of Promise2Live, a global movement dedicated to saving lives and breaking the silence around mental health struggles. Under her leadership, Promise2Live has reached millions of people in 117

countries through powerful initiatives, global livestreams,

and impactful community events. Brandy's mission is to

deliver hope, help, healing, and resources to those in need, inspiring people to make the promise to truly live.

Promise2Live is built on the 3 C's: Commit, Connect, and Community— encouraging individuals to Commit by making the promise to live, Connect with resources and tools for support, and build Community through events, town halls, assemblies, and global outreach. Brandy has collaborated with celebrities, performers, and influencers to amplify this mission and broaden its reach. Through initiatives like the Pocket Hug Project, Promise2Live has shared resources directly with over 70,000 people, providing simple but meaningful reminders of hope and support.

Her work is evident in the annual Promise2Live Global Livestream in Hollywood, which reached millions of viewers last year. The event brings together real stories, expert insights, and live performances, creating conversations and awareness on an international scale. Brandy also leads local and national projects like the Pocket Hug Challenge and the Holiday Hug Project, distributing thousands of tokens of hope to those struggling. 

In addition to her work with Promise2Live, Brandy is the founder and CEO of Vega Media Studios, a video production company that helps share impactful stories and create high-quality content. She also does freelance work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has contributed to their global broadcasts for over 20 years. As an entrepreneur, humanitarian, and Army veteran, Brandy is dedicated to making a difference. She also adopted a child from foster care and served as a surrogate to help a family experience the joy of parenthood. For Brandy, family is everything, and her life's work is about purpose, compassion, and community, encouraging others to live boldly and with meaning.

Speaker—Karen Valcarce

1:45

Karen is an epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. She started with the department 3.5 years ago, where she first worked on waterborne and enteric illnesses. She now enjoys working on the One Health team, where she gets to cover a variety of diseases including vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, illnesses related to harmful algal blooms, and CJD. Karen is passionate about the connection between human, animal,

and environmental health and enjoys working with a variety of diverse partners. She feels like she is always learning something new! Prior to her current position, she received her Master of Science in Public Health at the University of Utah, where she studied SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. In her free time you can usually find her outside, hiking, climbing, skiing, or hanging out with her husband and their dog, Murphy.

Speaker—Chris Taktak

3:00

Christopher is a licensed funeral director and former funeral home owner with extensive experience in sustainable end-of-life care. At Earth, he leads partnership and education efforts centered on soil transformation—a new, eco-friendly process that gently transforms human remains into nutrient-rich soil. Prior to joining Earth,

Christopher owned and operated a California funeral home,

where he was one of the first providers to offer aquamation, a water-based alternative to traditional cremation.

Danielle Jordan

Danielle Jordan has been with the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC) for over twenty years and has risen through the ranks of Technician and Assistant Tissue Coordinator. She continued her growth with the Center and became an Autopsy Case Coordinator, a position she held for over a decade. During this time, she receive her certification as a Grief Counselor as well as studying psychology at Case Western Reserve University. Due to her diligence and dedication to serving the NPDPSC and families, she was promoted  to the Autopsy Program Manager where she collaborates with the CJD Foundation, implements surveillance objectives mandated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with partnering with mortuary professionals and local/state Departments of Health to expand regional autopsy sites throughout the United States.

Throughout her career, Ms. Jordan has served countless families grieving the loss of a loved one and in 2022 she created a social work internship program with the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and holds the role of Field Instructor. She continues to serve with professionalism and empathy in order to best serve families, physicians and mortuaries as well as the purpose of the NPDPSC.