Meet Laura Roundtree, Our Funeral Home Liaison

I believe I can empathize with the needs of my funeral director colleagues because I worked at a funeral home from 1992 to 2005.

Then, as a funeral director at the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s Office in Paramus, New Jersey, I gained experience doing autopsies with the Medical Examiner and encountered various circumstances and causes of death.

I subsequently joined the surgical recovery staff at the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network, the organ procurement organization (OPO) serving a large section of that state. As a surgical recovery specialist I procured organs and tissue for transplant and life-improving transplants.

In my current capacity, as the Medical Examiner/Funeral Home Liaison for the New York Organ Donor Network, it is my responsibility to maintain and create positive relations between the OPO, funeral directors and medical examiners.

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Funeral Directors’ section of our new. In the near future, we will add more content, including:

• Information relating to reimbursements for funeral directors
• The role of obituaries, and how they can honor donors
• A description of the process when the loved ones of donors wish to make a financial contribution to the Donor Network in their memory
• Resources you can turn to including websites that offer invaluable information, and details about continuing credit opportunities.

Keep the Lines of Communication Open: Please let us know what information and topics you’d like to see included here. Given some of the concerns expressed by funeral directors in the past, it’s imperative that we address these issues and establish a consistently clear and transparent means of communication.

I urge you to contact me with your questions, concerns and suggestions.