The Art of Mortuary Science

When it came to choosing a career, Angela Woosley knew she wanted to do something that combined her father's caringness as a pastor and her mother's skills and compassion as a nurse. She realized that that was a mortician.

"When I was growing up, my mother is an RN and my dad was a Lutheran pastor, and I always wanted something that was going to combine both his caring and her skills and compassion," said Angela Woosley, a Senior Teaching Specialist in the Program of Mortuary Science. "If you back up and cross your eyes and squint, that's a mortician."

Woosley understands the stereotypes and misconceptions that come with being a mortician. However, she sees her job in a different light.

"I think when a lot of people think about morticians and funeral directors they think of us working with the dead, and we certainly work with the dead. But a majority of our time is spent with grieving families, with the communities we serve. That's the biggest stereotype that people have," Woosley told The CW Twin Cities in an interview. "They think we're spending a lot of time with dead people and to me, dead people are like my patients. We don't shy away from people who are ill, but we shy away to the dead and to me, they're still people to care for."

Now, she is using her experience and passion to educate and train the next generation of mortuary scientists. 

"We need more funeral directors, we need more caring people who are willing to step up to the plate and help their communities in this manner."