MARK PHILLIPS, NYSFDA BOARD MEMBER, APPOINTED TO NYS FUNERAL DIRECTING ADVISORY BOARD

Albany, NY -- July 25 -- Mark T. Phillips, a member of NYSFDA’s Board of Directors, has been appointed to the Funeral Directing Advisory Board by New York State Department of Health (DOH) Commissioner Antonia Novello. Effective immediately, his three-year term on the advisory board runs through mid-2008.

A licensed funeral director for 30 years, Mark is President and Manager of the William J. Burke & Sons/Bussing & Cunniff, Inc. Funeral Homes in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is a member and past two-term president of the Adirondack Funeral Directors Association, and was recently re-elected as a NYSFDA state director representing the Adirondack local association.

Mark has long served as a spokesperson for NYSFDA’s media relations team in the Capital District region, as well as an active member of the association’s grassroots political action program (“GAAT”). A proud fourth-generation native Saratogian, he is heavily involved in numerous civic activities in the Saratoga Springs community.

Created by law as an entity within DOH, the Funeral Directing Advisory Board is comprised of ten members, including six funeral directors, three consumer representatives and a cemeterian. Its role is to review any and all matters concerning the practice of funeral directing, and has the authority to make recommendations to the Commissioner of Health on any of these issues at its discretion.