Lisa Meehan, M.Ed. - Program Director/full-time instructor,  formerly of  Oklahoma. Lisa is a  licensed  funeral director and embalmer in the state of Oklahoma and Texas.   She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Funeral Service from the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, in 1992 and has been actively involved in the funeral industry since 1989. She completed her Master's in Education, Instructional Design Technology at West Texas A & M University. Lisa served as Oklahoma Funeral Director's Association District II Chairman and was serving as OFDA District II Governor until her relocation to Amarillo, TX in 2006.  She began working as a part-time instructor in 2005 and was appointed full-time fall of 2006.  Lisa serves on the Financial Aid Appeals Committee and the Academic Technology Committee.  She is active in the Texas Funeral Director's Association and the American Board of Funeral Service Education. 

When Lisa isn't working she enjoys spending time with her three beautiful children, Blake, Sara, and Hana.  She is an active participant in school and sporting activities as well as PTA.   They enjoy family vacations at  Florida beaches, and cold wintery nights making smores on the back patio.  One of her favorite passtimes is watching OU football on a Saturday with her three children. 

Megan Pierce - Adjunct instructor, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer since 2005. She received her Bachelor of Science in Funeral Service from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, OK and has been actively involved in funeral service since 2003. Megan has experience in all aspects of funeral service, having worked at a large corporate firm and embalming service; as well as, at a family owned funeral home. Megan enjoys studying funeral history and collecting funeral service items.

Gary M. Thomas, MBA, CFSP – Adjunct Instructor, has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer since 1982 in Denver, Colorado. He is a Certified Funeral Service Practioner, (CFSP). Gary graduated from Columbia College with a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration and earned his Master’s Degree from the University of Phoenix. He is also a graduate of Dallas Institute of Funeral Service. Gary has been involved in all aspects of the mortuary and funeral business including funeral home ownership and management. His experience includes both family and corporate owned funeral homes and cemeteries.

Currently, Gary is Assistant Manager and Marketing Manager for Fairmount Mortuary and Cemetery. Fairmount has been Denver’s premier Cemetery since 1890.
He has over 15 years of experience with a Fortune 500 company in management and marketing. Gary has been teaching at numerous colleges in the Denver area the past twelve years, winning multiple awards as the ‘Outstanding Instructor’. Gary has also published magazine articles on the funeral service business.

Dr. J. Alan Kee - Sociology of Death and Dying - received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Temple University and is currently an Assistant Professor at Amarillo College in the Psychology Department. His scholastic and research interests are in the areas of rural mental health, community outreach programs, health psychology, positive psychology, cognitive-behavioral therapy, rational emotive behavior therapy, and psychology of death & dying.

Dr. Kee completed his baccalaureate degree with honors at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, and his masters’ degree at Temple University in Counseling Psychology. In addition, Dr. Kee completed a clinical psychology internship at the Wichita Collaborative Psychology Internship Program in Wichita, KS, and a post doctoral fellowship in Cognitive Behavior Therapy / Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York, NY. While at Temple University, Dr.Kee completed a research fellowship at the Temple University Center for Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse (CRADA) in Philadelphia, PA. CRADA is a treatment-evaluation research center funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The over all goal of the center is to test and refine culturally sensitive, family-based interventions for adolescent drug abuse and related problems.
Dr.Kee maintains a small part-time counseling private practice, providing services for individuals,couples, and families for a variety of problems, including:work issues,job stress, relationship problems, alcohol & chemical dependency, child and adolescent problems, recovery from trauma, procrastination, self-defeating eating, depression, low confidence, smoking cessation, anxiety, perfectionism, lack of assertiveness, and divorce.

Dr. Michael Kopenits, D.M.D.- Human Anatomy – has been an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Amarillo College for the past 5 years. He has 20 years of both solo and group family dental practice experience. He received his B.A. in Zoology from Kent State University, Ohio. He attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, where he served his Family Practice Residency specializing in Dentistry for Handicapped Children.

In addition to Mortuary Science Human Anatomy and Pathophysiology, Dr. Kopenits teaches Anatomy & Physiology I, Anatomy & Physiology II and Zoology. He was the 2006 Recipient of the John Meade Faculty Excellence Award and also serves as a Member of the following Amarillo College Committees: Faculty Travel – chairperson, Faculty Senate, Faculty Development, Academic Affairs and the Commencement Committee

 Dr. Michael Barnett- Earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry at Sowthwestern Oklahoma State University, a Bachelor of Science in Human Anatomy and a Doctor of Chiropractic from Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas, Texas.