NFDA Members Elect Leaders to Help Shape the Future of Funeral Service
Chris Christian to Serve as 2026-27 NFDA President
Brookfield, Wis. – Eligible voting members of the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) have elected new officers to serve on the association’s Board of Directors, selecting leaders who will help guide NFDA’s efforts to support funeral professionals, advocate for the profession and strengthen service to families and communities. Elected to serve as officers on the 2026-27 Board of Directors were President-elect Steve Spann, CFSP, CCO, of Spann Funeral Home in Dickson, Tennessee; Treasurer Ellen Wynn McBrayer, CFSP, CPC, CCO, of Jones-Wynn Funeral Homes & Crematory in Villa Rica, Georgia; and Secretary Carlton Maye Jr., MBA, CFSP, CCO, of Serenity Funeral Home in Dublin, Georgia.
Current President-elect, Chris E. Christian, CFSP, CCO, of Rogersville, Tennessee, will assume the role of 2026-27 NFDA President.
Current NFDA President Daniel J. Ford, CFSP, CCSP, of Cheshire, Connecticut, will continue his service on the Board of Directors as 2026-27 Immediate Past President.
These leaders will begin their one-year terms of office immediately following the 2026 NFDA International Convention & Expos, which will take place October 25-28 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Also continuing their service on the Board of Directors are 2025-2027 At-Large Representatives Carlos D. Black of Small’s Mortuary in Mobile, Alabama, and Christopher Costello, CFSP, of Mothe Funeral Homes in New Orleans, Louisiana.
From June 11 through June 24, 2026, eligible voting members cast a total of 1,361 votes through a secure electronic voting system administered by Survey & Ballot Systems. Winners of the officer elections are determined by a plurality vote. The election results were:
President-elect
- Steve Spann, CFSP, CCO – 95.5% (1,300 votes)
Treasurer
- Ellen Wynn McBrayer, CFSP, CPC, CCO – 95.1 % (1,294 votes)
Secretary
- Carlton Maye Jr., MBA, CFSP, CCO – 64.0% (871 votes)
- Ladd Pulliam, CFSP – 33.4% (454 votes)
NFDA’s at-large representatives serve staggered two-year terms to provide continuity in leadership. During the 2026 NFDA Leadership Conference, taking place August 2-5 in Louisville, Kentucky, state association representatives will elect two additional at-large representatives to serve 2026-2028 terms on the Board of Directors. Their terms will begin immediately following the 2026 NFDA International Convention & Expo.
State association representatives are the designated voting delegates from each state who cast votes on behalf of their associations in the election of at-large representatives serving on the NFDA Board of Directors.
The candidates for the 2026-2028 at-large representative positions are:
- Christopher Holt, Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home & Crematory, Helena, Montana
- Steven L. Johnson, CFSP, CCSP, H.E. Turner & Co. Inc., Batavia, New York
- Maureen E. Krienen, Krienen-Griffith Funeral Home, Wilmington, Delaware
- Shelby Ogozaly, Perman Funeral Home, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Information about the officers elected to the Board of Directors and the 2026 election process is available at NFDA.org/Elections.
NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit NFDA.org.
