By Thomas A. Parmalee
When Cole Imperi boarded one of the last flights out of New York City in March 2020, she didn’t know she was heading home to launch a movement.
At the time, she was deep into a doctoral program, juggling her work as a consultant for film and television productions — advising on the accuracy of how death and grief were portrayed on screen. Then the world shut down.
“I got back home and said to myself, ‘I’m not going anywhere for a while. What can I do to help?’” Imperi recalled. “So, I offered to host a free Zoom lecture on how to respond to crisis and collective grief from a thanatological perspective.”
She made a quick post on Instagram, expecting maybe a dozen people to show up. “I didn’t even have makeup on,” she laughed. “But it went viral overnight.”
That first online session drew hundreds of participants, sparking what would become the School of American Thanatology, which she founded in March 2020. What began as an impromptu act of service during the pandemic has grown into a respected global institution with students in more than 30 countries — with many of the attendees coming from the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The school has quickly gained a reputation for bridging the gap between funeral service, health care institutions and the public conversation about death.
A Global Classroom Born from Crisis
Thanatology — the study of death, dying, grief, and loss — may sound academic, but Imperi, who is the author of “A Guide to Grief,” has made it accessible and deeply practical. Her students range from licensed funeral directors and embalmers to physicians, social workers, and chaplains.
“We really have two main groups,” Imperi explained. “One group is made up of professionals who want a more modern, evidence-based approach to death education. The other group includes people who’ve experienced a significant loss and are trying to understand why it changed them the way it did. The beautiful part is that we bring those groups together in the same virtual classrooms.”
That interdisciplinary model has resonated. Without spending a single dollar on advertising, the School of American Thanatology has built an international student body through word of mouth and reputation alone.
“Our students are passionate, connected, and hungry for new ways to think about death and dying,” Imperi said. “They’re helping us grow in ways I never expected.”
Why Thanatology Matters to Funeral Service
Before founding the school, Imperi spent years traveling across the United States and Canada teaching for a cremation arranger program and consulting for funeral homes. She also served as a mortuary college professor, crematory operator, grief group leader, hospice volunteer and board president of a historic cemetery and arboretum.
For funeral professionals, thanatology offers a fresh lens through which to view the work they already do every day. Imperi sees enormous opportunity in connecting these two worlds.
“I have such a soft spot for funeral directors and embalmers,” she said. “They are the linchpins of their communities — often born and raised in the same towns where they now serve. They are caretakers of both the dead and the living.”
She went on to note that funeral service “is in some ways in a bubble” since it is regulated separately from American health care at the city, county and federal levels. As the founder of the School of American Thanatology, she focuses on helping funeral professionals delve into thanatology in a way that helps them better serve their communities.
“We are actually trying to give you additional tools to put in the toolbox,” she said. “I believe funeral professionals have an incredible opportunity to be more, to do more and to be a bigger bridge to other entities outside the profession. I have seen our own funeral service members be able to do just that.”
From Viral Idea to Institutional Partner
The growth of the School of American Thanatology was rapid, but its credibility deepened even further in 2025, when it became the exclusive home of the Integrative Thanatology: Death Education Counselor program. The program was originally created by the Art of Dying Institute, a nonprofit that has been a cornerstone of public-facing death education for three decades. Imperi is an alumna of the program, which is a separate, nonprofit entity distinct from the School of American Thanatology.
“There have always been funeral directors that have been teaching faculty in the program, which is one of the reasons I enrolled in it myself 10 years ago,” she said. “You learn thanatology from funeral directors, licensed clinical mental health professionals, physicians and people doing cutting-edge work.”
She noted, “The Art of Dying Institute represents what I think of as the ‘second wave’ of modern death education. The first wave came from people like Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Jessica Mitford — subject matter experts who weren’t afraid to talk to the public about death and dying.”
The second wave, beginning in the 1990s, was centered in New York City and led by the Art of Dying Institute, she said. “Its first conference in 1994 brought nearly a thousand people together in Manhattan to talk openly about death, grief, and spirituality. It was groundbreaking,” she said.
Imperi herself completed the Integrative Thanatology program nearly a decade ago. “To now be entrusted with housing and co-leading that same credential feels like a full-circle moment,” she said.
The partnership ensures that both organizations remain actively involved in curriculum development, faculty selection and continuing education approvals. For funeral professionals, that means the courses don’t just explore theory — they can also count toward licensure renewal or continuing education credits.
Expanding the Field — And Inviting Funeral Professionals In
Imperi is continuing to innovate.
A hybrid Integrative thanatology program will launch in 2027, with in-person sessions planned for Los Angeles, New York City or Cincinnati.
“We’ve been online since the start, but we’re ready to bring people together physically again,” she said. “There’s something about sitting in the same room — sharing space, stories, and silence—that no online platform can replicate.”
She’s also making a direct appeal to funeral professionals: “We will absolutely have at least one licensed funeral director on the teaching faculty. In fact, I have an open inbox right now for funeral directors and embalmers who want to teach, who have something to say, who want to be part of shaping this next phase.”
For Imperi, it’s about ensuring that the voices of those who work closest to death are part of the educational conversation about it. “We need new voices — especially those who are doing the work every day and who understand the complexities of death,” she said.
She added, “The most important thing to me is that I am a big supporter of funeral directors and embalmers … and I am cognizant of a lot of conversations around funeral service and the public, who don’t know what it is like to do this job and how hard it is and how regulated it is. Thanatology, for me, includes funeral service. I believe it is an essential part of thanatology.”
A Career That Keeps Coming Back to Death
Imperi’s relationship with death wasn’t something she planned.
With degrees in journalism and Judaic studies, she originally wanted to pursue international reporting. “I even looked at war correspondence,” she said. “But the program I was applying to was literally bombed. I had to pivot.”
Death refused to let go.
“In high school, I took a career aptitude test that said I should be a funeral director,” she said. “I was deeply offended. Why wasn’t it fashion or working in the theater? I wanted to do something glitzy and glamorous! But death and grief kept showing up, over and over again, until I finally stopped running from it.”
In her late twenties, she worked with a group of nuns who guided her through the Catholic process of discernment — the spiritual practice of determining one’s vocation. “They were very kind to me, even though I’m Jewish,” she said. “They helped me realize that my work in death, dying, grief and loss is a calling. I’ve chosen to accept it.”
Today, she sees her work as a thanatologist as her vocation.
A Familiar Face in Unfamiliar Spaces
Today, Imperi’s influence extends far beyond the classroom. She’s an award-winning author, TED speaker, chaplain, and death worker, with a new book slated for release in 2027 from Penguin Random House.
Her TED Talk on shadowloss — a term she coined to describe non-death forms of loss —has resonated widely, and her work was featured in the Netflix docuseries The Future Of in the episode “Life After Death.”
But no matter how far her reach grows, Imperi stays grounded in her respect for funeral professionals. “I’ve been in this field long enough to know how hard this work is — and how misunderstood it can be,” she said. “Funeral directors and embalmers deal with enormous responsibility, strict regulation, and deep emotional labor. They deserve more recognition, and they deserve access to education that supports the depth of what they do.”
Paying It Forward
For all her incredible professional success, Imperi remains humble about how it all began — with a community that believed in her before the school even existed.
“When I offered that first course, I didn’t even have a paid Zoom account,” she said. “Students insisted on paying more than I was charging. Their generosity allowed me to get the school off the ground — and I’ve spent the past five years trying to pay that investment forward.”
Her husband, Victor Imperi, with whom she just celebrated 22 years together, helps run the operational side of the school. “He has expertise on the business side of things,” she said. “We both have deep connections across North America with funeral professionals, and we see this work as something much bigger than ourselves.”
The Future of Thanatology
As the School of American Thanatology prepares for its next phase, Imperi’s vision is clear: to elevate funeral service as a central pillar of modern thanatology.
“I want our field to be recognized as the essential bridge it already is — between health care, psychology, spirituality and community,” she said. “Funeral professionals are the ones who help us make meaning when everything else falls apart. Thanatology gives us the language to honor that.”
Learn More:
To explore educational programs or inquire about teaching opportunities, visit schoolofamericanthanatology.com or reach Cole Imperi directly at cole@americanthanatology.com.
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