Lesley Witter
MPA, CAE, NFDA Senior Vice President, Advocacy
Senior Vice President of Advocacy, Lesley Witter’s background encompasses more than 25 years of legislative, regulatory, political, and management experience. Since joining the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) in January 2007, Lesley has worked closely with the Nation’s legislators, regulators, and their staff to highlight the importance of the funeral profession and to advance NFDA’s legislative and regulatory initiatives on Capitol Hill and with federal agencies.
Lesley is NFDA’s chief lobbyist for legislative and regulatory issues, including directing the Association’s legislative agenda which has included successfully advocating for the passage of The Corey Shea Act [P.L. 111-275], which grants parents of deceased veterans the right to be buried with their children if the veteran has no living spouse or minor children. Lesley also led the charge in advocating for the passage of the BRAVE Act [P.L. 116-315], which updates veteran burial benefits to ensure veterans are not penalized for where they die and are treated equally based on their service, not the circumstances at their time of death. In addition, Lesley has represented NFDA by researching, writing, and providing oral testimony to the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs on three separate occasions (5/8/07, 9/24/09, 10/8/09, 7/10/24).
Lesley serves as the primary funeral service liaison to Federal and State governments and offers technical information on final disposition, funeral customs, best practices, supply chain and logistics, stress management in mortuary operations, embalming, cremation, mobilizing volunteers, and coordinates the funeral service response to mass fatality. She provides expert guidance to the Administration, CDC, HHS, DHS, DoD, VA, State OCME, State EOC, the VA, DoD, USNORTHCOM, USNORAD, DHS, HHS, CDC, FEMA, EPA, OSHA, DoL, and DoT among many others.
Throughout the COVID pandemic, Lesley provided funeral service expertise to both federal and state governments and was instrumental in providing content and review for official guidance including inclusion of funeral service professional as essential workers, PPE and vaccine priority, and the creation of the FEMA COVID funeral reimbursement. Lesley also directs the association’s regulatory agenda including the industry wide Formaldehyde Exposure Study in 2021 and provided comments and scientific da ement experience. Since joining the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) in January 2ta to the EPA.
Before joining NFDA, Lesley served as a lobbyist for the American Chiropractic Association where she successfully worked for the passage of two specific chiropractic bills into law, including successfully advocating to pass legislation that created the first permanent chiropractic benefit in the VA [P.L. 107-135] health care system. Lesley also worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Coors Brewing Company.
Lesley has a Bachelor’s in Government and International Relations and a Master’s in Public Administration from George Mason University and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE). Senior Vice President of Advocacy, Lesley Witter’s background encompasses more than 25 years of legislative, regulatory, political, and manag007, Lesley has worked closely with the Nation’s legislators, regulators, and their staff to highlight the importance of the funeral profession and to advance NFDA’s legislative and regulatory initiatives on Capitol Hill and with federal agencies.
Contact Lesley at lwitter@nfda.org or 800-228-6332.