Meet Angela

Mortician | Educator | Doula | Celebrant

Angela Woosley has been a MN-licensed mortician for almost 20 years. In addition to her work with Inspired Journeys, Angela served a three-year term on the board of directors for the National Home Funeral Alliance, serving as board president for part of her term. She was also part of the grassroots action group that helped legalize natural organic reduction (NOR, also known as human composting) in the state of Minnesota. Angela is actively involved with the MN Death Collaborative and connected with the MN Threshold Network. In addition, she is working with the Land Conservation Natural Burial Project, working to make conservation natural burial a reality in MN.

“Remembering Place: A Cemetery Story,” a TPT documentary of Lakewood Cemetery, featuring Angela

Angela is featured in the TPT documentary “Remembering Place: A Cemetery Story,” (linked above) which won an Upper Midwest Emmy in 2022. (pictured below)

Prior to starting Inspiring Journeys, Angela taught in the Program of Mortuary Science at the University of Minnesota for 10 years. During that time, she shared her passion for funeral service with hundreds of students.

A profile of Angela and her work with students at the UMN.

In 2014, she earned her master’s degree through the University of Minnesota’s Family Social Science Department. Afterward, her research was published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

She became a certified celebrant in 2017 through the Insight Institute, and in 2019 she trained as an end-of-life doula with the International End-of-Life Doula Association (INELDA.)

A passionate educator, Angela has presented locally and nationally over the years on topics such as the art of obituaries, self-care, young adult grief, and grief in family systems.

Angela hams for the camera at the Arrowhead Funeral Directors meeting in 2022

She is also deeply involved with Healing Hearts Connection, a nonprofit organization in Minnesota that provides free Hearts of Hope grief camps to grieving families.

Part of HHCs “Hope at Home” series, Angela shares self-care ideas for kids and their grown-ups.