Jennifer Sharpnack’s long road to her job as the diocesan director of cemeteries started all the way back on her family’s farm in Medina, Ohio. Growing up working the 58 acres that has been in her family for five generations—the farm has since been designated as a century farm by the Ohio Department of Agriculture—imbued Sharpnack with a lifelong appreciation for agriculture, holistic healthcare and humanitarianism. All of that has planted her firmly in her desire to serve God’s people through the Diocese of Youngstown’s cemetery and funerary services.
“We always grew up understanding that humanity is helping one another,” she said. “One of the biggest things I remember growing up [was] volunteering at the St. Augustine Hunger Center in Cleveland. After we fed our animals, we fed the needy and then we came home and celebrated the holidays.”
Sharpnack’s family, in addition to farming, also bred and raised horses. After graduating from high school, Sharpnack decided to study animal husbandry at the University of Georgia, initially planning to breed her own horses. She later decided to get another degree in permaculture design from the University of Oregon. Permaculture is a style of land management that emphasizes sustainability, ethics and naturalism to create ecosystems and farmland.
For Sharpnack, permaculture brings all her values together—care for the Earth, care for human beings and care for animals. And it has shaped how she is approaching her role as director of cemeteries.
“I am on the cemetery grounds every single day that I work,” she said. “I’m not in the office. I’m walking. I’m looking at the ground naturalization. I’m looking at drainage. I’m looking at water flow, water pooling, looking at diagrams of a hundred years ago of where we have things buried to understand permaculture design and what’s flowing through this area.”
Sharpnack’s career—and life—trajectory took a turn with an unexpected cancer diagnosis soon after giving birth to her first daughter. Thankfully, she’s been cancer-free for more than 20 years, but the experience turned her toward holistic healthcare, and in 2018, after earning a certificate in holistic health and wellness from the University of Kentucky, she opened her own wellness business focused on using non-prescription therapies to help heal cancer patients, wounded veterans and even animals. At the same time, she also helped her family convert their farm to be fully organic.
She sold the business in 2024—the animal treatment side to a multi-state veterinary office and the human aspect to a chiropractic practice. With her startup sold and too much free time on her hands, Sharpnack saw the director of cemeteries opening in Youngstown and knew God was calling her name.
“Once I sold my business, I wanted to look at something within the Catholic Church but also something where I could improve processes and bring my leadership and my agricultural experience to where it could benefit others,” she said. “I found the cemetery business so fascinating and [with] what I knew about permaculture design and the biology of agriculture … I just felt like it was the best decision for me. And thank goodness, I applied with CFCS and they felt the same.”
In addition to her work improving the permaculture of diocesan cemeteries, much of Sharpnack’s focus is spent educating priests and parishioners about the various programs that Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services runs in our diocese, including the All Souls Remembrance Program, which offers families who have the cremated remains of their loved ones at home the opportunity to inter them within the consecrated ground of a Catholic cemetery for no charge. Programs like this exist to maintain the dignity of the deceased within the confines of Catholic canon, without creating an additional burden to families.
Looking forward, Sharpnack’s goal is to get people back into our cemeteries to pay respects to the deceased with memorial services and other events. Sharpnack believes that all cemeteries should be beautiful, vibrant spaces for those who have passed on, as well as a peaceful respite for prayer and contemplation.
For more information about our diocesan cemetery services, please visit www.CFCSYoungstown.org.
-By Collin Vogt
