Mom, business owner, chamber chairwoman: Meet Plum’s Anna Zvirman-Nesbit

High school sophomores aren’t known for choosing a potential career and then sticking with it.

But Plum resident Anna Zvirman-Nesbit wasn’t your typical teenager. Consider her choice for a job-shadowing experience.

“I don’t exactly recall why I got the idea to do it, but I was interested in going to a funeral home,” she said. “There were a couple of teachers who helped me literally go through the Yellow Pages and call funeral homes.”

As it turned out, some of the people who answered the phone weren’t interested in bringing her aboard, instead giving suggestions along the lines of: “Look into nursing.” Her determination finally paid off, though.

“I ended up going to a couple of very well-established, reputable funeral homes, the third of which being Soxman,” she said.

Two decades later, Zvirman-Nesbit remains at Soxman Funeral Homes Ltd. in Penn Hills, for the past five years as co-owner. Along the way, she earned her bachelor’s degree in three years, served as president of her class at mortuary school, married her Plum High School sweetheart and had two children.

Oh, and she also chairs the board of the Plum Chamber of Commerce.

March may be National Women’s History Month, but rather than simply concentrating on the past, the celebration also recognizes achievement in contemporary society. And considering that Zvirman-Nesbit has a while to go before her 37th birthday, “achievement” in her case may seem like an understatement.

“My parents instilled a lot of that,” she said, with half the credit going to Ken Zvirman, who owns the Strip District distribution company Jo-Mar Provisions Inc. “I saw him working what could be a very physical business.”

Receiving the other half is her mom, Christina Puzz.

“I don’t know that I can think back to anything my parents couldn’t do,” Zvirman-Nesbit said.

Her own son and daughter, Ethan and Evelyn, probably are thinking something similar about their mother and father. Jim Nesbit serves the community as a third-grade teacher at Plum’s Pivik Elementary School.

As for Mom, she and her business partner, Brian Soxman, continue to build on the legacy established by the funeral home’s founder, Brian’s late father, Tom.

“Often, funeral directors say, ‘We’re here for you before, during and after.’ And we’ve always tried to make ourselves kind of the benchmark of the industry and being sure we’re doing that,” Zvirman-Nesbit said.

Testing their mettle, of course, were the circumstances caused by covid-19.

“Through the pandemic, we were doing anything and everything we could to give people what they needed because so many families were robbed of that traditional ritual,” Zvirman-Nesbit said. “We were doing services in our side courtyard. We were doing Zooms where we might have had 40, 50, 60 people on there, and we’re bouncing back and forth.”

Then again, she and Soxman tend to pay close attention to how their industry may be evolving.

“We are always on the same page with that, making sure that we’re just a step ahead,” she said.

A recent example is Lilo, a yellow Labrador retriever serving as Soxman’s resident bereavement dog.

“That was a big step for us, certainly not a conventional staff member,” Zvirman-Nesbit said. “But my goodness is she well-received.”

For her part, Zvirman-Nesbit is an advocate of professional development, having earned National Funeral Directors Association certification as a preplanning consultant, and now she is working on becoming a certified funeral service practitioner.

“Those designations recognize you as kind of the elite of your field,” she said. “I remember my mom always saying that education is something that can never be taken from you.

“And I hated being a student. I’m going to start by saying that. I wanted to get to work. But I see the value in it now.”

As business owners, she and Soxman recognize the value of interacting with colleagues, leading them to participate in local chambers of commerce.

“We had attended a meeting, and I kind of thought it was grand,” Zvirman-Nesbit said about her introduction to Plum’s chamber. “I got to know some of the people there. And then immediately, I had to find a project I could do.”

The result was a successful Touch-a-Truck event for children, one that is returning May 14 after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic.

And through her involvement with the chamber, Zvirman-Nesbit came in contact with representatives of Churchill-based Perfect Fit Canines, the organization that provided her funeral home with Lilo.

“So I can’t ever undervalue what it is to meet new people,” she said. “You have to stay relevant in whatever you’re doing.”