Barbara Woods
This month we pay tribute to Barbara Woods, retiring member of the Senior Solutions Board of Directors and recent past president. Barbara has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2017 and served as president from October 2018 through September 2021. Prior to serving on the Board of Directors, Barbara was an active member of the Senior Solutions Advisory Council.
Throughout her tenure on the Board and the Advisory Council, Barbara has been a champion of Senior Solutions and a vocal advocate for the needs of older Vermonters. Barbara joined me several years ago to be trained as a facilitator in the educational series, Powerful Tools for Caregivers. She also has been an advocate for other evidence-based programs such as our HomeMeds program, PEARLS, and our Tai Chi for seniors groups.
Barbara shepherded the Board and Senior Solutions through a significant transition last year. Starting in November of 2020 when previous Executive Director, Carol Stamatakis announced her retirement, Barbara launched an extensive recruitment campaign. She worked with the Board to establish goals for the position and sought input from staff and other stakeholders. After months of committee meetings and interviews, Barbara announced my promotion to the position in mid-March of 2021.
Simultaneous to this recruitment process, Barbara fielded the responsibility of representing Senior Solutions throughout an extensive State audit. Either of these events alone would have been a heavy lift, but Barbara managed them both throughout the winter and spring of 2021.
We sincerely thank Barbara for her dedicated service to Senior Solutions. We will miss her cheery contributions to the Board meetings, and I will miss her enlightening email messages with recommendations for how Senior Solutions can expand our services and collaborate with our community partners. We wish Barbara well. Now she will have a little more time to spend at the Rockingham Meeting House and at her family’s camp with her grandchildren.
Best wishes, Barbara
Mark
Mark Boutwell, Executive Director
