Mystic Valley Elder Services elects new board members

  The Board of Directors of Mystic Valley Elder Services (MVES) recently elected three new members. The board is comprised of 26 members, all of whom represent the 11 communities that MVES serves. More than 50 percent of the board members are at least 60 years old, and more than half of them were appointed by MVES’s area municipal Councils on Aging, ensuring that MVES is governed by the people that it serves.

  “Mystic Valley Elder Services is fortunate to have dedicated community members who are willing and able to serve our agency,” said MVES CEO Lisa Gurgone. “The new members, elected by their peers, will undoubtedly bring wisdom and energy to the agency and its initiatives.”

  The following individuals were elected members at the latest Board of Directors meeting:

• Susan Buckley of Stoneham, who was born in Malden, spent her early years in Melrose and later childhood through college in Pennsylvania. She is retired from 30 years of teaching in the public schools of Melrose and the suburbs of Philadelphia. Post-retirement Buckley spent a few years managing a home care program for her parents with the incredible help of dedicated caregivers from AgeSpan. She has traveled throughout the United States, done some cross country in a little green Volkswagen with her sister and several friends and visited Europe. Buckley favors reading mystery, history and psychology books but will delve into almost any type of book. Art has been a lifelong interest of Buckley’s, and she is now happily painting in watercolors and acrylics and printing some designs as greeting cards, which she finds very satisfying.
• Debbie Peczka of Revere launched her airline career with New York Air in 1982 and retired after a 37-year tenure with United Airlines. Travel is a passion that she continues to pursue, frequently visiting family members across the United States. Prior to her appointment as director of Elder Affairs at the Rossetti-Cowan Senior Center, Peczka worked as Mayor Brian Arrigo’s administrative assistant for the entirety of his first administration. Peczka loves her job at the Senior Center, where she works every day to bring fun, innovative activities to seniors while also providing them with important resources. Peczka has served on the Board of Directors for United We Care and Revere TV.

  · Kristen Spence of Stoneham has been working with older adults for most of her career. Currently she is the director of the Stoneham Council on Aging; previously she worked in elderly housing as a Resident Service Coordinator. She has volunteered with MVES as a Money Manager and Somerville Elder Services as well. She was a Board Member of the Massachusetts Association of Resident Service Coordinators in Housing for eight years before changing her career path in July of 2021 to work at the Council on Aging. Spence completed her master’s in Human Service Administration from Springfield College’s School of Human Services. She also earned her Bachelor of Science in Gerontology from the University of Maryland. Spence lives in Medford with her husband, twin daughters and their two cats.