(First appeared in the August 12th edition of the Vermont Standard)
By Gareth Henderson
Standard Staff
A long-time Pomfret resident will take the reins of the Thompson Center for Seniors and the Community in the first week of September.
Deanna Jones of North Pomfret was recently hired as the center’s new executive director. The appointment comes four months after Joan Randall left the position, ending a 10-year career at the helm.
For Jones, this job was a perfect fit. She has worked as a project manager in finance at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for 3 years. But now, Jones wanted to find work closer to home, since her oldest son is attending the Pomfret School. Also, she has years of experience working with seniors, including 10 years at Kendall of Hanover.
“It feels like everything fit together to lead up to this position,” Jones said.
Jones, 33, is a native of the Finger Lakes region of New York and has lived in North Pomfret since 2001. At age 16, she got her first job at a nursing and assisted living facility, working in the food service department. Later on, she got experience working in therapeutic recreation for seniors. At Kendall, she facilitated therapeutic activities also, but she worked in the business office for most of her time there. At her job at DHMC, she received a great deal of business management experience including building budgets.
About the career itself, Jones said she loves working with seniors, noting “there’s a lot of wisdom” to glean from their experiences. Also, she liked the feeling she got from her first visit at the Thompson Center.
“People are happy here, and that’s a good feeling to come into,” Jones said.
She looks forward to continuing the programs at the Thompson Center. She was especially impressed with the food service and transportation programs.
“That’s a great service, especially for this area,” Jones said of the latter. She noted the need for transportation to get to appointments elsewhere in the Upper Valley.
Jones was also impressed with the quality of the meals at the senior center and the number of meals served each year. She said that’s a program that’s “only going to get bigger.”
However, Jones pointed out that she is still very much at the learning stage regarding her new position. She looks forward to supporting the great programming that already exists and being a support to the staff.
In the future, Jones said the growing number of seniors – given the aging baby boomer generation – will likely impact the senior center’s long-term planning and outreach. But Jones said she is focusing on getting established in her new job at this point.
“I definitely plan to dig in and get to know what the needs are, and get to know the senior population,” she said.
Jones is currently spending a portion of her week coming to the senior center, meeting people and attending staff meetings. She finishes out her DHMC job this month.
Jones and her husband, Rob, have two young boys ages 6 and 3. Jones said she is very much at home in the Pomfret area and plans to raise her children there.
