As VPAS continues to shift with the times to help older adults navigate aging, VPAS Fiscal Project Manager Teresa Wilkinson is the anchor that keeps us steady.
Hired in September 1976 after one-year stint as a math teacher in Portsmouth, the Madison College graduate worked with five other administrative staff members in three very small rooms on the top floor of the Waynesboro City old municipal building. The accounting system was done manually with ledger books and the units of service were kept on big sheets of grid paper.
Several accounting and record keeping software programs later, much has changed to modernize VPAS. Teresa now prepares monthly spending and units of service reports, budget spreadsheet formats for the leadership team, financial reports for our annual audit, and cash requests for the next month.
But, her gifts and service don’t stop there. Teresa is the treasurer of Grottoes United Methodist Church, where she also teaches an adult class. Her activity level slowed after a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2006, but she continues to attend JMU football and basketball games in her free time and remains dedicated in her role at VPAS. “I enjoy working at VPAS very much,” she says. “I am thankful for and blessed by my co-workers who help me around the office.”
Those same co-workers regard her as an icon at VPAS who has helped lead the organization to new levels of success. “Teresa is the anchor that all of us at VPAS depend on for understanding the details of funding and expenditures, the rules regarding governmental programs, and our institutional history,” says VPAS Executive Director Jeri Schaff. “Meticulous, patient and kind, Teresa is a jewel that we appreciate every day.”
Thank you, Teresa, for an unprecedented 45 years of service to VPAS and older adults in our community.