Our Board
Friends of Bethlehem Seniors is led by an all-volunteer board of Bethlehem community members who donate their time so your gift goes further. No one on the board is paid — 95% of every dollar raised goes directly to programs and services for local older adults, with the remainder covering essential costs like accounting and auditing.
Board of Directors
Linda works at UAlbany in the School of Social Welfare, where, among other things, she coordinates the Internships in Aging Project – a project to recruit and train more social work students to work with older adults and their families. But her involvement in the Town of Bethlehem Senior Services is also personal. In 2013, her father died of Alzheimer’s Disease and Senior Services made a positive difference in her mother’s caregiving journey.
Linda Mertz LCSWR, President
Eileen’s family has lived very happily in Bethlehem for over 25 years. By training and experience, she was a school counselor for over 30 years, working at Cambridge Central Schools and the Capital Region Career and Technical School (BOCES). Her personal interests are health and wellness, public policy, and golf. She developed an interest in serving seniors as her older family members needed increasing help. The more she learned about the great work of Senior Services, the more she wanted to support the community by getting involved as a volunteer board member.
Eileen Coffey, Co-Vice President
Susan Lundberg and her husband moved to Delmar in 2021. After residing in Albany for many years. are also new to Delmar, having moved here from Albany in 2021. She sold her business Capital Tech Search a recruitment firm specializing in IT in 2022.
She returned to the Capital District in 1995 after her mother’s stroke. She is aware of the needs of the aging and the differences Senior Services Programs can make in one’s life. She is a member of 100 Women Who Care Albany.
Susan Lundberg, Co-Vice President & Secretary
Dana has been a Bethlehem resident for over 25 years and brings a variety of volunteer and fundraising experience to the Board. Her employment background includes working with non-profits, churches, school districts, and a local farm. In addition to her position on the Board of Friends of Bethlehem Seniors, Dana enjoys volunteering with her church and happily spent countless hours in leadership roles with PTA/PTO, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts while raising three children in Delmar.
Dana Burns, Treasurer
Our Board Members
Andrew J. Sullivan, MD
Andrew Sullivan is a retired family physician who has lived with his family in Bethlehem since 1972. While in practice here, it was the patient’s involvement with the town’s Senior Services Program that made him aware of resources that enabled seniors in the town to remain independent for longer in their own residences. The Senior Services Program became an important referral resource for seniors in the practice. He is a former volunteer driver and served as vice president of the Bethlehem Senior Projects board.
Jane Sanders, LMSW
Jane is a retired social worker who spent her entire career working with older adults. Jane is pleased to be on the board of Friends of Bethlehem Seniors and truly believes in the added benefits that the organization provides to the local community, such as sponsoring the Bethlehem Food Pantry, purchasing new vehicles for the older adults living within the Town of Bethlehem and providing the emergency heating fund for people in need.
Jane also volunteers for RISSE, Bethlehem Senior Services, Bethlehem Neighbors, and the B'nai B’rith Gideon Foundation. She also sits on the Advisory Committee of The Food Pantries for the Capital District, where she is a past president of the board. In her spare time, she enjoys bike riding, skiing, canoeing and spending time with her family.
Nina Sher
Nina Sher, a Bethlehem resident for 39 years, had the pleasure and honor of teaching French and Spanish in the Bethlehem School District before retiring in 2013. She transferred her love of teaching children to teaching buyers and sellers how to make educated decisions about real estate. She recently joined Four Seasons Sotheby's International Realty after 11 years at Hunt Real Estate. Her passion lies in addressing housing needs, particularly among seniors in Bethlehem. Her husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and her caregiving role have underscored the importance of senior services and the urgency of appropriate housing for Bethlehem’s seniors. She is thrilled to give back to the Bethlehem community through her participation on the Friends of Bethlehem Seniors board.
Bill Conine
Bill and his wife moved to Delmar in 2015 after 38 years in Coxsackie. He retired after 40 years with Farm Family / American National Insurance in Glenmont, including assignments in marketing/communications followed by division-leading responsibilities in information technology, operations, human resources, facilities and enterprise project sponsorship. A Navy veteran and graduate of Cornell University in communications, Bill has led and served on several other volunteer boards. He enjoys regular driving assignments with Senior Transportation Services.
Jessica Backer Brand, Esq.
Jessica is a partner with the law firm of Vella Carbone & Vinson, LLP in Delmar, New York. She concentrates in the fields of trusts and estates, probate, and guardianship law. She graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, with a B.S. in psychology and received her J.D. from Albany Law School with a concentration in Family and Elder Law. Jessica is excited to give back to the community as a member of the Board of Friends of Bethlehem Seniors. She grew up in Delmar, returned to the area to raise her family and works locally.
In addition to Bethlehem Senior Projects, she is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Albany County Family Court Children’s Center and a member of the Professional Advisor Council of the Community Foundation of the Greater Capital Region. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys spending time with her family, cooking and traveling.
Gerard McGreevy
Jerry retired from a 30-year-long law enforcement career, a management position with TSA at the Albany Airport, and several volunteer fire departments. He has devoted much of his retirement to volunteering in various ways for family, friends, and the community. A lifelong resident of the Capital District, his goal is to assist Town of Bethlehem seniors to live as independently as possible in the community.
Jennifer O'Keeffe
Jenifer has worked as a Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist in New York for more than 30 years, specializing in nutrition care for older adults. As a member of the Bethlehem community, she raised her children in the local school district, where they attended Slingerlands Elementary School before continuing on through Bethlehem Central High School.
Throughout the years, Jenifer enthusiastically supported her children’s many activities as a soccer mom, baseball mom, gymnastics mom, cheerleading mom, theatre mom, and now proudly as an Ultimate Frisbee mom — Go BC!
As her children have grown older, she has welcomed the opportunity to give back through volunteer service and is grateful to serve on the Board of Friends of Bethlehem Seniors.
Liasions to the Board
William Vail, LCSW-R, Liaison to the Board
Will is the Director of the Town of Bethlehem Senior Services Department. He has worked in the field of aging for over 27 years.
He has represented the Senior Services Department while working with many civic organizations throughout our community, including the Lions Club, Rotary, Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA, the American Legion, the Bethlehem Neighborhood Association, and local Churches and Fire Departments.
Will is an active musician who contributes to fundraising efforts with the Bethlehem Community Fund, the Crop Hunger Walk, and the Food Pantries of the Capital District. He has a great love for the outdoors and can often be found on trails and waterways in the Capital Region and beyond.
Joyce H. Becker, Liaison to the Board
Joyce H. Becker joined the Board in 2010. Joyce served for 27 years in the field of aging, retiring in 2016 as Director of the Town of Bethlehem Senior Services Department. During her tenure in the Town’s Senior Services Department, she served as Volunteer Coordinator and Assistant Director of services for the elderly in Bethlehem.
Joyce believes the mission of Friends of Bethlehem Seniors, as a fundraising organization that partners with the Town of Bethlehem, is to help provide programs that assist the older residents of Bethlehem in remaining in their homes for as long as possible. Transportation, the food pantry, and many other programs provide support services to seniors as they age in place.
Joyce serves on the Board of the Bethlehem Community Fund, an organization that quietly assists families and seniors in need. She is a member of the Delmar Progress Club, the Delmar Fire Department Auxiliary, the Woman’s Club of Albany, and the Bethlehem Historical Society. Joyce served as a Bethlehem Public Library Trustee for 2 terms. In 2015, Joyce was elected to the Bethlehem Town Board. She was elected to a third term in 2023 and currently serves as Deputy Town Supervisor.
Past Presidents:
Leslie Horn Trosset
Wilma DeLucco
Tod Tobin
Margaret Reed
JOIN OUR BOARD
Looking to make a difference in the Bethlehem community? We are currently accepting applications for board members. Please complete the application, and we’ll be in touch shortly.
