AV Board Comings and Goings: Change with Continuity
By Rochelle Lefkowitz, Board member
One seat on the Ashby Village Board has just turned over—but with an uncanny continuity.
Roberta Pressman, who’s been on our board for six years (since its founding),has stepped down.
Pressman came to Berkeley after a long career in Boston as a clinical
psychologist, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and in community mental health. She has been a strong voice on the board for both our social care services and our healthy aging initiative. Thanks in large part to her persistence, Ashby Village now benefits from the addition of Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle, our part-time social care coordinator.
Pressman will continue co-chairing our Member Support Team, but in the coming weeks, she will focus outside our Village on the upcoming U.S. Presidential and Senate elections.
“Much as I have enjoyed my time on the board, where it’s been an honor and a privilege to have met and worked with some wonderful people, I felt it was time for my fellow board members to hear some new voices and perspectives, “ said Pressman.
Thank you for your invaluable contributions to our village, Roberta. You will be missed!
A warm welcome to our newest board member, Beth Burnside. Already contributing ideas and energy as co-chair of our Neighborhood Council, Burnside brings decades of leadership experience to our board and intends to carry forward Pressman’s focus on our village’s inner, day-to-day workings.
Burnside, a cellular biologist, former dean and vice-chancellor at UC Berkeley, now on the board of the Botanical Gardens, is drawn to “wrestling with what the neighborhood groups can do to help people in Ashby Village, with now well over 300 members, feel a strong sense of community”.
Describing Ashby Village as “offering me a chance to give back within a group of talented peers,” Burnside echoed her fellow board members in saying “I’ve been so impressed with the people I’ve met, with their generosity of spirit, with all that we give to each other.”
As for what she brings to our board from her professional experience, “I had a good sense of who was the right person for the job,” she mused. “And”, she added, “there’s my background in organizing committees within an organization to get things done”.
What does Burnside hope to tackle as a board member? “I’d like to help figure out how to systematize organizing events. And I hope to share what I’m learning about how our members are experiencing our village and how we’re serving their needs”.
Welcome, Beth! We look forward to your tenure!