President & Fund Raising
Bette Myerson
President@TaosElders.org 

I was involved in in-home care and hospice through Mountain Home Health Care from 1985 until 2015 and am aware of the needs of all of us as we age. I’m so happy that we developed TENT for single people like me. I have lived in Taos for 40 years and am currently involved in Interfaith efforts, fundraising to help our less fortunate neighbors, and choral singing.

Vice President
Colleen Shaughnessy

Colleen Shaughnessy is the Community Advancement Director at Groundworks New Mexico, a non-profit serving organization, where she works to build the capacity of nonprofits across New Mexico.  Prior to this, she served as the Executive Director of Youth Heartline, a non-profit organization focused on child advocacy and family stability. She has also taught English as a Second Language and trained others to do so in the US as well as Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, and Bolivia. Colleen trained as a hospital chaplain and end-of-life doula and served as a hospice care volunteer. During her childhood, Colleen's mother was a CNA who worked in a nursing home and then worked to keep elders in their homes, so her commitment for the mission of TENT was inculcated from a young age. Her experience with TENT began as a volunteer at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic delivering groceries and visiting with Members.

Secretary
Deborah Cripps
UR.Cripps@gmail.com 

Deborah Cripps and her husband moved to Taos 25 years ago from New York. Deborah has worked at Holy Cross Hospital for 25 years as an operating room nurse and retired this past year from the infusion center. You can find Deborah wandering the forest trails with her two dog in between driving TENT members to appointments.

Treasurer
Ann Ellen Tuomey
Treasurer@TaosElders.org 

Acting on an impulse, my husband and I purchased a house during our second short visit to Taos. That was in 1996 and in 1999 we took early retirement from our jobs in the California Bay Area and moved into our Taos home. As we became acquainted with the community and involved ourselves in many activities, we felt assured that impulse was fortuitous. For several years I worked during tax season and also volunteered for several organizations. I was on the board of our newly formed neighborhood association, helped at the Shared Table, did
after-school tutoring, served as a volunteer and later a board member at Taos Land Trust and for 13 years cleaned bird cages and led tours and programs at New Mexico Wildlife Center in Espanola. When TENT began operating I was about to volunteer, but because of a sudden change in my health, I became a member instead until I became well enough to change my status to volunteer. I am now honored to be asked to serve on the TENT board, and I hope to contribute to this vital community organization which has positively affected my life and those of many others who are members or volunteers. 

Director - Activities
Honore Malony

I have lived in Taos since 1998. My husband John and I moved back to the US after living in Canada for 17 years. Knowing little about the environment and culture here, I joined and volunteered for the Native Plant Society and the Millicent Rogers Museum, where I continue to volunteer. John and I enjoyed many years of hiking and skiing until he passed away in 2017. Shortly after I learned of the startup of TENT and realized the importance of having the hope and expectation of remaining in our homes as we age. I have been a Board member since 2021. I help plan activities for members and volunteers and enjoy driving members for their appointments, shopping and errands.

Publicity
Helen Rynaski
Publicity@TaosElders.org 

Helen Rynaski, a retired speech/language pathologist, has lived in Taos since 1996. Her work included providing therapy services to elders facing communication difficulty due to a variety issues. She currently works as a freelance copyeditor. She has been a volunteer with TENT since the early days and now serves on the board. She is involved in community theatre (acting and writing) and enjoys hiking and traveling in her pandemic-driven-purchase van.

Jeff Holland
Outreach

Robyn Chavez

I grew up in Taos, where my family has been for generations. 
I recognize the importance of honoring culture, tradition, and history. My dad taught me about farming, agriculture, and water. I loved playing in the Acequia, which my daughters now do. 

I have been a Registered Nurse (BSN), for nearly ten years. I come from a family of nurses, whom I look up to. My nursing background includes long-term care, critical care, diagnostic imaging/interventional radiology, and hospice care. My passion for holistic end-of-life care, lead me to my current role as Co-founder and Executive Director of Red Willow Hospice, a community-based and integrative hospice.

My interest in volunteering and community collaborations brought me to TENT. I am excited to share ideas and be a resource for health, wellness, and aging.

Randie Gonzalez

Randie Gonazlez was born and raised in Burbank, California. She moved to Taos in 1976 and began teaching with Taos Municipal School District as a sixth-grade teacher. After 28 years of teaching, she retired and then worked for three more years in an after-school program.She has been a member and officer of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Ladies Auxiliary. Her New Mexico State Project, The Golden Eagle Fund, was in honor of her father who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The project raised a substantial amount of money for Alzheimer’s Research at the University of New Mexico. Her husband retired from the school district and had a successful business in town. But when his health started to decline, she was able to be his caregiver until his passing in 2018. That experience made her realize that there are those in our community who lack family and resources to stay in their homes which inspired her to become a volunteer for TENT. Being involved with TENT is her way of giving back to her community helping our Elders and Neighbors stay in their homes for as long as possible.

Hard Workers

Operations Coordinator

Kate Harris

Volunteers@TaosElders.org

I came to Taos 20 years ago after spending 20 years in the northern New Mexico mountains (I missed the electricity and running water!), and started my volunteer work as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA - for abused and neglected children), also sitting on the Citizen's Review Board, oversight for CASA.  Nursing my husband through a protracted, terminal illness led me to the Threshold Choir, an international group whose local chapters sing to clients in hospice.  From this came my ongoing volunteer work with Mountain Home Health Care as director of the local Threshold group.

I grew up in Indonesia and Paris, with a little Connecticut. I have enough college credits for a degree but due to ever-shifting interests have not completed such. (Although after taking a few classes at UNM I have discovered that "my" subject is geography!)  My experiences with my mother's Alzheimer's, my husband's illness, hospice work, and my own questioning about my future leads me to TENT, and I am delighted to be able to participate in this organization.

Member Intake
Charlene and Gary Shapiro
Members@TaosElders.org

Charlene and I have lived in Taos since 2019, having both retired from the health care profession in NY.  We traded the sea for the sky.  We both did homecare, Charlene as a nurse, myself as a physical therapist. 

After finding a house and settling in, we both still felt that our knowledge could be of service to the community.  With the advent of TENT we jumped at the opportunity to become volunteers.  When we were asked to become membership coordinators it felt like the universe was unfolding perfectly before our eyes.  We gratefully acknowledge the blessing of being able to use our experience to assist TENT in benefiting others.

News Editor
Linda Thompson
Editor@TaosElders.org

We moved to Taos in 2001 from Oakland, CA, and opened a photography and writing business. This included articles for magazines such as New Mexico Magazine, editing publications for the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, and twenty children's books on Native Peoples and the Expansion of America for Rourke Publishing Co. I taught two online copyediting courses for the University of California, Berkeley. The course "Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage for Editors" wasn't yet available online, and I developed its online version.

Previously, in California, I had 25 years of experience as editor and manager of publications for engineering companies, including writing and producing quarterly employee and client newsletters.

News Publisher
Terry Thompson
Publisher@TaosElders.org

My wife, Linda, and I moved to Taos in 2001 to escape the increasing overpopulation of the San Francisco Bay Area. I had spent 14 years there as a producer for an underwater film production company, followed by 7 years as an executive producer making multimedia training programs for children and adults.

When I lost both of my parents in 2012, it made me keenly aware of how important it was for the elderly to receive proper care so they can continue to enjoy life. In my case, the task was made easier with the help of three siblings and family to take care of my parents in their home.  After their passing, the reality started to hit home as I thought about our future years with no children and no other relatives living within 1,000 miles. Getting involved in TENT was a start in figuring out how we would deal with our own aging in the years ahead.

Human Resources
Dr. Caryle Zorumski

I relocated to Taos from the east coast and away from other family just before the tragedy of 9/11.  A few years later my remaining parent became unable to care for herself and bringing her to Taos was the only practical option. Her displacement from friends and familiar surroundings contributed to her declining health. TENT is the Taos alternative that offers an enriched life in our later years.

TENT is an important part of my community engagement and is a natural addition to 30+ years of professional practice that includes clinical and career counseling, education, governmental consultation, mediation, employee assistance, and program development.  Working with people of all ages I focus on relationships, infant/early childhood mental health, living with injury or illness, and the mind-body connection in healing. I hold a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an EdD from The College of William and Mary.