Board of directors

Board of Directors

Anjala Ehelebe
President
Anjala has worked as an Administration Manager for a state agency, an Operations Manager for a neighborhood non-profit and she ran the Oregon State Veterinary Medical Examining Board. She has worked as a financial advisor and has studied many related issues, such as methods of financing retirements and long term care.

She is a neighborhood activist and has served as her neighborhood’s Land Use and Transportation chair for years.  She helped craft her neighborhood’s development plan and has worked to make the best parts of that plan come to fruition.  She wrote a book about the history of her neighborhood.  She worked as a free-lance journalist, technical writer, public relations writer, and a copy editor.

She became an advocate for people with disabilities when she was an undergraduate at Portland State University, focusing on making the world a more accessible place for people with disabilities.  She served on and later chaired the State Rehabilitation Council that sought to make it easier for people with disabilities to find employment.  For a decade, she was caregiver part-time or full-time for her late mother, father and husband.

Most recently, Anjala helped bring North Star Village into being, which fulfilled a dream that sparked when she first heard about Beacon Hill Village.  She is a member, a volunteer, and served on its Governing Council.

All of these interests and experiences led her to her current service on the board of Villages NW.

Sonya Norton
Secretary
Sonya is developing an active volunteer life since retiring.  Having time and commitment led her to Villages NW where she helped on our fundraising platform in 2017.  The premise of working in a grassroots volunteer organization helping valued seniors age actively in their homes is a way to serve in her community.

She volunteers with Clackamas County’s Aging Services Advisory Council with interest in seniors, age-friendly communities and liaison to the county’s adult centers including the Milwaukie Center, which provides neighborhood connections.  Her interest in her healthcare system led her to service as a member/partner with the Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital Advisory Council where she can continue a voice for seniors in the care system.

Recently Sonya helped establish Rivers East Village one of the Villages NW spoke villages.  After two years of public and private outreach as well as providing socialization  to Milwaukie-Gladstone seniors this village formally opened March 2020.  Sonya serves on the Governing Council, volunteers to lead the social/community building committee and participates with several of the joint villages in marketing and fundraising committees. 

As a native Oregonian, she had a busy career in sales management for business and transportation industries. Sonya looks to use experiences from working with a broad base of people and a business degree from Portland State University connecting neighbors to live in, and relate to, their communities.

Flavia Youngstrom
Treasurer
Flavia has been working for non-profits almost her entire professional life. In fact, she retired from over 40 years of non-profit work last year. Her most recent position was at Parkview Christian Retirement Center, where she worked for more than 21 years as the Director of Finance. She oversaw a finance team and a $7.5 million bond covenant with the Retirement Center. She lives in the Holgate neighborhood.

Jackie Lemeiux
Jackie brings to the board a strong background in organizational and leadership development. As a former faculty member at Boise State University, where she worked with a small non-profit associated with all the universities in Idaho, Jackie developed a nationally recognized Change Management program and worked with small to large organizations to manage the people side of change and coach leadership skills to executives.

Jackie served on the Leadership Assessment Planning Team for the Department of Human Services and directed a large-scale leadership program for the state of Oregon for 10 years. She worked with the Department of Human Services and Oregon Health Authority since 2005 until retirement in 2019.

Jackie has experience facilitating strategic planning for diverse organizations and served as a mediator for the state of Oregon where her goal was to foster collaborative solutions wherever possible. She has also worked with companies across the western states as a consultant on implementing effective change management processes and developing crucial leadership skills at all levels.

While in Boise, Jackie founded the SPIN bicycle club and the Gem State Bicycle Alliance which advocated for legislation to make cycling safer in the State working closely with the Governor’s office.

Jackie joined Eastside Village in 2020, she was elected to the Governing Council in 2021 and served as co-chair on the Governing Council in 2024.

Beth Sale

Beth learned of the Village Movement through a local news story on Oregon Public Broadcasting. In 2016, there was to be a meeting at Vancouver Community Library to assess the interest in a village in Vancouver or Clark County. She attended that meeting and was ‘hooked’.

Thus began her ‘career’ with Villages NW. She was part of the planning committee to establish Villages Clark County. She took a break from villages just as Villages Clark County was opening, but returned in time for COVID. Beth has led her Village’s Service Request Team since then and helps keep services running smoothly. She has also been part of the Villages NW Leadership Development Team, which organizes the Listen Lunch Learn series.

Beth was born and raised in the Puget Sound Area of Washington State then moved to Vancouver, WA in 1973 to marry and to begin her career as a pharmacist. Her dedicated 27-year career spanned the organization’s many transformations, serving what began as St. Joseph’s Community Hospital, became Southwest Washington Medical Center, and is known today as PeaceHealth. During that time, she worked in many areas of the pharmacy and hospital, including home health and the operating room. She was in pharmacy administration for roughly half her career there and participated in the implementation of several new programs.

During all this time, her children attended Montessori schooling from preschool through high school. She became a believer in that pedagogical philosophy, so when she retired from SWMC in 2000, she decided that she needed a new career. She took Montessori Elementary Training with a MEd. from Loyola University and then taught upper elementary (9-12 year olds) for 12 years at Franciscan Montessori Earth School, in SE Portland.

Beth enjoys being active and knowing that she is making a difference in people’s lives. Believe it or not, she enjoys meetings! Group dynamics are exciting to Beth, especially brainstorming new ideas and testing how they can be implemented. She is a process person, knowing that not only WHAT you hope to achieve but HOW you go about doing it is critical to its success.

She is looking forward to being part of the VNW Board and hopes that she can contribute her perspective of 10 years as a Village leader to strengthen the organization and help Villages continue to thrive.

Jenny Sherman
Jenny is a retired Human Resources Director having worked in a variety of industries that include early years in banking and insurance and later years in higher education and healthcare. Most recently Jenny worked in long term care and hospice organizations. She has volunteered in many non profit organizations including the Colorectal Cancer Alliance as a founding member of the Portland Walk to End Colon Cancer, Care Partners Hospice Board, Clackamas County Long Term Care Panel, and Bankwork$.

Jenny’s professional experience includes analysis of compensation and benefits, working through complex employee relations situations that include conflict, disability accommodations, leaves of absence, performance improvements and a variety of employee needs. She has done leadership education and facilitated Board retreats. She is a certified professional in HR and in compensation.

In her free time, Jenny enjoys gardening, traveling, and family and social activities.

Lyn Trainer
Executive Director (non-voting)
A summer job in the Volunteer Services office at OHSU led Lyn Trainer to a career in nonprofits at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation and several professional associations. One of the first employees hired when Doernbecher resurrected its community-based fundraising activities after a 50-year hiatus, she was privileged to be part of the team that built the new hospital which opened in 1998. Lyn continues to be an active Doernbecher volunteer through the Kiwanis Doernbecher Children’s Cancer Program and Friends of Doernbecher. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Chapter of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.

Lyn was excited to “discover” Villages NW in 2015 as she was looking for a way to expand the options for older adults to retain their independence and autonomy. Her interest in this area has been steadily increasing since a relative had a series of falls that resulted in cycles of hospitalization, convalescent care, assisted care and back to an apartment. Additional experiences with other family members have only fueled its importance.