About Us:

Our Executive Director,

And Our History

Peggy Newman

Peggy (Margaret M.) Newman recently joined Palisades Village as our new Executive Director.

Peggy clearly stood out from among many well-qualified candidates and was the unanimous choice of the Search Committee, says its chairman, Phil Potter. Approval by the Board of Directors was also unanimous.

“Not only does she have the experience and skills we need, but she also brings tremendous enthusiasm and energy to the job. You will like her from the minute you meet her,” Potter says. “She is completely committed to the Village concept and to helping Palisades Village achieve the next level in its mission.

“She has extensive experience in the nonprofit world in membership development, program development, support services for the clients, event planning, and development, budget management, and fundraising. All of her references uniformly emphasized her abilities as an administrator, her research capabilities, her attention to detail, and her organizational skills. All of them emphasized how friendly she is and that she is a pleasure to work with. Our brief experience in the interview and negotiation process confirms these qualities.”

Peggy is a native of suburban Chicago and graduated with a B.A. from DePauw University in Indiana. She has a Master’s Degree from Smithsonian-Corcoran College of Art + Design, and postgraduate courses at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She has worked in sales at large and mid-sized corporations, taught in public schools, and most recently worked as director of service development at National Industries for the Blind in Alexandria, Va., and as assistant director of the Master’s Degree program for Smithsonian Associates/George Mason University. She helped double enrollment in the Smithsonian/GMU degree program in three years. Peggy has also served on nonprofit boards of directors and been active in Church leadership.

Peggy and her husband, Jim, live in Alexandria. They moved to this area in 1995. Jim is in banking. They have two adult, married sons and one granddaughter, all of whom live in the area. She has elderly parents who continue to live in suburban Chicago and who give her a reminder of what can be accomplished by Palisades Village.

She succeeds Sonia Crow, the founding Executive Director, whose compassion, dedication and enthusiasm during four years of service improved the lives of innumerable members, volunteers, and supporters in Berkley, Foxhall, Kent, the Palisades and Wesley Heights.

A Brief History of

Palisades Village

The eureka! moment for Palisades Village came when AARP published a piece about Beacon Hill Village in Boston, a pioneering effort to help people over fifty stay in their own homes as long as possible—an attractive alternative to continuing-care communities and nursing homes. A group of neighbors who thought that maybe we should create a similar village in our community held a meeting around a picnic table near the old trolley tracks on Sherier Place. Several who came didn’t know each other, and there were doubters in the group, but we stayed together.

The local AARP director and a photographer came to an early meeting, and a small story and picture were printed in the fall 2006 AARP Update. “AARP was the Village’s midwife,” as one of the Palisades pioneers observed recently.

By the end of a two-and-a-half hour meeting at the Palisades Library in April 2007, Palisades Village had become a genuine entity. The machinery for a tax-exempt nonprofit NGO was put into motion, bylaws were approved, officers elected, and a board designated. The organization would embrace Palisades and Foxhall, later clarified to include Berkley and Kent, with an option to expand to neighboring communities later.

The Village’s existence was definitively underscored by a publicist’s dream—a front-page story in the New York Times, August 14, 2007. Palisades residents George and Anne Allen were featured in the story, which was a progress report on senior villages springing up around the country—part of a new trend for seniors.

The first half of 2008 was marked by a groundswell of activity around Village planning. Working committees were created, and Andy Mollison, a retired newspaperman, was elected president to succeed Mary Baluss, who had held the organization together despite her heavy schedule as executive director of a nonprofit initiative. An office became a reality with rent-free space at Sibley Hospital in a building scheduled for demolition. In addition to grass roots donations of more than $10,000 already collected, the Village received a $25,000 grant from the city facilitated by Council member Mary Cheh, a $5,000 grant from the Palisades Community Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, and $4,000 from the Coalition for Planned Environmental Development.

A brochure was quickly created, with pictures culled from the community. This Web site followed soon thereafter. A contingent from Palisades Village surprised skeptics by winning a prize at the annual MacArthur Boulevard Fourth of July Parade. Help has come from George Washington University’s local campus and Iona Senior Services and advice from established villages.

In December 2009, we rented a new office, a 12-by-15-foot space within a third floor suite at 4400 MacArthur Boulevard NW. A year-end fundraising drive among resident of Foxhall and the Palisades helped us reach our goal of accumulating the equivalent of one year's expenses in advance. Defying the recession, and prepared to assist older neighbors who were threatened by it, we were ready to launch!

In January 2009, more than 150 members and well-wishers gathered on a Sunday afternoon in the Eccles Library, on the Mount Vernon Campus of The George Washington University to meet our newly hired Executive Director, Sonia Crow, and celebrate the inauguration of activities and services for 31

members.

On January 24, 2010, we celebrated again, and conducted the world premiere of a video that AARP-TV made about Palisades Village. We announced that membership had doubled in our first year of activities, and we had more than 50 volunteers whose primary assistance to older residents included rides, usually to medical appointments; household chores; visits and get-togethers, and concierge help in finding responsible professionals for assistance too complex to be provided by volunteers.

There were cheers when it was announced that our goals for 2010 include more members, more volunteers, more parties and fewer lectures.

In 2011, we expanded to include a fifth neighborhood -- Wesley Heights -- to join Berkley, Foxhall, Kent, and the Palisades as areas served by our wonderful volunteers.

And in 2012, after our contingeent won prizes in the annual MacArthur Boulevard Fourth of July parade for the third year in a row, we managed a major transition:  Sonia Crow, our founding Executive Director, left after four very productive years of guiding the growth of Palisades Village, and was succeeded in October by Peggy Newman.

Download the Palisades Village brochure (PDF 326k).