Centered on helping people

Public service comes naturally to Solomon, who grew up in Montana with parents who both worked as public servants. Building on a career that’s been centered on helping people, she says the SHINE role appealed to her because serving others feeds her soul. She brings experience in education and the senior living industry, having worked as a teacher and school principal, as a Vice President of Revenue Operations at Benchmark Senior Living, and most recently, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Curriculum Associates, an education company. She says that position gave her experience in tackling complicated systems.

“One of my greatest strengths is just my ability to organize and simplify hard things,” Solomon says. “I like to take big, hairy projects and make them consumable. I always ask: What does success look like? How will we measure that?”

Ready to hit the ground running

She’s spent the first few weeks at AgeSpan getting SHINE certified with the state – learning the ins and outs of Medicare. This training usually takes at least eight weeks, but Solomon finished in just four, ready to hit the ground running. Before she began the training, she didn’t know much about Medicare, which she says will help her relate to many of the older adults SHINE serves.

“I’ll have empathy for anyone who is new to Medicare or makes that call because I too am starting from scratch,” she says.

A smooth transition

Solomon takes over the role from outgoing Regional SHINE Director Lisa Rose, who is retiring after 12 years leading the program. The two worked closely together on the transition to try to avoid any disruption to the program.

“Lisa has created quite the legacy. She is so well respected across the state,” Solomon says. “She has done so much to offer me as much information as she can in these last few weeks. I feel lucky and blessed to have had this overlap with her.”

Solomon says she’s felt welcomed by all at AgeSpan and is excited to start developing and working on goals – including working with Medicare Counseling Program Specialist Olivia Paquette and SHINE Program Assistant Kellie Altaffer to streamline operations.

“Any time we can remove roadblocks that make people’s lives harder, we’ve done our service,” Solomon says. “AgeSpan is helping the whole person and their families in so many ways. SHINE is just an additional piece to that puzzle.”

Solomon won’t have to wait long to put her new SHINE certification to the test. Medicare Open Enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7. If you have questions, or want to learn more about this free program, visit the SHINE program page or call 978-946-1374.

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Barb Solomon is new to AgeSpan as the Director of the SHINE Program. She also spends some of her ‘off’ time working with The Women’s Fund of Essex County. Barb’s prior role was Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Curriculum Associates focusing on the customer facing service team and transformation projects. She has a degree from the University of Montana in elementary education and a master’s in educational leadership. She started her career in Washington, DC working for congress and then transitioned back to Montana to be a teacher and principal. She taught grades 4-9 and was a middle and high school principal for many years. She then moved to Iowa where she worked for ACT, Inc. (the testing company) as a product owner and leader of sales for a high school product. She finished her time at ACT as the Senior Director of Innovation. After ACT she worked for Benchmark Senior Living working on sales/marketing/communication/ customer experience as the VP of Revenue Operations.

Barb and her family live in Andover. Outside of work, Barb loves to bake, work in the yard, take walks with her dog and watch college sports.