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After being named the Ride Service manager for Senior Resources of Freeborn County in February, Denise Tipton has taken over as the interim executive director as of March.

Tipton has lived in Albert Lea since 2010 and worked at Mayo Clinic as a lab technician before taking a career change and moving into the nonprofit business.

During the 2016 floods in Albert Lea, Tipton worked with United Way, Habitat for Humanity and Lutheran Social Services on disaster case management and helped start a National VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) in the area.

Tipton then went to North Dakota for about a year and a half to help rebuild a Lutheran Social Services office.

“I always planned on coming back, it was never going to be permanent,” Tipton said. “I own my house in Freeborn and this is home. It’s always been home. It was just an opportunity to go and try something different. It was never a permanent situation, going out to North Dakota.”

So far, Tipton said some of her favorite aspects of working for Senior Resources are the great staff, getting to work with the clients and being a part of the community.

She said with seniors bring some of the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, she has been proud that they have been able to keep helping the seniors with anything they might need during the pandemic. Tipton said most of the staff have been able to work from home and the only service they had to shut down was ride services, which they are hoping to get going again in the near future.

Tipton said the pandemic has shown the senior resources staff some things seniors need help with that they didn’t think about before and they have goals set in place for when the pandemic ends to help meet some of those demands.

“One of our goals is to really build our chore services,” Tipton said. “With COVID, it’s kind of opened our eyes to see that there’s a lot of things our senior citizens can use help with that prior to this were not on the front burner. We’re hoping to really build up our chore service and our volunteer base so that we can keep rolling forward with anything that comes at us.”

Outside of work, Tipton said she likes to volunteer. Before taking the job with senior resources, she said she would volunteer for them often. She also enjoys going to church and watching her son shoot trap and box.