By DAVE SCHULTZ
Betsy Collier, who has worked for the Wells County Council on Aging for 13 years, will be the agency’s new administrator.
Collier, who has been the transportation program manager, will take over the position immediately. Bonnie Valind, who has led the agency for 33-plus years, retired as of Friday.
Valind recommended Collier for the job, and the Council on Aging’s board agreed with the recommendation.
“She is familiar with the agency and is dedicated to our community,” Valind said.
Collier, in an email sent over the weekend, said she was “looking forward to ‘taking the reins’ and continuing the positive impact of the Wells County Council on Aging in the community.”
“I am open to new avenues to be a catalyst of change to sustain the agency moving forward,” Collier said. “My goal is to progress and solidify the growth of the organization.”
Collier is a Fort Wayne native. She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of St. Francis and also has an associate’s degree in computer science from Ivy Tech.
She and her husband, Shawn, have three children, who are all young adults, and two dogs, also known as her “furbabies.”
The appointment of Collier was part of a larger succession plan developed by Valind. In addition to Collier taking over as the agency’s director, Susie Ehlerding will assume the new position of associate director and Sandra Bayne will take over for Collier as the transportation program manager.
The promotion of Ehlerding “helps to create an organization with more depth in the absence of the lead administrator,” Valind said. She said Bayne has served as a dispatcher for many years and is familiar with Wells on Wheels, the agency’s transportation program.
“I think they will all work very hard and hopefully makes my absence a more seamless transition,” Valind said. “I wish them all the best!”
daves@news-banner.com
