Serita Lacasse

Serita Photo

  • Name

    Serita Lacasse

  • Title

    Executive Director

  • Organization Name

    Senior Access

  • Number of Years as Executive Director

    I started the Senior Access group in 2003 and became Executive Director in 2004 (18 years).

  • What does your organization do?

    Senior Access provides seniors the opportunities to get out of their homes. We provide free transportation and support services to seniors over the age of 60. In addition to transportation, we provide Senior Buddies (a one-on-one volunteer to help them with grocery shopping and errands), minor home repairs, a medical loan closet and monthly Grand Adults day (a monthly social gathering for our seniors).

    Our services are provided in Round Rock, Hutto, Pflugerville, Manor, Northeast and East Austin.

  • How did you become interested in this work?

    As a social worker, I saw a need in the community and wanted to make sure all seniors in Pflugerville could get out of their homes when they wanted. I believe we all want to stay independent in our community and want to participate in activities we enjoy, shop for ourselves, and give back when we can. We cannot do this without adequate transportation. This motivates me to expand our services.

  • What drives your passion?

    Seeing the smiles and gratitude of our seniors. Senior Access has the most wonderful clients. They not only have taught me a lot of things, they have shown me how much they can do with just a ride. Working with our senior population is a way to learn from their experiences and find ways to make things better.

  • Do you have a mentor or a role model?

    My role model and mentor was a wonderful woman who was my supervisor at a Geriatric Evaluation Center in Houston. She was amazing at working with seniors and showed me how to treat a senior with respect and get the most out of them. I miss her greatly, she passed away a few years ago from cancer.

  • What's the biggest challenge in your work?

    Senior Access' biggest challenge is keeping up with the number of seniors requesting rides with the amount of volunteers helping. The pandemic brought a high number of volunteers at the beginning that wanted to help, but now with COVID Fatigue and rising fuel prices, volunteers are not coming back as quickly. This is a challenge to figure out the next way to motivate volunteers.

  • What's the best advice that you have ever received?

    Don’t take No personally. When you are passionate about something, easy to assume others are too. Just realize it is their issue, not yours, and move on and grow.

  • What are your top tips for new Executive Directors?

    1. You do not have to do everything yourself, learn to delegate.
    2. If something doesn’t feel right, it is not. Trust your gut.
    3. Respect and treat your staff, volunteers and board like you want to be treated.