President’s Corner: Introducing ANCOR’s New Board President, Heidi Mansir

Hello ANCOR Members!

I am excited for this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Heidi Mansir and I am the Executive Director of Uplift, Inc. located in central Maine. I have worked in this field for approximately 30 years and for most of those years I have been a proud ANCOR member. I am honored to have been elected President of this organization. I look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the success of ANCOR, though I am anxious about assuming this leadership role during such difficult times.

For the past year, our lives have been consumed by multiple levels of crisis. A global pandemic, political unrest, workforce crisis, an attack on our democracy and the second impeachment of a President…the list seems to go on and on. Life seems to have screeched to a halt while zooming ahead at 90 miles an hour. It has been frightening and disorienting, and every single one of you has had to step up to challenges that you have never even dreamed of.  We have all had to find ways to get though. For me, looking forward to the future helps.

I look forward to being able to hug; I cannot wait to greet the people that I care about with more than an elbow bump. I can’t wait to be able to really see the smiles that are hiding under all those masks.

I look forward to waking up with optimism for the adventures of the day instead of fear or what the day will bring.

I look forward to meetings in person, to be able to sit across the table to solve a problem that does not involve PPE acquisition or the latest staffing crisis.

I look forward to advocating for things that are important to our community: stabilizing our workforce, sustainable payment models, real lives in real communities…again the list could go on and on.

As we look forward, we have so many reasons to be excited about in the future! But to get there, we have to focus on the tasks of the day to get through this crisis. In the meantime, I hope that you are able to take a few minutes each day to “look forward.”

Heidi Mansir is Executive Director of Uplift, Inc. in Gardiner, Maine, and President of the ANCOR Board of Directors.