by Deirdre Marlowe

The 2025 US Servas elections held this past October seated four new board members. They come from the West Coast, East Coast and middle of the  country, and most have already been active in Servas.

Lisa Aiken, a multi-lingual Spanish and French speaker, will serve from 2026-2028. She is from Massachusetts and has worked with several committees including Volunteer Coordination as well as assisting at events and tabling for Servas at a foreign language teachers conference.

Giovanni Dubois hails from California and will also serve from 2026-2028. In addition to being a mechanical engineer, he has worked to further partnerships for Latino and other youth. He hopes to increase our outreach to youth and is ready to roll up his sleeves and support Servas.

Steven Starr was an interim Board member for much of 2025 and will continue serving on the Board through 2028. He is a retired Chicago math teacher and former industrial model and toy maker. He would like to see more time spent on outreach to younger people and a re-emphasis on peace building.

Kenneth Ventress lives across the river from NYC in Jersey City. He is a software engineer and looks forward to putting his skills to use as well as redoubling our efforts with younger members. He will serve from 2026-2027.

There will be a Board retreat later this month. It will be a time of conversation and goal setting for the new year. Look for news of the retreat in the next issue of Open Doors.