Neighborhood Connections hires new staffers

Neighborhood Connections welcomed two new staff members in June: Barbara Dailey and Lois Schram Osnow, LCSW.

Barbara Dailey took over as programs coordinator after nearly 16 years working in administration at Brown University, where she honed her skills in collaborating and management of programs, projects, events and data. Prior to that, she homeschooled two sons and has worked as a midwifery assistant and in childcare, restaurants, bookstores and community organizations.

She is responsible for managing Neighborhood Connections’ social services programs, including Friends and Neighbors, the Mountain Town Connector and the School Partnership initiative.

Dailey lives in Jamaica in the house that she built (and is still building) with her husband Tom. They relocated recently from their 1804 homestead on the Rhode Island-Connecticut line. Her hobbies include music, hiking in the mountains and spending time with family and friends.

Lois Schram Osnow is a licensed clinical social worker who recently moved to Vermont from Long Beach, N.Y., where she was the cofounder and owner of LS Gerontology Seminars. She instituted culture change projects in more than 25 long-term care facilities in addition to providing training to more than 75 long-term care facilities in the tri-state area.

“At an early age, my Nana was moved to a long-term care facility, and on my frequent visits with her, I observed first-hand how she was treated and what the environment was like. I vowed to make things better for older people who lived in these establishments.”

As a change agent, she was instrumental in establishing a home setting, eventually introducing service animals. “The first thing you have to do is get everyone on board – to build a community of the administrators and staff who want to institute change because they care – not because they are being told to do so.”

Schram Osnow and her husband Stuart live in Londonderry and are the parents of 22-year-old twins Bennie and Anna Rose. She occasionally brings Jack, her golden retriever who is a retired service animal, to the office.