Lisa Millican is on a mission to provide the best service possible to Senior Services participants. Like many other Senior Services employees, Lisa was drawn to the organization’s mission and the positive impact that the work we do has on the community. She currently works as a Meals-on-Wheels Services Associate and has been a Senior Services staff member since May 2017. However, Lisa’s story of mission-driven excellence began almost 16 years before that as a Meals-on-Wheels volunteer.
A graduate of East Carolina University, Millican started her career as an Occupational Therapist. She eventually left the workforce to start and raise a family. Around the time that her youngest child entered school, Lisa read an announcement in her church bulletin that Meals-on-Wheels was starting a new route and needed volunteers. At the time, she was a member at Mt. Tabor United Methodist church. The new Meals-on-Wheels route was being named after the church because they were heavily involved in recruiting volunteers for the route. When called on for help, Lisa’s overall mindset has always been to start with, “Yes, I’ll do it.”
Recognizing that she had more time on her hands now that her children were in school, Millican decided to team up with her friend Tanya and answer the call for volunteers. She and Tanya delivered meals together on the Mt. Tabor route, twice a month, for several years. When Tanya was no longer able to volunteer with the program, Lisa continued to deliver on her own and began volunteering for other Senior Services events like, Fair Parking and Evening For Alzheimer’s Care. Delivering Meals-on-Wheels brought her a feeling of purpose and pride. So much so, that she wanted to share that feeling with someone special and began to invite her dad along for the ride. His involvement in community service influenced Lisa’s perspective on service while as she grew up. Delivering meals with her father seemed to make her admiration and appreciation for Senior Services grow even more.
Then something interesting happened. A position opened on the Meals-on-Wheels staff and Lisa applied. Plot twist—she didn’t get the job. Instead of being disheartened, Lisa continued to joyfully deliver her route as a volunteer and deepen the relationship that she had with the participants on her route. She was committed to fulfilling the mission, whether she was being paid or not. As it turns out, Lisa had to devote more time to helping her aging parents transition from their family 
home into a senior community during the following year. Not getting that job turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As fate would have it, once her parents were settled, another position opened at Senior Services and she decided to apply again. Not long after that, she joined the Senior Services staff as a Meals-on-Wheels Services Associate.
Lisa’s key role is to visit with participants in their homes to gather the information used in their reassessments. After she started, she found that many of the participants she served were the same ones that she had on her delivery route. “I was so excited to go from the brief exchanges that we had while I was delivering, to being able to spend more time getting to know each participant and their needs.” Milican’s position as has provided an opportunity to share in the Senior Services mission on a whole new level.
A second plot twist. The COVID-19 pandemic caused Senior Services to set in place certain safety protocols that halted Lisa’s ability to do home visits. She dearly misses the face-to-face interactions with participants and looks forward to when home visits resume. Lisa is anxious to not only see the people but to also witness their living situations first-hand. . “I do my best to maintain a personable connection with the participants over the phone, but I am always concerned that there may be needs that they aren’t sharing with us over the phone. I understand that people will put their best foot forward. When you ask how they’re doing over the phone, they are often more inclined to say that they are ‘fine,’ when in reality they have unmet needs. Sometimes they aren’t aware that help is available for a specific issue, or they just may not be comfortable discussing it. During home visits, we have the opportunity to do a visual assessment and ask questions that can lead to referrals for additional services.”
Even in the face of the challenges COVID-19 has presented, Lisa Millican is determined to provide the best possible service to our community. “I try to make sure that I invest time in referrals. A person may not immediately accept help and I’m not in the home to assess 
the severity of the need. But I’ve seen situations when a participant may have declined a referral several times when I called for their reassessment, and later on, called to ask for the service themselves.”
Having to work around not doing home visits may have been a challenge for Millican over the last year, but she holds herself accountable to Senior Services participants and the Meals-on-Wheels team. “I feel fortunate to work here and I always try to work hard and do my best.” Senior Services is stronger because of Lisa’s determination to fulfill the mission by meeting participant’s needs.. Thank you, Lisa, for all that you do! You truly add value to the Senior Services team.