32 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MAY 2019
PRESS HEALTH
TACKLING MENTAL HEALTH ONE ISSUE AT A TIME
continued from page 31
WellLife is a $100 million nonprofit
serving some 25,000 individuals
through 100 programs that cover behavioral
health, family developmental
disabilities, addiction recovery
services, vocational training, and
food pantries. It employs more than
1,800 people, including psychologists,
psychiatrists, social workers, and
direct-support professionals.
About 50 percent of WellLife’s work
focuses on the developmentally
disabled and the other 50 percent on
those suffering with mental health
and drug abuse issues. Established
in 1980, it also operates group homes.
May is Mental Health Month, and
Tucker said WellLife will staff a table
at the National Alliance on Mental
Ilnesss’ May 10 walk-a-thon. WellLife
is also hosting a community service
day May 17. About 100 volunteers,
composed of community members
and staff, will work on beautification
projects at its facilities.
Sitting at a conference table in her
third-floor office, Tucker, a native
Midwesterner, says she doesn’t think
she would be WellLlife’s CEO had it
not been for what she and her family
went through.
“I think all of that enlightened me,”
says Tucker, a CPA by training. “It
awakened me to spirituality. My
husband and I focused on what was
coming next and what we had to do.”
Before Zach’s illness, the family was
living a “very typical and normal”
life in Florida, where they moved to
escape Midwestern winters.
“Our family was living the middle
class American dream,” Tucker
wrote in a book she published in
2008, Unfinished Love: Walking By
Faith Through Pediatric Cancer.
“We certainly never thought about
pediatric cancer,” Tucker wrote.
The mourning was deep. But according
to Tucker, one day, the couple’s
daughter, then 11, said, “’Mom, Zack
would not want this. He would want
us to celebrate his life.’”
“That knocked me over,” Tucker
recalls.
Tucker decided, she says, that God
had a mission for her, to help others
heal.
She started an organization in
Tampa, Giving Hope through Faith
Foundation, which offered services to
children fighting cancer at local hospitals.
She gave out $100 coupons to
Wal-Mart so parents could buy food,
toys, fuel, or simply go to a movie.
Even the small dollar amounts helped.
“One mother said, ‘Thank you. I used
the money so I could buy a dress to
bury my daughter in,” Tucker recalls.
Through a business connection in
Florida, Tucker hooked up with an
agency, then known as Promoting
Specialized Care and Health (PSCH),
which later became WellLife. She
signed on as a consultant in 2010,
became chief financial officer in 2015
and CEO on July 1, 2018. The family
now lives in Roslyn. She replaced
Alan M. Weinstock, who retired last
year after 11 years.
Joshua Lamberg, founder and CEO
Lamb Insurance Services, which
works exclusively with nonprofit and
social service agencies, has come to
know Tucker well.
“Sherry has been outstanding in the
way she has managed her staff and
moved WellLife into the forefront of
the industry,” says Lamberg, who last
year was honored by the agency for
contributions to its programs.
Tucker is guided by seeing to it that
she follows principles her son would
favor.
“I want that moment when I see my
Zack next,” she says, her voice steady
and strong. “He will say, ‘Mom you
made me proud. You made a difference
in life.’”
Turning 65 and ready for Medicare,
or eligible for Medicare and Medicaid? Yes
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