Straight from the TAP – Amy Pemberton

Amy Pemberton is a Technical Assistance Provider (TAP) with RCAP’s Southeast partner, the Southeastern Rural Community Assistance Project (SERCAP), and has been employed with them for a little under a year. Her one year anniversary is coming up on June, 1!

Prior to retiring last year in May, Amy worked with the Virginia Department of Health for 30 years. She worked primarily in environmental health and worked with individuals within the onsite sewage and water programs. Amy decided to leave her brief retirement of two weeks to work at SERCAP in her state of Virginia as a TAP because she refused to stay at home and be unemployed. One day she was looking for a retirement gig, saw an advertisement featuring SERCAP, she applied and was hired very shortly after, stating “timing is everything”.

Despite her tenure at SERCAP only being under a year, she’s been enjoying her time and learning new tools to work with communities. COVID-19 has mangled her abilities to interact with communities and staff in person, which Amy claims “has definitely been a challenge”. Despite those challenges, she has been able to work outdoors doing mapping jobs using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and has attended a few community meetings.

“Despite my timing on joining the organization, I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to learning, meeting new people, and experiencing new things”

Amy’s future goals are to continue being an advocate for the quiet voices and making a difference in small ways. “I want to make sure those people are heard and we have the platform to do it,” Amy said. Thank you, Amy, for all of the hard work and dedication you’ve shown to improve the quality of life, starting at the tap.

Below you’ll find our interview in full, including her backstory, her unusual length of retirement, and her future aspirations!

The audio recording of Amy’s interview