When Nancy Webre was growing up, she maintained a close relationship with her grandparents.
This relationship, according to Webre, first led her to consider not just aging issues, but the need for people to age with independence and dignity.
“When I was in college, I started taking courses in gerontology,” she said. “I also did some volunteer work with seniors. The more I pursued this, the more my interest in the field of gerontology began to grow.”
This passion of working with seniors eventually led to Webre’s founding, with her husband John, of the longest standing in-home care agency in the state of Oregon.
Established in 1982, Evergreen In-Home Care Services, based in Bend, provides a range of in-home care services for seniors, people with disabilities, and individuals recovering from illness, injury or surgery. An array of both long-and short-term services are provided by Evergreen in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties.
Webre’s journey toward providing such services, as well as becoming a community advocate for senior issues, hit full stride in 1975. That’s when she was among the first group of people in the country to be given a full-ride fellowship to pursue her
master’s degree in gerontology by the Administration on Aging in Washington D.C.
“That’s when the Administration on Aging recognized there was going to be an influx in the aging population, and that the country was unprepared to face it,” Webre said. Webre’s pursuit of a master’s degree in gerontology from Oregon State University — which she received in 1977 — was almost unheard of at the time.
“People would say to me, ‘Why are you doing this — getting a degree in the field of aging?’” she said. “It was just something I loved. I had become passionate about it, and I still have that passion to this day.”
Today, Webre is a certified geriatric case manager, an advisory board member for the Bend Senior Center, a board member for the Senior Care Network, and a current member of the Oregon Gerontological Association and American Society on Aging.
With a staff of more than 60 caregivers supervised by a registered nurse, Webre continues to operate Evergreen In-Home Care Services as an independently owned business, providing such services as respite care, nursing services, geriatric care management, personal care, medication monitoring, meal preparation and light housekeeping.
All this, Webre says, so people can maintain their independence and dignity in the comfort of their own homes.
As seen in U Magazine: All Because She Cares
Summer 2011