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Walking through the purple door at Medford High School, you’ll find nothing has really changed at the Medford Family Network. Except the director’s office.
“It’s actually busier than ever,” says new Director Irina Shumway, sitting behind her desk on a sunny afternoon. “We do have less staff.”
Shumway is doing her old job and that of retired director of 33 years Marie Cassidy. So, yes, it’s been a crazy time.
And how is the community reacting?
“The community is shifting to reaching out to our staffers more,” Shumway says, of what’s been going on since Cassidy’s retirement earlier this summer. “It’s all hands on deck and everyone is taking a role in fulfilling the MFN’s mission.”
Shumway has changed her office furniture and décor.
“I’ve fully moved into the space,” she says, with a laugh. “I need to be physically present.”
Although she’s only been director for a few months, one wonders how Shumway is adjusting to filling Cassidy’s big shoes. She says Cassidy always had the answer to questions or the names of people at her finger tips when asked. For Shumway, it’s not an automatic response.
“Marie knew everybody, and sometimes it takes me longer,” she says. “But I figure it out. I knew I could never replace her because she was always doing the job of three people. That’s where I have to take a pause.”
Shumway says she needs to be more flexible, but she still wants to have a work/life balance and spend time with her two kids, even though they’re older.
“I still want to be part of their lives,” Shumway says. “I think there’s a lot of room to be flexible, to have our staffers go out and take over the activities we’re involved in. There are a lot of things to prioritize.”
Like figuring out the finances, looking at what programs are still working for the community and which might need some tweaking, what other needs residents are facing, and providing resources and working with individual families.
A survey could also be in the future.
“For now, we’re continuing to provide what we’ve been providing,” she says. “But I have ideas. I’ve been here and working on changes with Marie. We tried some of those things together. Marie was flexible about working with me on those ideas."
“The thing is, we are always responding to the community’s needs,” she continues. “Changes happen. People’s needs change. We respond to what those new needs are.”
How she got here
Shumway graduated high school in Worcester, attended college at UMass, where she earned a degree in psychology, and then went on to graduate school to get a master's degree in social work.
During graduate school, Shumway moved to Medford. She got married, had two kids, and decided she wanted to stay home with them “for a bit.”
“That’s how I got into the MFN,” Shumway explains. “I used to come to the MFN a lot, attending the playgroups and the parent classes. I met a lot of people that way.”
That led her to a seat on the board of the Friends of the MFN.
When her kids aged out of MFN programming, Shumway became involved with the public schools. By the time her kids were middle schoolers, she was ready to go back into the workforce.
“Before my kids came along, I worked for the [Department of Children & Families] and I really enjoyed that job,” she says. “I re-applied to DCF on and off for about 18 months until I got the job.”
A licensed social worker, Shumway kept up with the professional standards and education. She even got her school adjustment counselor’s license.
“I started to realize DCF work was very different from what I wanted to commit to,” she says, of those years on the job. “And I was at a place where I wasn’t the kind of parent I wanted to be and it wasn’t the kind of life I wanted to lead.”
The types of cases were tough, the one-hour commute into the city was tough and the weekends on call were tough.
“That’s when I saw a job opening here at the Community and Engagement Office for someone to support the MFN with grants and working in the administrative office and assisting with after-school programs,” Shumway says. “That was about 2021, I think. That office is no longer here.”
Shumway adds the new job was quite an education: learning her way around different grants and how different programs operated and learning about staffing. Then there was the money piece, something she says she “dove right into.”
And then the assistant MFN director position opened. Shumway expressed an interest in the role. After all, she had been on both sides of the organization: a parent and an administrator.
She was hired.
“Marie had been talking about retiring,” Shumway says. “There were a lot of jokes about it. We knew it would be hard for her and challenging for someone who had put so much heart and soul into this. It was going to be hard for her to step back.”
But when the decision was made, Shumway was in place. And, she says, she had a good teacher in Cassidy.
“I think Marie felt really good about leaving the staff who were here,” Shumway says. “She knew we were trustworthy and that she had someone like me who was already working here and had been a parent here.”
But she’s not really gone, Shumway says. Cassidy took over the MFN’s summer concerts and has also expressed some interest in working with the Friends of the MFN.
“I think that’s a good role for her,” she says, adding Cassidy will find something within the MFN that fulfills her.
The director’s role
When her former boss mentioned the assistant MFN director’s role would be a good stepping stone to the director’s role itself, Shumway wasn’t sure she wanted to go that far. She was the program manager for the schools and she was fine with that.
She admits there was a small part of her that wondered if she should take the top job.
“I was at a time in my career and life where I felt like I was doing a good job,” she says. “I felt that if I was met with some pushback and criticism, I was confident in my skill set and what I could take on. I really could step into this role and do a good job.”
And she’d be annoyed with herself if she didn’t at least try.
“I would not be happy with myself if this opportunity presented itself and I didn’t take it,” she admits. “I was ready to take that next step.”
Shumway says the job is demanding.
“It’s a lot,” she says. “I have a running list of things to do. It’s like I’m really busy and constantly moving, and I like that. Things are always changing and it’s different every day.
“I welcome it,” she adds. “I’m so ready for it.”
With summer over and fall here, Shumway says MFN activities will move from the outdoors and into the center or other locations as activities pick up.
“I’m so excited,” she says. “That’s when I’ll start to feel like this is all real!”
When asked the one thing she wants people to know about her, Shumway is thoughtful.
“I’d love for people to know that the open door policy is the same,” she says. “We’re here in the same way that people have come to know and expect from the MFN. I may have a different style, but I would love for people to give me a chance and give themselves the opportunity to get to know me.”
