Lisa Sheppard remembers how the job posting for director of Flathead County Agency on Aging stood out as she was exploring this area on her computer in Austin, Texas.

“I read it and I said ‘I’m so intrigued by this job. It’s a great fit for me,’” she said. “When I read the description if was basically, you have to be able to do everything. I laughed. That’s like my job now. That’s perfect. I do everything now.”

Sheppard, 47, said her intrigue went beyond the fit with her skills, which include two master’s degrees as well as years of experience in social services. It was the mission of the agency that piqued her interest

“I firmly, absolutely believe that we have to figure out how we are going to serve the aging population,” she said. “That is where the greatest need is going to be. We have been talking an awfully lot about it as a country, but I don’t think we are as prepared as we should be.”

From the work she had done with people of all ages with disabilities, Sheppard found the happiest individuals have meaningful lives with dignity and independence. She said seniors need to live in their own homes as long as possible.

“I think that’s what people want. That’s what people expect,” she said. “I think that makes the most economic sense. Study after study shows that. I think it’s what we all need.”

Sheppard described her home state of Texas as a relatively young state with lots of young families with lots of children. But even Texas has a rapidly aging population like the rest of the country.

She views Montana as ground zero for impending senior population impact.

“A state like Montana — this is the place to figure it out,” she said. “This is the place that is going to be facing it not tomorrow, but today. We can’t afford fiscally not to address it. We can’t afford socially not to address it.”

Management philosophy and ideas bubble forth from Sheppard, fueled from a deep-seated passion for serving people. After growing up in Round Rock, Texas, and graduating from high school, she majored in social work at the University of Texas in Austin.

“I got a master’s degree in social work at a very young age,” she said.

In her first job, Sheppard worked with people with intellectual deficiencies who were on probation, parole or adjudication, finding supports they needed to stay out of the criminal justice system. Her next job was volunteer coordinator at a Salvation Army homeless shelter.

She called that an eye-opening experience, particularly working with one very smart and dedicated volunteer who had cerebral palsy.

“I discovered not only how much I enjoyed working with people with disabilities but also that there were a lot of obstacles out in the world for people to live meaningful lives of their choosing,” she said.

From there, Sheppard moved to United Cerebral Palsy of Texas, a statewide organization serving people with many different developmental disabilities. She worked in several capacities, starting with helping them move from institutional settings into their own homes in the community.

She described the job as an incredible experience.

“I learned a tremendous amount about the long-term care system — what was working and what wasn’t working,” Sheppard said.

Moving next into the administrative and policy end at United Cerebral Palsy of Texas, she realized how important hands-on experience in the field was to be an effective administrator. Sheppard also decided this was where she really enjoyed working.

She returned to school to earn a master’s in public affairs, more commonly called public administration. Her studies included an internship conducting performance audits with the Texas state auditor’s office.

“I would really look at how programs were run,” she said. “Were they efficient? Were they achieving what they said they were going to achieve? How were they doing that and did that make sense?”

This experience gave her a large context for looking at programs and drove home the importance of data collection. It prepared her for her next job “doing everything” at a new nonprofit working to move children with disabilities out of institutions and back with their family or an alternate family.

“When you work at a nonprofit, you actually wear lots of different hats,” she said. “I ended up also being the business person there. I did all the business administration, the financial administration, the budgeting — anything to do with making it run and keeping the money flowing and being in compliance with all the rules and regulations.”

Sheppard wrote grants, developed programs and training manuals and supervised people. She considered the last interaction the most important because she believes that people make any and all organizations work.

Working as a team makes all the difference in achieving success, according to Sheppard.

“We had a very deliberate strategy that everything we did was about relationship building and relationship nurturing,” she said. “You get things done when you work together as people. Organizations are people. Governments are people. Everybody is people and you have to figure out how you are going to work together.”

Sheppard committed to only 16 months on that job, but stayed 10 years until she and her husband, Pete Braun, a policeman, began talking about moving to a less congested, smaller and closer-knit community than Austin. Weekdays meant long commutes followed by weekends battling crowds to finish errands.

Then last summer brought almost 70 days of over 100 degrees.

“My husband, being a police officer, is outside a lot,” she said. “If he has to work an accident, he’s standing on the hot payment. He said ‘I just cannot work another summer in this heat.’”

Braun found this area and began selling the idea to Sheppard and her 18-year-old son Max. As a life-long Texas resident who puts on a sweater at 80 degrees, she had doubts, but kept an open mind while looking at the area.

Then the Flathead County Agency on Aging director job jumped out at her. She applied and came in September for an in-person interview.

“I felt immediately at home, like I wanted to start work yesterday,” she said. “This was an amazing group of people who were doing amazing work and I wanted to contribute to that.”

Sheppard was thrilled when she got the call, then started work on Nov. 1. Her husband stayed behind to sell their home in Austin, but her son recently joined her here to finish up his high school diploma through Running Start courses at Flathead Valley Community College.

While Texans are known as friendly, Sheppard finds Montanans go well beyond exchanging pleasantries .

“People are very genuine. The difference here is it’s much more personal,” she said. “I’ve been so impressed with how friendly everyone is and how welcoming they have been.”

On the job, Sheppard has found no shortages of challenges ahead with federal Older Americans Act programs part of automatic sequestration cuts and major needs for more state revenue in preparation for the silver tsunami.

“I think ongoing funding is an issue and I think it is going to continue to be an issue,” she said. “I don’t think we are going to see an increase in federal support. I think it’s more likely over time we will see a decrease as they push it down even more to the state and even localities.”

Discouraged? Not Sheppard.

She sees opportunities for innovation and creativity in finding ways to help seniors stay healthy, stretch dollars and delay entry into the most expensive long-term care services.

“Prevention and delay — that’s the piece I’m very jazzed up about,” she said. “I think we can show the whole country how to do this work. We just have to figure it out for ourselves first. So that’s the challenge.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.