Meet Our Team
Malka Young, LICSW, CCM
Director, Allies in Aging JFS Elder Care Solutions
Malka Young is the Director of the Allies in Aging JFS Elder Care Solutions program and provides a full range of life care management services for older adults and their families with a multidisciplinary team of social workers and nurses.
Malka received her Master’s degree in Social Work from Boston University and graduated from Brandeis University. She is a frequent presenter at local and national conferences. Malka addresses the challenges of aging in community, living well with chronic illness, caring for aging parents, grief and bereavement. She is a published author and was the first social worker in the pioneering Geriatric Evaluation Unit at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plan.
She is an advanced professional member of the Aging Life Care Association and holds specialty certification from the National Association of Social Workers as a certified advanced social work case manager.
Specialties:
- Living Well with Chronic Illness
- Geriatric Care Management
- Family Relationships/Caring for Aging Parents
- Dementia and Neurological Disease
- Family Caregiver Coaching
- Jewish Resources for Aging Well
Laila Vehvilainen, MS, MPH, NASM-CPT, CDP
Geriatric Care Manager Associate
Laila Vehvilainen joins Allies in Aging JFS Elder Care Solutions as a Geriatric Care Manager Associate. You may know her from her work in JFS Healthy Aging program as a Fitness Instructor and in home Personal Trainer for some of our geriatric care management clients. She brings a wealth of experience to the program, working for the past 5 years at North Hill Life Care Community in Needham. She has Senior Fitness Specialist, Arthritis Instructor and Dementia Care certifications. She earned her Master’s in Gerontology and in Public Health,
She has done research in aging as a Research Project Manage and was a Program Director at a Council on Aging. Laila speaks Latvian fluently and has working knowledge of Spanish, Germán and Finnish.
Eileen Winston, MD
Geriatric Care Manager
Eileen practiced rheumatology, primarily in Framingham, for 33 years and retired from medicine 6 1/2 years ago. She did primarily clinical practice, seeing patients. She also taught interns and residents for years, giving them introduction to rheumatology lecture series. Eileen has always been interested in healthcare advocacy, having trained in an inner-city hospital and later on working with pharmaceutical companies to try to make medication more affordable to her patients while in practice.
“I think that people should be able to age in a way that is best for them and their families, but even more importantly have a Voice-and have someone who advocates for them”
Shashona Kaye, RN, BSN
Registered Nurse
Shashona Kaye received her nursing degree from Northeastern University. Upon graduation Shona immediately began working with the senior community at a nursing home specializing in long term care, dementia, sub acute care and rehabilitation. Her wide range of nursing experience has included camp nursing, operating room, recovery room, office setting and several years working in the home care industry.
Throughout her nursing career, Shona has worked as a nurse liaison between home care agencies and doctors/hospitals as well as having worked closely with nurse case managers, social workers and physicians, giving her a unique and comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of elder care and home care.
Shona enjoys the process of assessing, planning, coordinating, monitoring and providing services for the elderly and their families. She finds great reward in working with seniors as she truly respects and appreciates their life experience and all they have offered to society. Shona brings an exceptional level of compassion and empathy to her work and that, combined with her vast experience, makes her a valued asset to the Allies in Aging team.
Mayra Tardiff
Director, Homecare
Mayra, originally from El Salvador, is a longtime resident of Massachusetts. She oversees the JFS Homecare program, ensuring that our older adult clients have the homemaking and personal care services they need to live in their homes, safely and with dignity. Mayra speaks English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. She loves to travel and spend time with her family.
Dámaris Medina-Hernández
Homecare Training Manager
Dámaris joined the team at JFS in 2000, and has extensive experience caring for and attending to the needs of elders in the Metrowest community. Before coming to JFS, she studied mental health and computer software at the CUC University of Puerto Rico and the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. She especially enjoys the opportunity to give back to the community and the chance to work with many different cultures and to learn from them.