Mystic Area Shelter and Hospitality (MASH) Announces
New Executive Director

For Immediate Release Date: June 9, 2009

Contact: Lisa Tepper Bates, Executive Director, MASH, 860-245-0222, ltb@mashshelter.org

Natalie Burfoot Billing, President of the MASH Board of Directors announced today that Lisa Tepper Bates, of Stonington, has been named MASH’s new Executive Director. “MASH is grateful to Lynda McCrea for her three wonderful years of service,” said Ms. Billing. “We are excited to have Lisa Tepper Bates on board, to continue and expand the work that Lynda has done to make a positive impact on the problem of family homelessness in southeastern Connecticut.”

MASH operates a 24-bed shelter program of individual housing units for homeless families with children. MASH has also pioneered an eviction prevention program that the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness has hailed as a premier effort to address homelessness in 2008. Since opening its doors in December 1999, MASH has offered a temporary home to over 335 children and parents who would have otherwise been without a roof over their heads. This represents nearly 10,000 shelter nights and over 36,300 bed nights.

Ms. Bates comes to MASH following 14 years in the U.S. Diplomatic Service and after completing an MBA with a focus on non-profit management at the Yale University School of Management. During her diplomatic career, Bates worked on critical European issues, including the peace processes in the former Yugoslavia. She served at U.S. Embassies in Poland, Albania, Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro, and also held positions at the Department of State and at the National Security Council in the White House.

Bates says she was inspired to shift her focus to work on domestic issues in the United States after many years of work in foreign affairs. “I was proud to represent the U.S. overseas and to serve my country by advancing our national security and international interests. But I felt it was time to put my energy into a different sort of public service – to address challenges here at home, challenges like homelessness.”