TEWKSBURY — In the up­coming 2025 annual town el­ection, the race for the two open seats on the Board of Health will have three candidates, two incumbents and candidate Pamela LeFave.

Although LeFave is technically a new face to the Board of Health, she did receive some support as a write-in candidate for the board in the 2024 election, and has been a long-time Tewksbury resident.

Originally from Arlington, Virginia, LeFave attended George Washington Universi­ty and Long Beach State Uni­versity.

After LeFave’s husband, Bob, returned from Vietnam, they moved to Massachu­setts, eventually settling down in Tewks­bury in 1975 to raise a family.

Throughout her career, LeFave has held such positions as customer service representative, small business manager and most recently, Program Assistant in the 4-H program.

In her 20 years as a Pro­gram Assistant for 4-H, her responsibilities included ma­naging 200 to 300 volunteers and mentoring youth in de­veloping leadership and speak­ing skills.

As required by her 4-H position, LeFave has obtained and maintained ServeSafe Certi­fication, which verifies a per­son to have sufficient food safety knowledge to protect the public from food borne illness.

This position also helped LeFave to develop her own skills as a listener, in relationship building and in resolving conflict. These traits along with her ServeSafe Certifi­ca­tion are attributes that LeFave feels will transition well as a successful Board of Health member.

With the future of federal guidelines unclear in the up­coming year, LeFave has stated that as a member of the Board of Health, she will take directives from state guidelines and move forward as needed.

One issue LeFave would like to tackle on day one, if elected, is to address residents’ concerns over homelessness and hoarding issues within the community, and feels strongly about addressing all issues brought to the board by town residents.

“I believe it is very important to carefully research topics of concern, and gather information from the townspeople prior to moving forward with decision making,” said LeFave.

To prepare for the upcoming election and to be ready to get to work on day one, LeFave has attended several Board of Health meetings in person to keep abreast of the board’s direction.

For more information on Pa­mela LeFave’s campaign for Board of Health, email her at plefave@umext.umass.edu.