Steering Committee
Alicia Kennedy, RN, Part-time Director & Care Manager
Alicia Kennedy, RN was one of the founding members of Tara Home and has served as a lead helping the admissions committee, scheduling and training of volunteers. She has spent her career in the field of nursing in a variety of settings and has supported the core services for Tara Home with dedication, creativity, and wonderful clinical skills.
Majel Jordan
Majel Jordan is a founding memeber of Tara Home. She has worked in the human services field in Santa Cruz County for over 35 years, beginning in 1974 as a grant writer and program developer with the Community Action Board. She then began working with and developing programs in the field of aging and in 1981 was the founding director of Elderday Adult Day Health Center. In 1992 she founded The Gardens Residential Care Facility that was designed especially for elders with Alzheimer’s disease and those with mental health problems. Both Elderday and The Gardens received national recognition from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Alzheimer’s Association for quality and innovation.
Over the years, Majel has served on many community boards and commissions, all of which are designed to provide services to those in need in our community. She has also served on the Community Bridges Board of Directors. Majel serves Tara Home as an administrative advisor, and provides hands-on care.
Lennie Kronisch
Lennie is a Registered Nurse with a Master’s degree in Psychology. Her career has spanned birth to death, with mental health and holistic health included. She has been a childbirth educator and assistant, a psychiatric nurse, was a founder of the Holistic Health Institute in San Francisco and spent the last seven plus years of her employment with Hospice of Santa Cruz County.
After her retirement in 1998, she devoted herself to the development of Tara Home, a guesthouse for terminally ill people at Land of Medicine Buddha in Soquel, providing around-the-clock care by a team of trained volunteers. She also frequently leads Buddhist meditations and talks for Road Scholars (formerly Elderhostel) groups.
Lennie has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since 1975, has three children and four grandchildren and lives in Capitola.
In 2005, she was personally honored by H.H.Dalai Lama as an 'Unsung Hero of Compassion' for her work in creating Tara Home.
Gan Neh Na Downing, RN, Outreach
Gan Neh Na is a Registered Hospice Nurse. Gan Neh Na supports outreach activities, and provides hands-on care for Tara Home.
Dawni Pappas, Program Support
Dawni is a Spiritual Practitioner of Higher Consciousness, graduating from Inner Light Ministries Formal Curriculum in 2012. She is trained in spiritual leadership, prayer support, pastoral care, and developing cross cultural awareness and compassion. Dawni has also enjoyed many years of giving in home health care support, business and spiritual group marketing, fundraising, and working with others through deep and transformative life changes. Dawni assists with volunteer recruitment, and provides hands-on care.
