​Meet Our Executive Committee
​

​Linda Dixon served for 20 years in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. An active volunteer for Lexington, she chairs the Monuments and Memorials Committee and serves on the Town Celebrations Committee and as a Town election officer. Linda served as Secretary to the Board of Trustees at Tufts University and before that spent 15 years as a market research consultant. She is a graduate of Tufts University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. A former President of the Tufts Alumni Association, she chaired the Gift Planning Committee for the University’s recently completed $1.5 billion capital campaign.  

Edith Flynn is an internationally recognized criminologist with a focus on corrections, international criminal justice, and terrorism. She completed her Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD in Sociology at the University of Illinois and joined the faculty at Illinois in 1971. While there, she co-founded the National Clearinghouse for Criminal Justice Planning and Architecture.  Edith and her husband Pat, a highly decorated veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, moved to Lexington in 1973.  Edith joined the faculty at Northeastern University, retiring in 2003. She served for years as chair of the Public Safety Staffing Review Committee and as member of the Police Manual Policy Committee.   

Bruce Jackan was commissioned into the US Army Infantry from the US Military Academy in 1976. Dduring his 21-year Army career, he served in Airborne, Ranger, and light infantry units.  He had tours  in Korea, Panama, Saudi Arabia, and throughout the US.  He deployed with the 82nd Airborne Division in 1990 for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After retirement from the Army in 1997, Bruce earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley. He worked in an online real estate start-up, a non-profit research start-up, and as the executive officer for a research organization at Harvard University. Bruce and his wife Beth have two adult children and have lived in Lexington since 2004. He is a member of kthe Lexington Catholic Community and has organized annual mission trips to Guaimaca, Honduras since 2016.

 

 Doris Kraemer is a registered nurse who is certified in community health, gerontology, and bioethics.  As Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Assuricare, she developed services and technology to assist seniors and their families access long term care benefits and reimbursement.  Doris is passionate about supporting families impacted by substance use disorder. In addition to working with Learn to Cope, she serves on the Falmouth Commission on Substance Use and is a board member of RIZE in Boston. She continues to support Metro East Medical Reserve Corps under FEMA by providing vaccinations and emergency preparedness for her local community. For the Lexington Veterans, Doris oversees the many aspects of the Pat Flynn Outstanding Youth Award, given to a deserving high school student on Patriots’ Day.

Gresh Lattimore earned his BA at the University of the South and a PhD in German affairs from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He was commissioned at Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, and spent two years aboard the aircraft carrier USS CORAL SEA off Vietnam and one year instructing at the US Naval Academy. After chaplaincy training upon his retirement from 30 years of commercial banking, Gresh volunteers with the hospice unit of the Bedford VA Medical Center, serves on the Lexington Town Celebrations committee, chairs the alumni committee Advocates for Tufts ROTC, and is an active member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Concord.  

Bob Lewis enjoys presenting talks on military history, and has presented several for the Lexington Veterans Association. Bob’s favorite talk takes advantage of his experience as a Navy pilot with the story of the pursuit of the German Battleship Bismarck by Royal Navy aircraft carrier-based torpedo bombers, which eventually scored a crippling hit on the Bismarck. After Navy active duty, Bob taught Junior High, then became a MITRE Engineer for 30 years which included many years at HQ U.S. Army Europe in Germany. Bob serves on the boards of the Weston Historical Society, the Lexington Veterans Association, a local church, and a local food pantry.  

Ed LoTurco spent over 50 years in senior management positions responsible for Design Services, International Engineering Services, and product marketing, and was the Principal Owner of EDM Consulting. Ed spent four years with the US Air Force as an AeroMedic during the Vietnam Era. As Founding Producer of the LVA’s monthly speaker programs, Ed spent many years filming presentations for LexMedia for future rebroadcast locally and on YouTube. Ed is a Board member of the FBI Citizens Academy of Boston and the Mary Cummings Park in Burlington. He is past chapter president and International Board member of the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM).  

Lorain Marquis, Executive Committee Treasurer, wanted to work with veterans after the death of her husband Jack, a 20-year veteran of the Massachusetts National Guard, because the military had been a big part of their lives. A 50-year resident of Lexington, Lorain has two sons and four grandchildren. She began her accounting career at 17 and worked at Boston Federal Savings Bank for over 25 years. Lorain is an active member and former chair of the Town Celebrations Committee, and board member of the Friends of the Council on Aging. She is the Membership Chair of the Hanscom Spouses Club and is active at St. Brigid’s Church. 

Jim Ramsey earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Cornell University, where he completed the Naval ROTC Program. He served in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps for 5 years, including a tour as company commander with a Seabee battalion in Vietnam. A Harvard MBA, Jim worked in management consulting, marketing and business development positions with several companies. As a longtime volunteer with the Veterans’ Library at the Bedford VA Hospital, Jim conceived the idea of live streaming LVA monthly programs directly to veterans in long term care. That idea has developed into a close partnership between LVA and Bedford which enriches the lives of many veterans.

Jim Wood graduated from the Virginia Military Institute with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. He served three years active duty as a 1st Lt. Ground Electronics Officer, USAF, 738 AC&W Squadron, Olathe Naval Air Station, Olathe, Kansas. Most of his work experience was with the Military-Industrial Complex: major programs, Polaris Submarine Program, Vitro Labs, Patriot Missile & Marketing, Raytheon, Ground Defense, Saudi Arabia, and Boeing. Currently a Financial Advisor, Jim moderates the “Money Matters” drop in group at the Lexington Community Center. A long term volunteer in Lexington, he was one of the original members (now 20 years) of the Lexington Tree Committee.  ​

Karen Tyler has been serving Veterans and their families for over eight years as a Veterans Service Officer by assisting them to seek out and obtain Veterans benefits. An Army veteran who served during the Global War on Terror as a Mental Health Specialist, Karen performed one-on-one counseling and pre-deployment screenings in Germany. Following her discharge, she used her GI Bill to earn a master’s degree in public administration from Framingham State University. Karen also serves as a volunteer for Team Rubicon, a Veterans organization that mobilizes for disaster relief. She has been deployed six times for domestic emergencies such as hurricanes and flooding. Karen is the proud mother of a strong independent daughter who is currently studying International Relations at UMass Boston.

Phil Schaffer (Emeritus) served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, active duty 1957: Fort Dix, NJ and Fort Bliss, TX. He earned Bachelor's and Master of Science Degrees in Metallurgy-Materials Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A resident of Lexington for 54 years, he’s been married for 57 years with two children and four grandchildren. Phil has been a Little League manager, a Coach for the Lexington Blue Sox Intercity Baseball League, and a member of the Paint Rock Neighborhood Swimming Pool Board. He has served many local organizations, including the Lexington Medical Research Corps, the Lexington 2020 Committee, and the Board of the MILES senior learning program at Middlesex Community College.  

Warren Winslow (Emeritus) is a forty-year veteran of the Lexington Public Schools. A graduate of Worcester State College and Northeastern University, he taught US history at Jonas Clarke Middle School from 1964 -2004. A Lexington resident passionate about keeping history alive, Warren joined the Lexington Veterans Association after his retirement. Warren led dozens of annual field trips to Washington DC, Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Annapolis, and New York City to provide his students with a lifelong appreciation of our country’s history. He was the DAR teacher of the year in 1992 and was a candidate for the Teacher in Space Shuttle Mission.