Volunteer Spotlight: Connecting People, Building Communities

When Mary Esther Van Shura arrived in Western Pennsylvania in 1980, she came with a teacher’s heart and a desire to serve. Having been a schoolteacher for the past seven years, she began a new career working with individuals with intellectual disabilities. Her path would eventually lead her into politics, community leadership, and, ultimately, a lifelong mission of service.

Her first campaign work in 1989 opened the door to a whirlwind career in public life at the federal, county and city levels. By 1993, she was state director for U.S. Senator Harris Wofford’s office in Pittsburgh with a primary focus on health care. .

Aside from her government experience, politics became a passion—one she describes not as a profession but as a responsibility. It was an honor to serve as an elector in the Electoral College of 1992 and a Teller for the Electoral College in 2020.

At the same time, she built a deep academic foundation. She would go on to earn her doctorate in education from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002 and then as an Adjunct Associate Professor guiding students to think critically about how politics, education, and community needs intersect. “People know the political side of me,” she says. “But I’ve always had an academic side, too.”

Her work with older adults began almost by accident when she secured a position with the City of Pittsburgh in 1996 with primary oversight of senior community centers. She quickly realized she had found another calling. She set out to transform senior centers into “life-affirming experiences,” places that could meet social, physical, and intellectual needs. Renovations brought in exercise equipment, gardens, bocce courts, and spaces for community gatherings. “I always said a senior center should be a place I could take my own parents,” she recalls.

Since joining AARP Pennsylvania’s Executive Council in 2022, Mary Esther has continued to do what she does best: connect people. Whether in rural towns or urban neighborhoods, she believes every older adult deserves dignity, opportunity, and care. “As long as I’m above the grass,” she says, “I’m here to serve.”