After 45 years of working for and growing the TVS team, Nancy Stricker and Becky Alderman have learned that life is full of ups and downs and sometimes, all you need is a helping hand to make it through the hard times.

The dedication and hard work of Nancy and Becky is what led the TVS Board of Directors to initiate the Stricker-Alderman Fund to honor their tireless efforts of providing work for people with disabilities and barriers to employment.

The Stricker-Alderman Fund is founded on experience, perspective, and service.

Nancy Stricker’s dedication is built on the core belief that all people regardless of ability, challenges, or position at work, or in their lives, have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

In 1974, Nancy assumed her first role as a Direct Support Professional and thus began her career at TVS. Nancy’s subsequent roles were many and varied as the organization grew from its early role as a sheltered workshop into a solid source of dignified employment for people with disabilities. She supervised assembly contracts, drove business development – including securing a game-changing contract with DuPont, while also managing the facility. In 1987, Nancy became Executive Director and continued to serve TVS for another 30 years before retiring as CEO in 2016. She currently serves on the TVS Board of Directors and is actively engaged in community relations for TVS.

Becky Alderman was hired as the Program Director in 1967 after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with a major in Sociology. But if you ask her, she will jokingly tell you her real major was in “Saving the World.” While our patch of the world is small, it is easy to see how her perseverance is leaving a lasting impression, one individual at a time. Becky worked as the TVS Chief Operating Officer prior to retiring in 2020 and she remains more committed than ever to the TVS mission. 

Becky’s devotion to TVS has allowed program participants to flourish through a broad range of community-oriented activities and for employees to enjoy living wage jobs that produce food for the U.S. government and military. Her prized accomplishment has been seeing how meaningful employment through steady Government services contracts has increased stature and dignity of people with disabilities and other challenges in our community.