Hospitality and personal service drive our management team and help define community culture. The ideas, talents and efforts of these professionals and everyone on staff contribute to keeping our not-for-profit retirement community vibrant, dynamic and your best value in Chicago’s southwest suburbs.

Roger Ellens

Roger Ellens

CEO

Roger’s original position at Peace Village was CFO when he started in 2009.  After the retirement of our previous CEO in May 2019, Roger was named CEO.  Prior to becoming CEO and during his tenure at Peace Village, he has had responsibility for finance, computers, human resources, and operations.

Roger has over 20 years of experience in management in financial services, distribution, and nonprofit organizations. He has a degree in accounting from Dordt College and is a CPA. Roger lives in Orland Hills with his wife and two sons.


Brittney Furiak

Brittney Furiak

Director of Health and Wellness

Brittney joined the Peace Village team June of 2022. She comes with 10 years of experience working in senior living. Her love for nursing has always been in working with the geriatric population. Brittney started her career as a CNA caring for seniors in a long-term care setting before she decided to attend Ivy Tech in Valparaiso, Indiana, to pursue her nursing degree. Brittney is a licensed registered nurse in Indiana and Illinois. She has spent the last 5 years gaining experience within a skilled nursing company and the past 2 years as the Director of Nursing there.

She currently resides in Valparaiso, Indiana with her 5 children.


Tim Stoub

Tim Stoub

Facilities Director

Tim joined the Peace Village team in 2010. He spent more than 15 years in different aspects of the building and trades field, including Operations Manager for an independent contracting company. Tim has extensive experience in both project management and hands-on operations. He is always looking for innovative ways to enhance the lifestyles and surroundings for our residents and staff. As Facilities Director, he oversees the maintenance, housekeeping, security and landscaping departments, along with the management of all subcontract work. Tim resides in Peotone with his wife and six children.


Nancy Smeraldo

Nancy Smeraldo

Director of Sales and Marketing

Nancy joined the team at Peace Village in 2012. She has more than 15 years of experience in real estate, and loves helping others realize the dream of finding their perfect home. Growing up in Palos Park, Nancy saw the birth of Peace Village, and has watched it grow and flourish over the years. In her role as the Director of Sales and Marketing, Nancy continues to fulfill her passion for helping new residents find their perfect home at Peace Village.


Heather Pabisinski

Heather Pabisinski

DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES

Heather joined Peace Village in November 2019 and is responsible for attracting, developing and retaining a work force dedicated to serving our residents. Heather comes to us with over fifteen years of experience in public and private sector human resources, compensation and benefit management. Her areas of responsibility include recruitment, benefits, compensation, learning and development, safety, employee relations, employment law, workers compensation and payroll. Heather worked for Omnicare, 11 years, in her time with Omnicare she worked as a Regional Payroll Manager then was promoted to Human Resource Manager for the Des Plaines campus and then moved to be the Regional Compensation Coordinator overseeing 52 sites across the nation. After leaving Omnicare Heather became the Corporate Benefits Manager for Addus Healthcare.

Heather lives in Tinley Park with her husband and 2 sons.


Kim Karwacki

Kim Karwacki

Director of Fund Development & Volunteer Services

Kim joined Peace Village in August 2016. She studied communication at Augustana College and has a master’s degree in communication & leadership from Park University. Kim is also a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE).  Before joining the Peace Village team, she worked for nine years as the development and communications director for Hamdard Center for Health & Human Services, a nonprofit health and social service agency serving the immigrant and refugee populations in the Chicagoland area. Kim is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Southwest Suburban Philanthropic Network, and the Suburban Chicago Planned Giving Council. Kim also previously served on the board of directors for Spirito! Singers, a nonprofit choral organization dedicated to providing young singers opportunities to learn and grow through exceptional vocal and musicianship training, discipline and performance.

Kim resides in Bolingbrook with her husband and two children.


Clyde Smith Jr.

Clyde Smith Jr.

Director of Finance and IT

Clyde joined Peace Village in January 2023 having worked in the manufacturing sector since 2003 for PepsiCo, Plastics Color, Dynamic Manufacturing and most recently at Kronos Foods Corp in Glendale Heights.

Clyde has over 30 years experience in various accounting roles and has been a Plant Controller since 2009. He specializes in managerial reporting helping managers and senior executives to run their organization, make business decisions, and monitor progress.  He received his BA from Governors State University and his Masters in Accounting from Colorado State University.

His interest are watching Football and Basketball,  is an avid reader of the Bible and Christian literature, loves to teach the scriptures and is a huge fan of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

He resides in Orland Park with his wife, he has three adult children, two sons, one daughter, two daughters in law, one son in law and three grandchildren.


Mary Kate Pipolo

Mary Kate Pipolo

Director of Dining Services

Mary Kate started her career at Peace Village in 2013. She worked as a server in the dining room while in high school and realized her passion for working with seniors. She deeply enjoyed serving our residents and creating a great dining experience for them.

Mary Kate graduated from Saint Xavier University in 2020 and decided Hospitality was the path that she wanted to pursue. Since, Mary Kate was already growing from within the organization the natural progression for her career was to move into a leadership role within the organization. In her tenure with Peace Village, Mary Kate expanded her roles from Server, Lead Server, Supervisor, Dining Room Manager, into her current position, Director of Dining.  In her current role she is focused on creating a fulfilling dining experience for our residents and always looking for ways to better resident satisfaction.