Winchester League of Women Voters presents Joyce Westner with 2025 Civic Leadership Award

Joyce Westner has a reputation for getting things done. But if you ask her, she’ll tell you everything she’s worked on has been a group effort.

“As Hilda Wong-Doo said, I accosted her to get her to sign up for changing the Board of Selectmen to Select Board,” Westner says. “It wasn’t even my idea! That  was Ruth [Trimarchi].”

After a sip of her caramel latte, Westner laughs.

“Actually,” she says, “if you accost people in the right way, that’s a good thing because everyone likes to be asked.”

Asked what? To help, of course.

Because that’s what Westner does. She finds people, brings them together and makes things happen.

And on Sept. 18, the League of Women Voters of Winchester awarded her the 2025 Civic Leadership Award for the “tremendous service to our community, bringing idealism balanced with professionalism to shape public discourse in a civil fashion” during a ceremony at Town Hall.

“The speakers said such wonderful things, it was like being at my funeral,” Westner says, of the evening. “It was delightful hearing all those kind words. I also got a lot of flowers.

“It was thrilling,” she adds, after a minute. “My son, David, said afterwards that he was so taken by some of the things that were said that it brought tears to his eyes.”

Speakers on Sept. 18 included Trimarchi, Sen. Patricia Jehlen, Rep. Michael Day, Director of the Winchester Cultural Council Wong-Doo, Winchester News’ Board of Directors President Tara Hughes, independent filmmaker Peter Engeldrum, Town Meeting member Charlene Band and Westner’s daughter, Elisabeth.

Westner was presented with commendations from both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate for all the work she’s done in Winchester.

“I was thrilled and honored,” Westner says, of the nomination and award.

From Brighton to Winchester

 Westner grew up in Brighton and at age 10 decided on a career in journalism. That’s right. She was 10 and put together her own neighborhood newspaper.

“It was in pencil,” she says, laughing. “And it had only one edition. It went nowhere except my house!”

When she went to Northeastern University, Westner had to decide on a major. She had some hopes of being an astronomer, but eventually it came down to physics or journalism.

“I went with journalism,” she says. “I liked being out there with people and I was a good editor and writer. I’ve always been able to find out what people need to know.”

In 1968, she graduated with a degree in English/journalism. And immediately went into the Peace Corps.

“I had applied while I was in college,” Westner says. “I wanted to travel and live in a different culture, learn another language.”

She ended up on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, teaching literature in a teacher’s college. While she learned the language, Westner says most people knew English because they learned the language after the third grade.

It was in the Philippines that Westner met her husband, August. The two married in 1970 in Manila before heading off to visit August’s family in Germany for six months.

Back in the U.S., the Westners didn’t settle in Winchester. They ended up nearby in Wilmington.

So how did they couple end up in Winchester? You can thank the commuter rail for that.

“I used to commute to Boston,” Westner says. “And when we passed through Winchester, in the spring I would see the flowers and the trees. I said to myself, ‘I would love to live in that town.’”

In 1977, the Westners bought their first home in the community.

“When we moved to Winchester, I was home with my son and that’s when I became a freelancer for the Arlington Advocate,” Westner says. “They eventually offered me the job of assistant editor for $8 an hour. Then I interviewed with a tech company and they wanted to pay me $9 an hour. I ended up working for three tech companies.”

Westner eventually became a professional technical trainer for private companies and the government. She trained people on how to speak in public and make presentations.

Is that why she’s so good at getting things done?

“I love doing research!” she says. “It was my profession!”

Service with a smile

While you might think Westner has been involved in the town since she arrived in 1977, she says it wasn’t until about 10 years ago when she jumped into community activism.

“In 2015, I heard [Wright-Locke Farm] was going to be sold to the highest bidder,” Westner explains. “I lived near the farm so I started an awareness committee. We had all sorts of people on the committee.”

She ran for Town Meeting — and won.

“I wanted to save the farm,” she says, adding there were ways for her to use her journalism background, especially when it came to sending releases to the Winchester Star and the Daily Times Chronicle.

Westner says she researched the history of green space in Winchester and discovered when the idea for a town common was first suggested, that was also controversial. So the idea for turning Wright-Locke Farm into a community resource wasn’t new, nor was the opposition.

“I spoke at Town  Meeting,” Westner recalls. “I ended my speech with ‘This is forever, ladies and gentlemen’ and got a standing ovation. You’re not actually supposed to do that.”

After saving Wright-Locke Farm, Westner stayed on Town Meeting for the next eight years. There were other issues along the way, like the aforementioned change in the Select Board’s name.

“That was Ruth!” she insists, with a laugh.

But joining the Communications Study Committee put together by the town manager and Town Meeting was all her idea. It was there she met some like-minded people who saw the need for not only ways for the town to communicate with its citizens, but for residents to get local news.

“That was my sister,” Westner says. “She had seen an article in the Boston Globe about [start up  news outlets] in Marblehead and she said, ‘Why don’t you guys do that?’ And then Betsy Wall said, ‘We should do this.’”

But it was Westner who followed through, pulling in Hughes and others who wanted to start their own news outlet, which they called Winchester News.

Was it a difficult process?

“I didn’t find it hard,” Westner says. “It was hard to get a website going, but that’s why Shukong [Ou] is our IT guy.”

And she was named editor.

“At the time, before Peter [Casey] and Emily [Costello] joined us, I was the only one with any journalism experience,” she says. “And I used to be a boss so I knew how to do the job. The trick was, and still is, getting the donations.”

These days, Westner keeps busy writing her Helpers Among Us and Meet the Artist features, among the many other activities on her plate.

But she really enjoys meeting people who, like her, are always willing to lend a helping hand.

“I just love it,” she says, of Helpers Among Us. “I really love interviewing people who give their time and talents to help other people.”