A week after informally announcing that she is leaving her post, Yountville Veterans Home administrator Lisa Peake provided a short statement saying that she simply decided it was time to move on.
Along with Peake’s comments, officials from the California Department of Veterans Affairs also announced that a new skilled nursing facility being built on the grounds of the Yountville Home will be named after the late Virginia Mae Days, who served as director of the state department from 1975 to 1981.
The Sun reported last week that Peake had told a veterans group on campus that she had at the end of the month.
At the time, neither she nor the state’s CalVet department issued a formal statement or comment.
This week, Peake shared a brief comment through the Home’s public information office saying that after serving five years as administrator, her decision to retire was not one that she took lightly.
“It involved much time and consideration; but, ultimately, I determined that it is time for me to start a new chapter,” said Peake. “My time at the Yountville Home has provided me some of the most rewarding experiences in my career. It has been an absolute honor for me to serve my fellow veterans, their spouses, and our staff.”
CalVet Deputy Secretary of Veterans Homes Coby Petersen commented, “Lisa Peake did an absolutely outstanding job during her tenure as the administrator of the Veterans Home of California-Yountville. We can’t thank her enough for her service and dedication to our veterans and her leadership during unprecedented events over the last five years. We wish her all the best in her retirement.”
CalVet provided no other information on how it would go about replacing Peake.
However, the department shared the news that it would name the new 240-bed skilled nursing facility at the Home after Days, who became the first woman and first Latina to lead CalVet when she was appointed to the post in 1975 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown.
“Ms. Days left an indelible imprint upon CalVet during her six-year tenure, and particularly on the Yountville Home,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a news release from CalVet. “Dedicating the new skilled nursing and memory care facility to her is a fitting tribute to the trailblazing woman who preserved this historic Home nearly five decades ago and set CalVet on a new course for how we care for California’s older veterans.”
The release credits Days with saving the Yountville facility from closure.
Amid budget concerns facing the state in 1976, Days fought to preserve the Yountville Home, which was being considered for closure, said CalVet. She was successful in this effort, and the state later went on to further invest in maintaining, updating, and expanding the campus.
Her vision didn’t end there. In 1977, Days created a task force to allow non-veteran spouses to live at the Yountville Home as well. The first couple moved into the Home on May 8, 1978, and over time, this policy expanded to include spouses and partners at all CalVet campuses.
“A leader in every respect, she reshaped the culture of the Yountville Home,” said Lindsey Sin, CalVet’s first female secretary who, like Days, is a U.S. Navy veteran. “She was ahead of her time and in essence drew the blueprint for the diversity, equity and inclusion that is standard throughout all of CalVet today.”
Days’ work helped strengthen the state’s commitment to caring for its older veterans, said CalVet, which went on to build seven new veterans homes between 1996 and 2014, creating a network that now ranges from Redding in the north to Chula Vista in the south.
“This is a momentous occasion, not only for our Home but also for female veterans everywhere who are inspired by the legacy of such a remarkable leader,” said Peake in the state’s release. “It is time we honor and celebrate her incredible contributions to CalVet and our Home.”
Days stepped down from her CalVet post in 1981. She accepted an appointment, also by Brown, to serve as a judge in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Following her passing in 2015, Days was among the first women veterans to be interred at CalVet’s Central Coast Veterans Cemetery in Seaside when it opened in 2016.
