When Kristopher Ferrer came to Lifespire back in 2001, his first position was in the bookkeeping department. After 21 years with this storied service provider based in Manhattan, he will be moving on but not without helping Lifespire put into place an IT department that serves over 3,000 people and 1,000 employees.
It began in August 2001 right before 9/11. Back then Lifespire was a smaller organization, or as Kris describes it, a mom-and-pop shop of about 30 people.
But everything has changed since then; right now there are approximately 100 people who work in its downtown Wall Street headquarters on Whitehall Street.
Kris's brother introduced him to Lifespire where he started from the finance department. Then, back in 2001, his boss and mentor, Peter Valvo, took an interest in him.
Kris explained in his own words: "Peter gave me the chance and he trained me, and he showed me how to build computers and showed me what information technology was all about."
"Back then there were no structured policies or compliance issues when it came to servers and systems. But his boss Peter Valvo got the agency on to Microsoft Office and began using Microsoft servers instead of random servers.
"Back in the early days it wasn't just technology that I did. We did just about everything. During the winter seasons we shoveled snow and then at other times I found myself building rooms in the facilities, such as tranquility rooms. Tranquility rooms were made for our individuals to stay when they had an episode. We also got to install game rooms and those facilities with fishs tanks and such. We also built fiber optic cables and did security for Lifespire. Right now Lifespire's IT department has two other people involved: Peter Valvo and our programer Ellis Riviera.
“With respect to its technology, the agency still has room to grow. Right now, Lifespire is supporting anywhere between 1,000 and 1,700 employees depending, upon the number of residences.
“Over the 21 years I would say that the agency has gone through three big events: the first one was 9/11, and then there was the blackout back in 2007, and currently coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Lifespire personnel have done a great deal in order to accommodate all the needs of the people they serve.
“Just recently during COVID-19, we were traveling throughout the five boroughs to people to give them laptops so that they could work from home.
“Another thing that stands out for me after spending these two decades at Lifespire: they really, really care about the people; everyone cares about the people we serve. We all take the time to do what's necessary to be there for those individuals, even during hard times. You know, even when the state doesn't provide us the budgets, we go above and beyond, and I can say that’s true for this agency. Moving forward, technology will become a more important tool when it comes to caring for individuals with developmental disabilities. The other thing I am going to miss a great deal are all the friendships I've had the chance to develop over the years. The one thing I'm not going to miss is the three-and-a-half hours a day that I spend commuting from where I live on the Jersey Shore into Manhattan.”