Senior Vice President of Shawmut Bank. Wareham High School English teacher. Finance Committee member. Chair of the Board of Selectmen.

For Judith Whiteside, challenges are just another day at the office.

Whiteside, pending any write-in candidates, is running unopposed to return to her seat on the Board of Selectmen. Her reason for running? “Frustration with the town’s finances and spending behavior.”

Whiteside worked at Shawmut Bank for 23 years, rising to the rank of senior vice president.

“I was the only female senior vice president outside of the Boston area,” she said. “While I was there I was managing a budget of $123 million.”

When the bank merged with Fleet Financial in 1995, she moved from banking to teaching English at Wareham High. According to Whiteside, she’d always wanted to be a teacher, even initially studying for it in college. So, when she had the opportunity, she took it, spending the next several years in the Wareham school system.

“I miss having students,” she said. “It was a great opportunity to see Wareham from another perspective.”

Whiteside said she felt it would be a good idea to bring her wealth of experience to Wareham’s government.

“I have experience as a senior manager and as a teacher. Both roles are very public and very regulated. I’m used to working in roles like this.”

Whiteside says that the best accomplishment made during her tenure on the Board of Selectmen was the hiring of Town Administrator Derek Sullivan.

“It’s one of the best things to happen to this town in years. He’s extremely adept financially," she said.

Even with Sullivan’s financial savvy, Whiteside knows the town is still facing challenges. “We need planned and innovative growth here. It will help the tax base and it will help residents of Wareham who might be struggling to reach sound footing.”

The problem of town trash is also one she’s happy to take on. She's a member of Don’t Trash Wareham, a local group dedicated to beautifying town.

Citizens who come before the Board of Selectmen know that she’s serious. “I will take every piece of trash I find, bag it, and bring it to your home,” she recently joked at a hearing about a public access property to the Weweantic River.

Whiteside is determined to focus on the good, and that extends to Wareham’s history.

“We’ve never taken advantage of the history here. Instead of making something of our history, we ignore it. We have so much here – the history of shipbuilding, cranberry bogs, spiritualist camps, the War of 1812 [in which the Tremont Nail Co. was burned by the British]. George Washington’s aide-de-camp is buried in our graveyard," she said.

"If Salem can make a tourist attraction out of accused witches being hanged," she remarked, "we should be able to bring people here for all that.”

Whiteside feels that the recent revitalization idea for the Tremont Nail Company property, proposed by architecture firm Union Studio, is a step forward.  “I think refurbishment of our historical buildings, in general, is fantastic. We should be incorporating historical ideas.”

Her approach has been effective. “The quality of communication between the Selectmen and people out on the street seems improved from where it was when we started,” she said. “People seem more comfortable addressing us and asking questions than they were before. I hope we’re all seen as approachable, reasonable people who’ll help steer you in the right direction.”