PEABODY — Liz Mover, Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) president, has been named the Ward 2 February Kindness Award recipient for her advocacy and vocal support of fairness, mental health awareness, and ensuring students with special needs receive the education and services they deserve.
“She’s been a great resource, (and) she’s done so many great things for the community,” Ward 2 Councilor Wendy Lattof said, adding that, “Wherever there’s a community service project, you’re seeing Liz there, and when there’s school committee meetings, and people are questioning things, it’s Liz showing up and asking the questions.”
Lattof emphasized that Mover has a “heart of gold” and truly advocates for everyone in the community — not just in Ward 2, but across Peabody.
“She’s always thinking of other people first. She’s a nurse, so I feel like she has that warm nature about her… She just goes above and beyond for anyone, regardless of if she knows them or not. She is just a true helper,” Lattof said.
Mover first learned she won the award when Lattof not-so-subtly sent her a text to ask if she was home. Mover was heading out to the gym but swung by Create & Escape, Lattof’s Main Street business, after her workout to officially hear the news. Mover said she was not expecting the award at all, “but I was really just truly happy and excited.”
Mover has two sons, 13 and 15, who both have different learning challenges and disabilities. She noted that “just learning how to navigate the process of therapies and the school special education department is really hard and can be lonely at times and frustrating and confusing.”
She said that, when her two sons were much younger, Peabody didn’t have an active SEPAC, so when the opportunity came up, Mover and another mom took charge, building “a community of resources for families,” with the goal of helping them “navigate where we once felt lost” and trying “to make things easier for them.”
Mover also has been very active with Peabody’s PTOs. She mentioned that her two sons went to the Brown School, where she was PTO president for a few years. She is now on the Higgins Middle School PTO and highlighted that coaching fifth-grade basketball was “one of the best experiences” because she used to play basketball.
“I really like being involved in the school community. I think it’s a lot of fun and really showcases how being involved can benefit our kids,” Mover said.
Recently, Mover has led SEPAC’s sensory holiday event in December 2025 and the Let’s Get Organized event on Feb. 25, where parents could bring the various paperwork they’ve collected for their child and learn how to keep all those documents organized in a helpful and efficient way.
“That was fun to be able to connect with other families,” Mover said. “We actually met families that we had never heard from before, which was really nice to see.”
Mover emphasized that it’s really cool to reflect back on the early years of “feeling lost and confused and frustrated and anxious about the whole special ed process” and think about how now, sometimes she does still feel that way, but “I know how to navigate the system now, and I just feel thankful that I’m able to connect with families and tell my story and hopefully help them.”
“I don’t have all the answers, but I do know who to reach out to and different organizations to help connect families with the right resources that they may need,” Mover said.
Her biggest advice for parents who are new to navigating the special education department was to “take a deep breath.”
“It is a marathon. It is not a quick race. It’s a long journey, and it definitely has its ups and downs, and you sometimes feel like you have a win and then the next day, you do not feel that way. But you will get back to that feeling,” Mover said.
She continued, “Reach out to your community and your community resources because there are so many people out there that have been in your shoes and want to help and just really sharing each other’s stories really does help, and it doesn’t make you feel so alone in the whole process.”
Lattof would like to remind Ward 2 residents that, while it’s wonderful that the first two Kindness Award recipients have been nominated because of their influence on the Peabody school system, anyone can be nominated for any act of kindness. Kids, teens, and adults who are impacting Ward 2 in a positive way can be nominated for March’s Kindness Award. Nominations should be sent to [email protected] by March 25.
