It’s officially summer, and the pace of career moves is heating up along with the weather. In addition to spotlighting all the activity among senior living professionals, this edition of Movers & Shakers is also celebrating the Chicago Blackhawks, who shook up the Boston Bruins to win NHL’s Stanley Cup on Monday.
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Brookdale Senior Living Names New COO
Following the previously announced June 15, 2013 retirement of John P. Rijos, co-president and chief operating officer of Brookdale Senior Living, the company’s board of directors has appointed Gregory B. Richard to serve as Brookdale’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective June 16.
Richard has served as Brookdale’s EVP-Field operations since January 2008.
He previously was the EVP and COO of American Retirement Corporation from about 2003 to 2006 and has held numerous other executive leadership roles in the healthcare field.
Brenda Bacon, CEO of Brandywine, Named Chairman of ALFA
The Board of Directors of the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) recently announced that Brenda J. Bacon, co-founder, president and CEO of Mt. Laurel, N.J.-based Brandywine Senior Living has been named ALFA Chairman of the Board for 2013-2014. Bacon succeeds Mark Ohlendorf, co-president and CFO of Brentwood-Tenn.-based Brookdale Senior Living.
Bacon co-founded Brandywine Senior Living in 1996 and has overseen its growth to serve seniors in 25 locations across five states. Prior to the creation of Brandywine, she served as Chief of Management and Planning, a cabinet-level position under New Jersey Governor James J. Florio from 1989 to 1993 where she oversaw healthcare reform efforts and served as a Senior Advisor to the governor. During this period, Bacon also spent time in Washington, D.C., on loan to the Presidential (Clinton) Transition Team for the transition of the Department of Health and Human Services.
ALFA Announces New Board Members
The Board welcomes newly-elected members: Kai Hsaio, president of Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Holiday Retirement and Chris Hyatt, executive vice president and COO of Seattle-based Emeritus Senior Living, Tiffany Tomasso, founding partner in Reston, Va.-based Kensington Senior Living and Evrett Benton, president and CEO of Salt Lake City-based Stellar Senior Living.
Integral Senior Living Adds Terry Ervin as Regional VP
Integral Senior Living announced in early June that Terry Ervin has joined the company as a Regional Vice President of Operations. In his new role, Terry is responsible for the operations of communities ranging from independent living to memory care.
Prior to his position with ISL, Ervin was a Vice President of Operations with Aegis Living, where he was responsible for the operations of assisted living communities in Northern California.
Prior to his position as Vice President of Operations, Ervin served as the Executive Director of Aegis of Carmichael for five years. Ervin came to Aegis from the hospitality industry where he worked for Marriott International and Sunstone Hotels in a variety of positions including Director of Marketing (Napa Marriott) and General Manager (Sacramento Hilton).
Ervin participates in a variety of industry boards and committees and in 2009 was named to the distinguished NIC Future Leaders Council, a group of handpicked, up and coming, leaders from some of the senior living industries most influential companies. Additionally, he sits on the CALA Service Awards committee and the CALA PAC Board. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Accounting from San Diego State University.
Ziegler Hires Banker Sarkis Garabedian from Piper Jaffray
Ziegler recently announced the hiring of seasoned banker Sarkis Garabedian to join the western region banking team. In his nine years in public finance, Garabedian has participated in more than $2 billion of financings for a wide variety of healthcare, senior living and other not-for-profit organizations throughout the West Coast.
Prior to joining Ziegler, Garabedian was a vice president in Piper Jaffray’s healthcare group, where he worked with a variety of healthcare and not-for-profit borrowers. He has extensive experience within the healthcare sector and is proficient in leading complex tax-exempt and taxable bond offerings and private placements as well as providing credit, financial statement, legal and refunding analysis. In addition, he is also a member of HFMA and serves as a frequent speaker at many industry conferences.
Buffy Howard Joins Prestige Care as Regional Director of Operations
Prestige Care, Inc. announced in early June that Buffy Howard joined the Washington-based senior care provider as regional director of operations for the company’s skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers.
Howard has 20 years of long-term care experience, as well as 15 years as a licensed nursing home administrator in the state of Washington.
Howard joins Prestige Care with a solid reputation of having a positive impact on residents and employees at the communities she has served. At her most recent position at Avalon Healthcare, one of Prestige Care’s hospice and homecare partners, Howard developed a successful outpatient therapy program, established the High Physician Presence Model, kick-started an improvement in employee and resident satisfaction surveys and decreased re-hospitalizations by 35 percent through trending, tracking and root-cause analysis.
In her previous positions, Howard has been recognized for her ability to streamline internal organizational structures in order to cut waste and improve the overall resident experience. As the executive director for Talbot Center for Health and Rehabilitation, Howard brought the center from net loss to net profit in 18 months. She also solidified union relations for her employees and led the way for her facility to earn outstanding evaluations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Howard began her career early, volunteering at a nursing center in junior high. From then on she directed her studies and work toward continuing a successful career in senior care service. She has performed a number of roles, including working as a nursing assistant, activity director, administrator, and the executive director of four health care facilities.
Howard has earned her Nursing Home Administrator License, a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Puget Sound and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. She has also been awarded the Baldridge Bronze National Quality Award from the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Future Leader award from the Washington Health Care Administration.
LTC Properties Makes Hiring and Promotion Announcements
LTC Properties, Inc. (NYSE:LTC) announced in early June the hiring of Brent P. Chappell as vice president of investment and portfolio management, effective June 10. Chappell joins LTC with more than 25 years of asset/portfolio management experience, most recently as VP of portfolio management for Nationwide Health Properties, Inc., which was acquired by Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR). He has a Masters of Business Administration degree specializing in Finance from the University of California, Irvine.
LTC also announced that Mark Hemingway, who was previously involved in both asset management and marketing roles for the Westlake Village, Calif.-based REIT, will assume full responsibility for LTC’s marketing initiative as vice president of marketing, effective June 10.
Michael Starke Reassumes Ownership of PMD Advisory Services
Mature market research and consulting firm PMD Advisory Services, LLC announced in early June that former owner and founder Michael Starke has resumed ownership of the company, a spin-off from Spectrum Consultants.
Under his management, PMD will operate as an independent consulting and market research firm serving owners and operators of for-profit and not-for-profit senior housing organizations. These organizations include continuing care retirement communities; active adult, independent and assisted living facilities; memory care facilities; nursing home care; adult day programs and home and community-based services.
Headquartered in Hebron, K.Y., Managing Directors Starke and Keith Evans, a 30-year senior living consultant, will oversee an experienced and skilled team including Monica Morgal, Director of Demographic Research and Gary Gezann, Ph.D., Chief Demographer. Current clients include Kisco Senior Living, Senior Living Residences, and Miller-Valentine Group.
The Shelter Group, Brightview Senior Living Announce Two Promotions
The Shelter Group, a national real estate development and property management company based in Baltimore, announced in early June the promotion of Maria Miller to Vice President for Shelter Development, LLC. In her new role, Miller is responsible for the development, acquisition and financing of affordable housing real estate transactions.
Prior to joining Shelter, Miller was a Senior Vice President for Bank of America, where she ran the bank’s Community Development Corporation in Baltimore. Her career at Bank of America spanned 18 years.
Miller earned a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and completed the Johns Hopkins University Real Estate Development and Investment program. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, a public all-girls charter school. Additionally, Miller was recently appointed to the Columbia Downtown Housing Corporation and the Governor’s Sustainable Housing Task Force.
Brightview Senior Living, a Baltimore-based provider of housing and care for seniors, announced on the same day the promotion of Ross Dingman to Vice President of Operations. In his new role, Dingman will focus on the critical role of working with the development team on the design and operational oversight of new Brightview communities.
A Brightview Senior Living employee for more than 14 years, Dingman has been directly involved in opening 9 of 14 developed communities. During his tenure with Brightview, he has held several positions with increasing responsibility including executive director, regional director of operations, and regional vice president of operations. Prior to joining Brightview, Dingman served as Executive Director at both HCR ManorCare and Deerfield Senior Cay centers.
Dingman is a Certified Assisted Living Administrator with the Assisted Living Federation of America and is a former board member of the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Baltimore County. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati. He resides with his family in Towson, Maryland.
Grand Villa Ray Delray West Names Helen Altieri Executive Director
Independent and assisted living community Grand Villa Delray West has appointed Helen Altieri as its executive director. Senior Management Advisors, Inc. (SMA) and ValStone Partners, LLC announced the acquisition of the community, along with an adjacent community now known as Grand Villa of Delray East, earlier this year.
Altieri, a high-performing professional with 20 years of experience in the senior living and healthcare industries, has held management-level positions in all phases of senior living, including memory care/dementia, assisted living, independent living and skilled nursing care. Before joining SMA and Grand Villa of Delray Beach West, she was area director of community relations for Sunrise Senior Living in Boca Raton, overseeing community relations in three communities. Prior to that she was administrator of Westchester Assisted Living in Sunrise; director of marketing, Margate Health Care Center; executive director of Colony Club of Sunrise and general manager of Westbrooke at Inverrary in Fort Lauderdale.
Certified as an Alzheimer’s Level I and II trainer in the state of Florida and in Assisted Living Core Training, she is a member of Alzheimer’s Association S.E. Florida Chapter, Broward Coalition on Ageing, Florida Guardianship Association and Parkinson’s Educational Network. She has been a resident of Delray Beach for 19 years.
Evans Senior Investments Launches New “Under 40″ Group
Evans Senior Investments recently launched a Seniors Housing “Under 40″ business group for industry professionals to meet regularly and discuss key topics.
“The future of the seniors housing industry is obviously going to look very different 10 or 20 years from now and we want to ensure the younger group of professionals in the industry begin networking and discussing key topics on a regular basis,” says Jeremy Stroiman, CEO Evans Senior Investments.
The group is free to join, as long as interested parties meet a couple requirements: be under the age of 40 and work full-time in the senior housing industry. A wide variety of backgrounds are welcome to join, including owners, operators, analysts, mid-level executives, senior level executives, lenders, investments bankers, REITs, reporters, etc.
Niki Plummer Named New Executive Director at Grand Villa
Grand Villa of Pinellas Park, an assisted living and memory care residential community, has named senior living professional Niki Plummer its executive director.
“We’re pleased to have Niki back in the SMA family,” says Steven Piazza, president of Senior Management Advisors. “She’s a great example of a senior living executive who combines knowledge of our industry with a genuine concern for the health and wellbeing of our residents.”
Plummer, a longtime resident of Pinellas County, began her career in skilled nursing and after 11 years moved to assisted living, where she says her heart is. She worked on the corporate side for SMA, supporting 17 assisted living communities during her five-year tenure. Wanting to be part of a community family, she accepted a position as executive director of a Brookdale senior living facility, where she worked for seven years.
A graduate of the University of Phoenix with a bachelor’s degree in Health Care Administration, she is a member of Better Living for Seniors, Guardian Association of Pinellas County and Pinellas Park Chamber of Commerce.
Stoneridge Creek Hires Move-In Coordinator
Mallory Campeau has been appointed move-in coordinator for Stoneridge Creek, the new continuing care retirement community in Pleasanton, Calif. According to Troy Bourne, vice president of planning for Stoneridge Creek, early move-ins for residents are scheduled to begin later this month.
Campeau and her team will be responsible for assisting the community’s future residents with the entire move-in process, including helping them with interior design selections, providing referrals for packing and moving services, performing final walk-throughs with residents, and coordinating individual move-in days for residents.
Prior to assuming the move-in coordinator position, Campeau served as marketing assistant and office manager for Stoneridge Creek. She was also an administrative assistant at a Northern California law firm. A resident of Lafayette, Calif., Campeau graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology.
Senior Quality Lifestyles Corporation Announces Four New Board Members
Senior Quality Lifestyles Corporation recently named Joe Anderson, Mike Barron, Dr. David Gobble, and Stan Waterhouse as new board members.
Joe Anderson serves as President of the American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW) Foundation, one of the largest and most successful foundations supporting continuing care and life care communities in the United States. He has 19 years management experience in the senior living industry.
Mike Barron brings more than 40 years of varied professional financial, management and information technology experience, including serving as the Deputy State Treasurer for Texas, and the CFO of the Texas Teachers’ Retirement System. Barron currently serves as Senior Vice President and CFO for Texas Mutual Insurance Company. Barron holds a BBA degree in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and did his post-graduate work in finance and business management at St. Edward’s University. He is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Certificate in Data Processing.
Dr. David Gobble has worked in the health promotion, wellness and aging field for over 40 years as an educator, administrator, direct service provider, consultant and public speaker for a wide range of agencies and organizations. He is Director of the Masterpiece Living Academy and Professor and Director Emeritus for the Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology at Ball State University, where he coordinated the nationally recognized master’s degree in Wellness Management.
Stan Waterhouse serves as Chief Operating Officer for the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso (HACEP), where he leads 500 employees and manages an $85 million annual budget in the pursuit of positioning the organization as the industry’s leader in customer service and innovative development. Prior to joining HACEP, Waterhouse served as Senior Vice President of Operations for Ginn Clubs and Resorts, where he oversaw over $1 billion in hospitality assets.
Remedi SeniorCare Names Carol Slas General MAnager of Michigan Pharmacy
Remedi SeniorCare recently announced that Carol Slas, RPh, has joined its team as the General Manager of the Marshall, Mich. pharmacy. In this role, she will oversee all areas of operation at the Marshall location including their transition to the Paxit automated medication dispensing system later this year.
Slas joins Remedi from Genoa Healthcare where she served as the Director of Pharmacy Implementation. Prior to Genoa, she held a leadership role at NuscriptRx Pharmacy as the Associate Vice President of Implementation and Operations. Earlier in her career, Slas spent 12 years with NeighborCare Pharmacy in various roles ranging from Staff Pharmacist to the Director of Pharmacy Operations. She received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her MBA from Sullivan University in Louisville, Ky.
Wesley Homes Announces Election of Foundation Board of Directors
Wesley Homes Retirement Communities and Home Health Services announced the election of Walter Liang, Morris Chang, Betsy Harasek and Dick Jobst as Foundation board members for the 2013-2014 year after the company’s annual meeting.
Liang has retired from his position as the regional representative of Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Liang held the position for nearly eight years. Prior to being named the Department of Labor representative, Liang was a congressional appointee to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board as the western regional representative. He has been a member of numerous boards and advisory councils, and he has received various awards for his work in public service. Liang is a graduate of California State University in Sacramento.
Dr. Chang is a sleep specialist and medical director of the Highline Sleep Center associated with Highline Medical Center. He is the founder and president of Comprehensive Sleep Medicine, Inc. Dr. Chang comes to the Foundation Board through his association with the Wesley Homes Lea Hill campus where he is a member of Friends of Wesley Homes Lea Hill. He is also a member of the Auburn Rotary.
Harasek has traveled the world professionally as a consultant on business legal matters and currently works for Xerox Corporation as the associate general patent counsel. She actively supports her church as well as civic and professional organizations. Harasek founded the New Girls Network and has served on the board of the Women’s Shelter in Detroit. She has also served in leadership roles within her churches.
Jobst is a professor of sociology at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA, where he has taught for close to 40 years. He received his master’s of arts in sociology from the University of California, Davis. His area of expertise includes growth and density and minority access to healthcare. In 1992, Jobst was honored by Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Pierce County as Trustee of the Year. He joined the Wesley Homes Board of Trustees in 2004 and has served as the liaison from that Board to the Foundation Board of Directors.
United Methodist Retirement Communities Receives Program Excellence Award
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan announced that United Methodist Retirement Communities (UMRC) is the recipient of the 2013 Richard F. Huegli Award forProgram Excellence.
Building on a foundation of more than 100 years of service, UMRC, based in Chelsea, is a faith-based, non-profit organization that promotes the wellness, dignity and independence of older adults by providing high quality, innovative and compassionate senior residential care services across Southeast Michigan.
The Richard F. Huegli Award for Program Excellence recognizes a nonprofit organization in southeast Michigan that has a history of achieving excellence in human services programming. It celebrates Huegli’s legacy of vision, high standards for programming excellence and belief in human potential. The recipient receives a one-time grant of $5,000 to support its general operations.
Huegli, who passed away in 1988, was an integral figure in the region’s human services sector for nearly half a century, spending 42 years with United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit, now part of the the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. He later helped to establish the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and served as the Foundation’s acting director in its first year of existence.
National Alliance for Caregiving Adds Paul DelPonte to Team
The National Alliance for Caregiving recently announced the addition of Paul DelPonte as the new Director of Programs, Operations, and Development.
DelPonte brings a strong background in advocacy and social marketing to the National Alliance for Caregiving. He was previously Executive Director of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Foundation, where he helped to create Patients Aware, a public education campaign to educate seniors and family members about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
As both a consultant and long-time staff member of the Alliance for Aging Research, he spearheaded Project Independence for Older Americans which led to $1 billion in federal aging research. As a communications consultant he has started two successful public relations firms, where he directed award-winning national health education campaigns to promote increased awareness and access to care. These have included the Community Voices Initiative for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Men’s Health Campaign featuring Morgan Freeman.
DelPonte lives in Montgomery County, Md., where he is also a Commissioner on Aging. In that role he is helping the county implement, “A Community for a Lifetime”, a plan to meet the needs of a growing older population.
Oak Trace Names Tracy Giglio a Healthcare Outreach Liason
Oak Trace has named Tracy Giglio as the first Healthcare Outreach Liaison at the senior living community in Downers Grove, Ill. In her new position, Giglio will work with local hospitals, physicians and other senior living and assisted living communities looking to discharge residents to a quality short-term rehabilitation program.
In the past year, Oak Trace has implemented a variety of new programs that enhance quality of care at the community and educate the community at large about the services they offer. The Healthcare Outreach Liaison is just one of the new positions in Health Services at Oak Trace; Dr. Subhash Shah signed on as the rehabilitation center’s physiatrist, and the community will soon add a concierge and nurse practitioner.
Giglio has more than 17 years’ experience in health care, the majority with seniors. She most recently worked at Girling Home Health Care in North Riverside for eight years, where she worked closely with patients and oversaw the referral process. In addition, her past experiences as an admissions director for a rehabilitation center and as a human resources director for an extended care center will help her build strong relationships for referrals around the Downers Grove area.
The Barrington of Carmel Names Dawn Such as Marketing Assistant
The Barrington of Carmel senior living community has named Dawn Such as Marketing Assistant. The announcement was made by Dana Shore, director of sales and marketing for The Barrington.
Such brings to The Barrington more than eight years of experience in management. Prior to joining The Barrington, she worked at Universal WorldEvents where she served in various roles from account manager and client liaison to operations data manager and project manager in charge of planning events. Before that, she served as special events manager for Indiana Historical Society/Indiana History Center where she managed advertising and promotions for events as well as provided group and individual tours of the facility for potential rental events.
Having grown up in New Albany, Such received a B.S. in journalism from Ball State University. She has a double major in public relations and advertising with a minor in communications studies.
The Waterford Names New Director of Marketing
The Waterford, a senior living community, recently announced the hiring of Marie Duquette as its new director of marketing.
In her new position, Duquette will be responsible for helping educate active seniors in Juno Beach and the surrounding area about the benefits of choosing a Life Care community. She will replace Madelaine Doyle, who is retiring after nearly 20 years of service at The Waterford.
Duquette comes to The Waterford from NAI/Merin Hunter Codman, a commercial real estate firm, where she spent seven years as a senior property manager. Prior to that, Duquette spent eight years as a property manager at Catalfumo Management and Investment Companies. She received her degree from SUNY Purchase and currently holds her real estate license in Florida.
The Waterford also announced the addition of Nikki Trimble to its sales team as a sales associate. Trimble has worked in senior living for the past three years. Prior to that, she worked in the insurance field.
Varsity Launches Senior Living Sales Consulting Service, Hires Maura Richards
Harrisburg, Pa.-based Varsity, a mature market marketing communications agency, announced on Tuesday a new offering focused on helping senior living communities develop more effective sales strategies that better align with marketing initiatives while also maximizing occupancy goals. Maura Z. Richards, the former head of WESTGREY LLC, has joined the agency as its senior consultant and will be the lead strategist for the new service.
Richards holds more than a decade of experience in managing occupancy goals, budgets, marketing, staffing and customer service issues in the senior living solutions industry. In her new position, she will provide strategic direction and sales oversight for clients in the agency’s senior living practice area, which includes single- and multi-location continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), 55+ housing, and those serving the home health, hospice, independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing markets.
Prior to joining Varsity, Richards founded WESTGREY LLC, a senior living consulting and advisory service specializing in turnaround and greenfield projects for clients such as Covenant Village, Granite Hill Estates and Fairing Way. She formerly held sales management and marketing strategy roles with Retirement Living Services and The Innovation Group.
Varsity’s new consulting service combines a mix of sales assessment, management, staffing, oversight, training and development. The new service enhances the agency’s portfolio of branding, advertising, creative, interactive, public relations and digital media services.