Maley Hunt

COO & Residential Services Administrator
LiveWell
Plantsville, CT
  • 127-G. Beyond Memory Care: Designing Brain-Healthy Communities

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    127-G. Beyond Memory Care: Designing Brain-Healthy Communities

    Do current dementia care approaches reinforce separation in senior living communities, or do they position brain health as a unifying priority for all residents? This session will highlight one organization committed to the latter. Organization leaders will describe how their community invited people living with cognitive change to co-design the environments, services, and operational decisions that define its campus. They’ll examine how this approach shifted the community’s design to support autonomy, normalcy, and shared community life while challenging assumptions about risk, elopement, and safety. Join this session to broaden your understanding of how evidence-based brain health practices can inform senior living campus design.

Jerilyn Iacono

Director of Life Enrichment
Kendal-Crosslands Communities
Kennett Square, PA
  • 89-J. Validation: Engaging Residents Living with Cognitive Change

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    89-J. Validation: Engaging Residents Living with Cognitive Change

    Can providing good care lead to operational gains for your senior living organization? This session’s presenters will answer with a categorical “yes.” They’ll describe the Validation method, a caregiving strategy that fosters engagement between caregivers and residents living with cognitive change. A Validation trainer and a LeadingAge member will explain how the method uses centering, attunement, emotion matching, and other simple practices to emphasize the care recipient’s reality rather than imposing facts. You’ll hear evidence that Validation increases cooperation, reduces the use of as-needed medication, and improves staff confidence and retention. You’ll gain simple tools to help your teams embed Validation in their standard work.

Soo Im

Market Leader
Gensler
Washington, DC
  • 123-C. Imagining New Environments to Live, Work, and Play

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    123-C. Imagining New Environments to Live, Work, and Play

    Today’s older adults are living longer, staying healthier longer, and working longer. This shift is reshaping attitudes toward retirement and creating unprecedented opportunities for retirement communities to reinvent themselves. This session will examine how senior living organizations can support the evolving lifestyles of older adults by expanding services beyond community walls and designing surrounding neighborhoods to meet residents’ needs. Presenters will invite you to imagine how neighborhoods and residential communities might intersect, envision the possibilities for intergenerational or multigenerational environments within and around retirement communities, and consider how mixed-use settings might offer better living environments for today’s older adults. Explore the future of aging and be prepared to rethink your view of traditional retirement communities.

Adriene Iverson

President & CEO
Elder Care Alliance
Alameda, CA
  • 45-F. Affiliate or Go It Alone? Forming Bonds Across Faith Traditions

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    45-F. Affiliate or Go It Alone? Forming Bonds Across Faith Traditions

    The decision to affiliate is among the most consequential and strategic choices a board of directors can make. For faith-based organizations considering a merger with a ministry from a different faith background, the decision can be especially daunting. This session will feature three leaders from faith-based organizations that successfully affiliated with partners from different religious backgrounds. Presenters will describe their founding traditions and the key drivers behind their decision to pursue affiliation. They’ll explain how they approached the affiliation process and how they weighed religious affinities and differences when identifying and evaluating potential partners. You’ll leave this session better equipped to engage in conversations about strategic partnerships while maintaining your unique faith identity.

Marie Jablonski

Corporate Director, Marketing
Masonicare Health Center
Wallingford, CT
  • 59-A. From Blah to Brilliant: Transforming Senior Living Marketing

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    59-A. From Blah to Brilliant: Transforming Senior Living Marketing

    Senior living consumers have evolved, but many life plan community marketing programs haven’t kept pace. Until now. This session will showcase an innovative, multi-layered marketing and communications strategy that uses technology, personalization, and relationship-building to deliver a standout prospect experience. Presenters from a life plan community will describe their outreach to prospective residents, including customer relationship management, AI-driven content development, website behavior tracking, personalized emails, and follow-up systems. They’ll report how these innovations have increased prospect engagement, built trust, and delivered tailored messages that address individual fears, motivations, and readiness stages. Don’t miss this opportunity to apply a proven model to boost conversions and occupancy.

Stuart Jackson

Executive Vice President
Greystone
Irving, TX
  • 38-B. Capital-Efficient Pathways to Meet Needs and Advance Mission

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    38-B. Capital-Efficient Pathways to Meet Needs and Advance Mission

    Nonprofit providers of aging services must scale their organizations to serve an older population that continues to grow each year. But how can growth be achieved when land options are limited, and expansion appears cost-prohibitive? This session will showcase a group of single-site and multisite organizations exploring capital-efficient pathways to meet local needs and advance their missions. Presenters will provide an inside look at how these organizations developed new campuses, implemented phased expansions, engaged in adaptive reuse of existing buildings, and established satellite communities. Learn how successful organizations use disciplined planning and evaluation to identify opportunities and mitigate risk. Get the guidance you need to achieve sustainable growth and capital-efficient expansion in constrained markets.

Jonathan Jedeikin

Chief Information Office and Chief Privacy Officer
The Kendal Corporation
Newark, DE
  • 12-L. Beyond the Hype: AI’s Future in Aging Services

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

    12-L. Beyond the Hype: AI’s Future in Aging Services

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining recognition worldwide. But what is AI’s real impact on aging services providers today, and how could it shape the future of care? This session will cut through the hype to answer the questions on every provider’s mind: Which parts of AI are real? Which are a waste of resources? A panel of senior living leaders will share how they’ve used AI to improve operational efficiency, support team members, and engage residents more effectively. They’ll also explain how AI helps them manage data security, integrate organizational systems, and enhance operations and services. You’ll discover AI’s transformative possibilities and learn how to develop your own AI implementation plan.

Tracey Jennings

Chief Operating Officer
LifeSpire of Virginia
Glen Allen, VA
  • 131-K. Acquiring and Repositioning to Meet Consumer Expectations

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    131-K. Acquiring and Repositioning to Meet Consumer Expectations

    What does it take to successfully acquire, reposition, and transform a senior living community in today’s competitive market? This session will explore how a multisite organization repositioned a fifth campus to meet residents’ evolving needs, promote holistic well-being, and ensure long-term sustainability. Presenters will share how they identified the acquisition opportunity, partnered with a financial services firm to craft the winning bid, and developed a phased master plan that balances innovation, resident appeal, and operational sustainability. They’ll explain why the organization declined to acquire the new campus’s skilled nursing component and how it intentionally designed other parts of the campus to support physical, social, and intellectual wellness.

Emily Jimerson

Principal
SFCS Architects
Roanoke, VA
  • 131-K. Acquiring and Repositioning to Meet Consumer Expectations

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    131-K. Acquiring and Repositioning to Meet Consumer Expectations

    What does it take to successfully acquire, reposition, and transform a senior living community in today’s competitive market? This session will explore how a multisite organization repositioned a fifth campus to meet residents’ evolving needs, promote holistic well-being, and ensure long-term sustainability. Presenters will share how they identified the acquisition opportunity, partnered with a financial services firm to craft the winning bid, and developed a phased master plan that balances innovation, resident appeal, and operational sustainability. They’ll explain why the organization declined to acquire the new campus’s skilled nursing component and how it intentionally designed other parts of the campus to support physical, social, and intellectual wellness.

Margaret Johnson

Senior Lead Senior Living
Fitch Ratings
New York, NY
  • 57-L. It’s All About the Outlook: Navigating Rating Directions

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

    57-L. It’s All About the Outlook: Navigating Rating Directions

    Interested in where credit quality for life plan communities may be headed in the near future? This session will translate Fitch Ratings’ published criteria into practical guidance on the factors driving outlook changes for these communities. Presenters will clarify the difference between outlooks and ratings and explain why outlooks matter. They’ll also highlight specific Fitch criteria that merit your attention, including operating performance, occupancy drivers, sales pipeline quality, entrance fee refunds, liquidity, and debt mix. Life plan community financial officers will present case studies of organizations that stabilized and improved their outcomes despite an unstable outlook. Learn how to identify the factors triggering outlook shifts and translate outlook signals into positive management actions.

Melissa Johnson

Senior Director of Marketing and Sales
Galloway Ridge, Inc.
Pittsboro, NC
  • 1-A. Using AI to Measure Resident Well-Being

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    1-A. Using AI to Measure Resident Well-Being

    Community engagement teams at aging services organizations prioritize the resident experience because they know residents’ voices help shape their communities. Unfortunately, not every resident speaks up. That’s where “Happy Aging” comes in. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the survey-driven prediction tool measures 23 observed indicators of resident well-being. This session will focus on the experiences of two life plan communities that engaged residents in a two-year research project to co-develop the “Happy Aging” tool. Presenters will describe the technology’s development process and residents’ participation in it. You’ll discover how objective behavioral data, when paired with AI, can accurately predict resident well-being and enable engagement teams to plan timely interventions.

Laura Jones

Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Pinnacle Living
Glen Allen, VA
  • 64-D. Turning Stories into Sales: How Media Coverage Can Help

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    64-D. Turning Stories into Sales: How Media Coverage Can Help

    Senior living professionals are familiar with traditional sales tactics but often lack experience using earned media as a strategic touchpoint with prospective residents. This session fills that knowledge gap by introducing a communication approach that builds relationships with prospects through media coverage that validates a community’s strengths, highlights resident experiences, and reinforces trust at key decision points in the prospect’s decision-making journey. Presenters will teach you the fundamentals of developing strong story ideas, pitching them to the media, and integrating media coverage into sales strategies. You’ll take home tools to help your community kick-start or enhance its media relations programs, improve conversions, and accelerate prospects’ decision-making.

  • 68-G. From Outsourced to In-House: Building a Creative Services Team

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    68-G. From Outsourced to In-House: Building a Creative Services Team

    External creative consultants often deliver results for senior living communities, but at the expense of consistency, responsiveness, and organizational alignment. This session will show you how to transform your organization’s creative vision from an outsourced service into an in-house team that drives brand excellence, fosters innovation, and delivers measurable impact. Presenters will prepare you to assess the value of internalizing creative services, assemble the right talent, define workflows, and integrate creative operations into your organizational strategy. You’ll gain practical tips to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance brand consistency.