Allison Dent

Director of Nursing
Dunwoody Village
Newtown Square, PA, USA
  • 119-K. Easing Nursing Home Transitions for Residents and Families

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    119-K. Easing Nursing Home Transitions for Residents and Families

    The Transitional Care Model (TCM) is an evidence-based intervention that reduces rehospitalizations and prevents recurring nursing home admissions among high-risk older adults. This session will explain how a life plan community adapted TCM to support residents’ transitions to long-term care. Presenters will describe the community’s transition team, which identifies residents who meet transition requirements and delivers a customized experience through time-sensitive touchpoints and care conferences with residents and their families. They will explain how the process prevents confusion, unclear expectations, care disruptions, and poor outcomes. Learn how TCM can improve care transitions in your life plan community, enrich the resident and family experience, and enhance communication across care levels.

Melody Desilets

Executive Director, Cypress Cove Foundation
Cypress Cove
Fort Myers, FL, US
  • 51-H. Enhance Workforce and Community Impact with Employee Scholarships

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    51-H. Enhance Workforce and Community Impact with Employee Scholarships

    Your organization can address workforce challenges and promote employee development by offering scholarships to help employees pursue higher education and improve their professional skills. This session will highlight three organizations that award scholarships to employees and students with support from residents who make donations, review applications, and allocate awards. Presenters will discuss the development, implementation, and outcomes of scholarship initiatives while sharing practical steps for securing funding, engaging stakeholders, and measuring success. Discover how to create scholarship programs that empower employees, attract new talent, and reinforce your organization’s commitment to mission-driven service. You’ll obtain tools to evaluate your scholarship program’s success, ensure its lasting impact, and demonstrate a return on investment for your organization and workforce.

Lisa DeSimone Arthur

Senior Partner and Practice Leader
WittKieffer
OakBrook, IL, USA
  • 38-J. Accelerating the Impact of a New CEO

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    38-J. Accelerating the Impact of a New CEO

    All chief executive officers (CEOs) can benefit from a proactive and supportive transition process that fully engages the board and leadership team to ensure early success in the role. Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge (WCBR), a life plan community in Charlottesville, VA, sought to orchestrate such a comprehensive transition for its new CEO. During this session, the community’s board chair and new CEO will share key elements of that transition plan. They’ll also address common and unexpected obstacles organizations must overcome to ensure a successful transition process. You’ll discover how a leadership transition can represent a strategic opportunity that enables organizations to step confidently into a brighter future.

Pam DeVito

Managing Director, Well-Being Services
Acts Retirement-Life Communities, Inc.
Fort Washington, PA, USA
  • 89-B. Thriving Your Way: Supporting Person-Directed Living Across the Continuum

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    89-B. Thriving Your Way: Supporting Person-Directed Living Across the Continuum

    Senior living professionals aspire to implement holistic, person-centered living in their communities. But how can this be achieved most effectively? During this session, leaders from Acts in Fort Washington, PA, will describe practices to help team members know, value, and connect with residents as unique individuals. You’ll examine common barriers to creating a more inclusive community culture, underscore the importance of breaking down silos between levels of living to promote inclusive engagement, and underscore the role all team members can play in supporting person-directed living. This session will emphasize the value of offering holistic engagement opportunities and well-being practices across the living continuum.

Stephanie DeWees

Quality & Regulatory Specialist-LTC
LeadingAge Ohio
Columbus, OH, US
  • 87-L. How to Align Quality Improvement and Financial Success

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025

    11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

    87-L. How to Align Quality Improvement and Financial Success

    A collaborative Quality Incentive Payment program implemented by an Ohio-based aging services provider resulted in a $14 million increase in Medicaid reimbursements and a 70% improvement in quality measure points. Attend this session to learn how the organization achieved this remarkable feat. Presenters will discuss the critical need to align clinical and financial goals, especially now that federal and state programs increasingly tie funding to quality outcomes. They will provide an overview of federal and state quality-based payment programs and show you how improved quality outcomes can drive clinical excellence and financial sustainability. You’ll learn how to navigate quality-based payment programs, implement evidence-based performance improvements, and leverage facility-specific data to create positive changes.

Bill Dillane

President
Responsive Group Inc.
Markham, ON, Canada

John DiMaggio

CEO
BlueOrange Compliance
Columbus, OH, United States
  • 10-J. AI, Cybersecurity, and the Law: What You Need to Know

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    10-J. AI, Cybersecurity, and the Law: What You Need to Know

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming senior living and healthcare, offering unprecedented opportunities to improve care delivery, streamline operations, and enhance resident engagement. Unfortunately, AI can also heighten cybersecurity risks and create complex legal issues for your organization. This session will highlight privacy laws, liability risks, and contractual obligations that could affect your use of AI. Technology experts and a senior living provider will guide you through steps to evaluate AI opportunities and build a technology roadmap that minimizes risk and aligns innovation with compliance and security best practices. Join this session to explore evolving issues that senior living executives can’t afford to ignore.

Denise DiNoto

Senior Director, Partner Engagement
Intrepid Ascent
Berkeley, CA, USA
  • 5-E. Maximize the Benefits of Bidirectional Data Exchange

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    5-E. Maximize the Benefits of Bidirectional Data Exchange

    Bidirectional data exchange the process of sending and receiving data across organizations and care sectors is increasingly common nationwide thanks to federal interoperability initiatives. This session will show how aging services providers can maximize the benefits of this exchange for care delivery and business operations. Presenters will discuss how their life plan communities use health information exchanges to support coordinated care during care transitions, enhance emergency preparedness, and better serve older adults with multiple chronic conditions. You’ll also learn how data exchange supports health plan contract negotiations, population outcome reporting, and point-of-care interventions.

Robert Dirscherl

Training & Development Director
Givens Estates
Asheville, NC, US
  • 145-K. Growing From Within: The Power of Career Coaching

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    145-K. Growing From Within: The Power of Career Coaching

    When team members see a future for themselves at your organization, they will stay, grow, and thrive. This session will show you how in-house career coaching makes that possible by establishing clear career pathways, building trust-based coaching relationships, and supporting skill development. Presenters will outline a scalable career-coaching model used by a life plan community to foster workforce engagement, increase retention, and improve organizational culture. You’ll gain tools to build your own coaching program, including strategies for identifying champions, defining success metrics, and embedding coaching into everyday workflows. Don’t miss this opportunity to create a future where every team member thrives.

John Dixon

Dean of Education
Lasell Village
Auburndale, MA, US
  • 130-E. International Perspectives: Fostering Lifelong Engagement in Age-Inclusive Urban Areas

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    130-E. International Perspectives: Fostering Lifelong Engagement in Age-Inclusive Urban Areas

    A growing percentage of older adults live in urban areas, and this trend is expected to continue. This session will illustrate how to reimagine urban spaces as collaborative, age-inclusive environments that view ageing as a societal asset. Presenters will share their expertise in age-friendly urban design and urban longevity. They’ll introduce you to the City of Longevity framework, developed by the United Kingdom’s National Innovation Centre Ageing to promote healthier, more inclusive urban environments. Representatives from Lasell Village in Newton, MA, will describe their community’s focus on integrating lifelong education, multigenerational design, and community engagement. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore program designs, urban planning strategies, and data-driven approaches to creating healthier, more inclusive cities for all ages.

Lindsay Doak

Vice President of Data and Research
Netsmart
Overland Park, KS, United States
  • 94-B. Best Practices in Home Health and Hospice

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    94-B. Best Practices in Home Health and Hospice

    What strategies, structures, and processes distinguish high-performing home health and hospice organizations across the United States? This session will address that question by reviewing findings from the 2026 National Healthcare at Home Best Practices Study. Presenters will translate the study’s national findings into practical, actionable insights and share best practices for care transitions, referral management, visit utilization, symptom management, and end-of-life care planning. You’ll learn how evidence-based practices influence quality outcomes, patient experience, staff retention, and financial performance, and how external factors such as workforce shortages, payment reform, and regulations are shaping the adoption of best practices nationwide.

  • 101-F. Surviving Uncertainty to Fulfill the Home Health Promise

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    101-F. Surviving Uncertainty to Fulfill the Home Health Promise

    Home health agencies have faced significant financial, regulatory, and program integrity challenges for years. At the same time, demand for home-based services among Medicare beneficiaries has grown exponentially, straining the already limited capacity of home health providers. This session will explore how we reached this point. Presenters will examine threats to the sector’s sustainability, including the declining number of home health providers, the six-month nationwide moratorium on new Medicare enrollments for home health agencies, and ongoing negative payment adjustments. You’ll gain a clearer understanding of these threats and learn about new policy opportunities that could spur a reimagination of the home health benefit.

Erin Donaldson

Vice President/Director of Operations Management
LCS
Des Moines, IA, USA
  • 141-H. What if You Could Prevent Employees from Leaving Their Jobs?

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    141-H. What if You Could Prevent Employees from Leaving Their Jobs?

    In today’s labor-constrained environment, senior living organizations need more than hindsight. They need actionable foresight. This session will showcase a tool that can help. You’ll hear about Retention Radar, a predictive workforce intelligence solution that identifies employees most at risk of leaving their jobs and recommends targeted, practical interventions to support engagement and stability. Presenters will explain how Retention Radar equips Human Resources teams, operations leaders, and community administrators to interpret workforce trends and make data-informed decisions. Users of the tool will share strategies for translating predictive analytics into targeted retention interventions and explain how Retention Radar helped them build healthier teams and enhance the resident experience.