Cheryl Lampkowski-Sowle

AVP Home Health and Hospice
Otterbein SeniorLife
Lebanon, OH
  • 4-D. Can Technology Advance Compassion in Hospice Care?

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    4-D. Can Technology Advance Compassion in Hospice Care?

    The quality of hospice care depends heavily on caregivers’ relational skills. Yet hospice caregivers often face emotional fatigue, communication challenges, and varying levels of preparedness. This session will explore how hospice staff training can leverage emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR), to enhance caregiver empathy, strengthen communication and connection with patients and families, and improve the patient experience. Presenters will share a case study of one hospice agency’s journey from technology exploration to implementation. You’ll learn how to create a technology implementation roadmap, explore evidence-based strategies for using AI and VR, and consider ethical concerns and safeguards for deploying technology in sensitive care settings.

Brett Landrum

CEO
Procare HR
Minneapolis, MN
  • 97-D. Navigating M&A: The Critical Role of Insurance

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    97-D. Navigating M&A: The Critical Role of Insurance

    As mergers and acquisitions (M&A) continue to reshape the senior living landscape, organizations need specialized knowledge and tools to navigate these complex transactions. During this session, a representative from LeadingAge Gold Partner EPIC Senior Living will review the M&A due diligence process and highlight the critical role insurance plays in protecting buyers and sellers by uncovering hidden liabilities and ensuring coverage continuity throughout the transaction lifecycle. Whether your organization is expanding, consolidating, or exploring strategic partnerships, this session will help you make informed decisions that safeguard your mission, residents, and financial future.

Meg LaPorte

Co-Founder
Art Against Ageism
  • 62-B. Crafting Messages that Advance Age and Ability Inclusion

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    62-B. Crafting Messages that Advance Age and Ability Inclusion

    Senior living marketing and communications professionals often rely on unrealistic stock photos and messaging that idealize “super agers” while ignoring the diverse realities of aging. These choices, whether intentional or not, reinforce narrow, often damaging stereotypes about how older adults should look, live, and behave. This session will examine the drivers of ageist and ableist messaging and the risks these biases pose to older adults and the aging services field. Presenters will share strategies and practical tools to help you audit your current communications materials, identify and correct harmful biases, and build campaigns rooted in authenticity, respect, and representation. You’ll learn to craft messages that resonate more deeply with your target markets.

James Larson

Managing Director – Healthcare Consulting
Forvis Mazars
Atlanta, GA
  • 37-A. Delivering a Successful Nursing Replacement Project

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    37-A. Delivering a Successful Nursing Replacement Project

    With thoughtful planning, senior living communities can integrate skilled nursing into their growth strategies. That’s the primary message of this session, which will showcase a life plan community that built a financially sustainable, consumer-focused replacement for its skilled nursing and memory care building. Community representatives will discuss how they planned, designed, and constructed the new building, which features 32 memory care apartments, 68 long-term nursing units, and a 32-unit short-term rehabilitation center. You’ll learn how to combine financial planning metrics, innovative design, and proactive management to deliver high-quality nursing care that aligns with your organization’s mission and economic expectations.

David Lawlor

Chief Financial Officer and President, Management & Consulting Division
Masonicare
Wallingford, CT
  • 44-E. Secure Your Future: Restructure and Reimagine

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    44-E. Secure Your Future: Restructure and Reimagine

    Executive teams update their strategic plans annually to refine the traditional continuum model they’ve offered for decades. These organizations now face unprecedented challenges as more for-profit developers enter the field, consumer preferences shift, and government payments decline. Tweaking the continuum won’t be enough to secure the future. Instead, this session will show you how to restructure your organization and reimagine the continuum. Presenters will offer guidance on selling or repurposing assets to advance your mission, collaborating with and learning from investors, restructuring your debt, and addressing your legal issues. Let a turnaround manager and an investment banker help you develop an achievable restructuring plan that will appeal to investors and secure your organization’s future.

Matt Leach

Principal and Senior Consultant
Total Compensation Solutions
Armonk, NY
  • 133-A. Smarter Compensation Design for Senior Living

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    133-A. Smarter Compensation Design for Senior Living

    A senior living organization’s leadership compensation model must reflect its unique financial capacity, organizational maturity, leadership philosophy, and culture. This session will help you choose a model that meets these requirements. Presenters will describe three compensation models that provider organizations have used effectively: a mission-driven model for service-oriented team members; a performance-driven model that uses goal-setting and market data to determine compensation levels; and a retention-focused model that supports leadership stability during expansions or retirements. You’ll receive the guidance you need to build or enhance your current compensation practices, using the model that works best for your organization.

Andrew Leech

Corporate Vice President
Greystone
Irving, TX
  • 80-E. Optimizing Dining Operations Amid Workforce Challenges

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    80-E. Optimizing Dining Operations Amid Workforce Challenges

    A senior living community’s dining program shapes residents’ daily experience and signals organizational stability and operational efficiency. Unfortunately, high staff turnover, driven by low compensation, often leads to inconsistent service quality and undermines resident satisfaction. This session will provide practical tools to maintain your dining program’s quality, consistency, and service standards. Presenters will share management practices including coaching frontline supervisors and standardizing expectations that build resilience in dining departments. You’ll also learn to improve the dining experience through menu innovations, structured leadership training, outcome measurement, and operational systems that sustain quality. Make your dining experience a reliable, mission-critical touchpoint despite ongoing workforce challenges.

Emily Legner

President of Senior Options and Westminster Canterbury at Home
Westminster Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay
Virginia Beach, VA
  • 90-K. Navigating Obstacles to HCBS Growth, Quality, and Success

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    90-K. Navigating Obstacles to HCBS Growth, Quality, and Success

    Most home and community-based service (HCBS) agencies cite regulation, staffing, and the growth of managed care as their primary obstacles to growth. While these issues are real, this session will show that most obstacles to HCBS growth, quality, and financial success are internal rather than external. Representatives of a life plan community’s HCBS subsidiary will share highlights from their decade of experience helping senior living communities develop and operate home care, home health, and hospice services. You’ll gain insights into the pitfalls senior living organizations encounter when starting and operating HCBS agencies and take home practical, proactive, and remedial strategies to optimize your operations.

Karen Lehman

President & CEO
AQORD
Blue Bell, PA
  • 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.

Mark Lenhard

President/CEO
United Methodist Communities
Neptune, NJ
  • 2-B. Build a Strategic Roadmap for AI Adoption

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    2-B. Build a Strategic Roadmap for AI Adoption

    You’ve undoubtedly heard about the “transformative power” of Artificial Intelligence (AI). But what would an AI-fueled transformation look like for your organization, and what tools would you need to make it a reality? This session will guide you through a comprehensive, multi-week AI assessment to help your organization evaluate its technology maturity, identify quick wins, and build a realistic three-year AI roadmap. Three senior living providers will share strategies to help mid-size and smaller organizations use AI to manage change, expand internal capacity, and focus on outcomes for residents and staff. You’ll gain tools to adopt AI solutions gradually and in ways that fit your organization’s unique circumstances.

Glen Lewis

CEO
RoseVilla Senior Living
Portland, OR
  • 27-D. Build a Better Board with Better Meetings

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    27-D. Build a Better Board with Better Meetings

    Keeping senior living board members aligned can be challenging in this age of competing priorities. Many boards struggle with fragmentation, uneven engagement, or unfocused conversations, even as organizational leaders face unprecedented challenges. During this session, you’ll learn how to build a more effective board by designing meetings that surface the right insights, promote shared understanding, and encourage strategic questions. Discover how to reinforce the board’s strategic focus between meetings, frame discussions during meetings, and avoid having to reset the conversation every quarter. Here’s your chance to get everyone on the same page and keep them there as your organization’s operating landscape evolves.

Mimi Lewis

R3 Program Director
Simon C. Fireman Community
Randolph, MA
  • 13-A. Building Trust and Belonging in Diverse Housing Communities

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    13-A. Building Trust and Belonging in Diverse Housing Communities

    As the older population becomes more diverse, resident services teams in affordable senior housing must adapt to meet a wide range of needs. This session will focus on a housing-based services model that provides care coordination, referrals, and on-site programming across 17 diverse housing communities. Presenters will outline the program’s features, discuss the team’s challenges and strategies for supporting culturally and linguistically diverse residents, and share lessons learned. A multilingual wellness coordinator will explain how cultural norms, religious practices, and communication preferences shape her daily interactions with residents. You’ll gain strategies to strengthen trust, communication, and quality of life across diverse senior housing populations.