Christin Lampkowski

Emerging Technologies Librarian
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC
  • 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.

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

Founder & CEO
ProcareHR
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.

Whitney Lane

Vice President of Clinical Services
Brookdale Senior Living, Inc.
Brentwood, TN
  • 79-D. Future-Proof Your Organization with a Quality Framework

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    79-D. Future-Proof Your Organization with a Quality Framework

    Investing in quality can future-proof your aging services organization against regulatory, reimbursement, and demographic changes. The reason is simple: Discerning consumers assess providers based on whether their quality is trustworthy and measurable. This session will highlight the quality metrics that matter most to consumers and families when selecting aging services providers. You’ll learn how to use a standardized quality framework to strengthen workforce culture, improve recruitment, and reduce turnover. You’ll also discover how your organization’s quality performance can set it apart in the marketplace, build robust referral pipelines, and expand partnerships. This is your chance to transform quality from a compliance requirement into a growth strategy.

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.

Jen Larson

Director, Office of Asset Management
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
Washington, DC
  • 93-B. Affordable Senior Housing: The Federal Outlook (Closed to Press)

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    93-B. Affordable Senior Housing: The Federal Outlook (Closed to Press)

    The affordable housing crisis is intensifying across America. This session will focus on the challenges and opportunities facing mission-driven housing providers seeking to support older adults with low incomes who want to age in the community. Presenters will offer insights into the ever-changing landscape of federal affordable housing programs for older adults. They’ll also review developments in subsidized multifamily housing, including significant new federal funding for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, potential threats to federal rental assistance programs, and reductions in funding for supportive services and benefits. Let LeadingAge housing experts guide you as you work to achieve your affordable housing mission.

Lacie Lawless

Administrator In Training
Eastmont Towers Community
Lincoln, NE
  • 140-G. The ROAD to Building Your Workforce Through Internships

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    140-G. The ROAD to Building Your Workforce Through Internships

    Senior living communities seeking to strengthen their workforce must take deliberate steps to reach younger workers who may not yet view aging services as an attractive career path. This session will highlight a program that can help. The Rotational Operations and Development (ROAD) talent development model invites young interns to explore the full range of career opportunities in aging services through internship rotations across various departments such as operations, dining, marketing, resident services, and more. LeadingAge members who are using the ROAD model, along with interns who’ve participated in it, will share their experiences. You’ll gain the tools you need to attract Gen Z team members to your organization and to our field.

David Lawlor

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

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    44-E. Secure Your Future: Restructure and Reimagine (Closed to Press)

    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.