Eric Riguerra, RN

Director of Nursing Services
Jewish Home at Rockleigh
Rockleigh, NJ
  • 113-E. Improving Dementia Care with AI-Powered Pain Assessment

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    113-E. Improving Dementia Care with AI-Powered Pain Assessment

    Pain is often underrecognized and undertreated in older adults with dementia, many of whom cannot reliably self-report their discomfort. This communication barrier leads caregivers to rely on subjective observations, resulting in inconsistent assessments and missed opportunities for intervention. This session will explore how AI-powered pain assessment tools combine automated facial recognition with structured digital checklists to accurately and consistently identify pain-related behaviors in nonverbal individuals. Presenters will demonstrate how to use these tools to improve clinical decision-making and reduce falls, frailty, and inappropriate drug use. Join this session to discover how technology and human care can work together to ensure a pain-free future for older adults.

Keith Robinette

Career Coach
Givens Communities
Asheville, NC
  • 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.

Sanford Rodgers

Director of On Lok PACEpartners
On Lok PACEpartners
San Francisco, CA
  • 46-F. Bringing PACE to Affordable Housing: Benefits and Approaches

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    46-F. Bringing PACE to Affordable Housing: Benefits and Approaches

    Are you struggling to meet the complex medical and social needs of residents in your standalone affordable housing community? The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) may offer a solution. PACE enables older adults to age safely in the community by providing comprehensive medical care, social services, and care coordination. During this session, you’ll hear from On Lok, which founded the PACE model, and from On Lok PACEpartners, which guides housing providers interested in launching and scaling their own PACE programs. Presenters will explain the PACE approach and its benefits for housing residents. They’ll also outline strategies for co-locating PACE with housing and share a framework to help you begin your PACE exploration.

Kathleen Rogers

CFO
Village On The Isle
Venice, FL
  • 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.

Rachel Rogers

Director of Continuing Education and Workforce Development
Wor-Wic Community College
Salisbury, MD
  • 78-D. Foster Aging in Community by REACHing Out to Residents

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    78-D. Foster Aging in Community by REACHing Out to Residents

    How can affordable housing providers help older residents age well in the community? This session will introduce the Residents Engaging in Authentic Conversations on Health (REACH) interview tool, which helps staff in affordable housing communities collect residents’ health and wellness information and use it to connect residents to appropriate services. Eaton Senior Communities in Lakewood, CO, developed the tool with researchers at the University of Denver and is now analyzing and sharing 10 years of resident wellness data with housing providers, healthcare programs, and payers. This session will examine the project’s implementation, early results, and best practices for promoting healthy, affordable aging.

Alexandria Rohrbaugh

Corporate Director of Marketing
The Ohio Masonic Home
Springfield, OH
  • 73-L. Putting Marketing at the Forefront of Everything You Do

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

    73-L. Putting Marketing at the Forefront of Everything You Do

    The marketing function at senior living communities isn’t just for the sales team. Communities seeking a competitive edge must put marketing at the forefront of everything they do, including employee recruitment, resident events, and fundraising. This session will focus on how a multisite senior living organization created an internal marketing agency that operates independently while supporting the organization’s sales function. Presenters will explain how the agency built its capacity to support every internal function and how its four-person team uses artificial intelligence to handle tedious tasks, freeing team members to focus on advancing the organization’s mission. You’ll leave this session with a roadmap to expand marketing support across your organization and leverage technology to boost your efforts.

Shewon Roper

Executive Vice President & COO
Cooperative Home Care Associates
Bronx, NY
  • 146-L. How a Universal Worker Model Boosts Satisfaction and Retention

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

    146-L. How a Universal Worker Model Boosts Satisfaction and Retention

    Direct care professionals face persistent challenges, including high turnover, low wages, and limited opportunities for career advancement. This session will showcase a promising solution: the Universal Direct Care Workforce Initiative. This career advancement model features immersive training for new hires, specialty training in dementia and behavioral health, and a “Care Integration Senior Aide” who documents and reports clients’ clinical conditions to the care team. A representative from PHI, a national workforce organization, will share data from the initiative’s first year, and a home care partner will describe evidence-based practices implemented through the program. You’ll learn how this model improves the quality of care and boosts workforce satisfaction and retention.

Jeffrey Rose

Director of Special Initiaitves
Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) from AARP
Brooklyn, NY
  • 7-G. Building Digital Confidence among Older Adults

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    7-G. Building Digital Confidence among Older Adults

    Many senior living organizations are adept at implementing new technology solutions and devices to improve older adults’ daily lives. Yet these organizations often overlook an important truth: the success of any new technology depends not on a high-tech device but on the user’s confidence and ability to use it. That’s where digital literacy comes in. This session will show you how to foster curiosity rather than hesitation among older adults, enabling them to learn the digital skills needed for meaningful engagement with technology. Presenters will provide strategies to help you design digital literacy programs that empower older adults and ensure they are not left behind in the digital age.

Meghan Rose

General Counsel and Chief Government Affairs Officer
LeadingAge California
Sacramento, CA
  • 7-G. Building Digital Confidence among Older Adults

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    7-G. Building Digital Confidence among Older Adults

    Many senior living organizations are adept at implementing new technology solutions and devices to improve older adults’ daily lives. Yet these organizations often overlook an important truth: the success of any new technology depends not on a high-tech device but on the user’s confidence and ability to use it. That’s where digital literacy comes in. This session will show you how to foster curiosity rather than hesitation among older adults, enabling them to learn the digital skills needed for meaningful engagement with technology. Presenters will provide strategies to help you design digital literacy programs that empower older adults and ensure they are not left behind in the digital age.

Mark Ross

Partner and National Healthcare Practice Leader
Baker Tilly
Wilkes-Barre, PA
  • 87-I. Strategic Habits of Successful Organizations

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    87-I. Strategic Habits of Successful Organizations

    Financial performance isn’t the only measure of organizational health. This session will introduce common attributes that go beyond balance sheets and revenue streams to drive sustainable performance improvement in senior living organizations. Presenters will share a performance-improvement framework developed by Baker Tilly, an advisory, tax, and assurance firm. They’ll help you assess how effectively your organization builds governance structures, maintains leadership stability, fosters a supportive workplace culture, pursues proactive capital planning, ensures financial and operational alignment, and engages residents. Representatives from single-site and multisite organizations will share strategies to achieve operational excellence, long-term sustainability, and resilience.

Uwe Rudnick

Regional Dining Director
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.

Aline Russotto

Executive Director
Orchard Cove
Canton, MA
  • 25-B. A Dose of Inspiration: Servant Leaders Tell Their Stories

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    25-B. A Dose of Inspiration: Servant Leaders Tell Their Stories

    Strong leaders persuade, anticipate the future, and guide their organizations toward results. Strong “servant leaders” also build and nurture trust, deepen relationships, and develop team members so they can make a lasting impact. This session will feature servant leaders working to improve the field of aging services and the lives of older adults. Panelists will describe their involvement in a variety of movements, including dementia inclusion, LGBTQ+ affordable housing, and age-friendly cities. They’ll share how they apply their talents and wisdom to promote equity, access, and inclusion within and beyond their organizations. Join this session for a dose of inspiration and leave feeling motivated to consider your own mission and legacy.