Janel Wait

Co-CEO
AgePop
  • 32-I. Build a Team That Outperforms Expectations

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    32-I. Build a Team That Outperforms Expectations

    Extraordinary outcomes depend on extraordinary teams, whether you’re leading an expansion, repositioning an existing campus, stabilizing occupancy, or launching a major operational initiative. This session tells the story of a life plan community that built a cross-functional team to deliver a successful expansion that many believed would not resonate with its intended audience. Presenters will describe how they improved performance across operations, culture, sales, brand, design, and development through strategic decisions, bold pivots, and mindset shifts that propelled a small nonprofit community to outsized success. You’ll walk away with a replicable framework for building team chemistry and enhancing execution, along with practical tips for shifting culture and inspiring optimism.

Abby Waldo

VP of Innovation and Project Implementation
Resthaven
Holland, MI
  • 110-B. Data-Driven Methods to Extend Independence and Healthspan

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    110-B. Data-Driven Methods to Extend Independence and Healthspan

    Many life plan communities implement robust wellness programs to help residents live independently longer and extend their healthspan. Yet these communities often overlook less visible but equally influential factors that affect residents’ long-term independence. This session will showcase a life plan community that uses data-driven, behaviorally informed methods to assess residents’ strengths and vulnerabilities, help residents interpret their assessment results, educate them about issues affecting independence, and enable them to co-design targeted interventions. Learn how to make data-informed programming decisions that meet residents’ needs, support independence, and align with organizational strategies to help residents live independently longer.

Mike Wallace

CEO and Partner
Tandem Senior Living Advisors
Gastonia, NC
  • 70-I. Capturing Imaginations with Visual Storytelling

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    70-I. Capturing Imaginations with Visual Storytelling

    Is a picture really worth a thousand words? Many senior living organizations are counting on it. This session will feature an organization that used visual storytelling to attract a new market segment to its senior housing options and to build support for a campus expansion among current residents. Presenters will explain what visual storytelling entails, how it drives effective marketing, and how to assess the appropriate use of AI-generated imagery, architectural renderings, and video flythroughs. You’ll gain practical guidance on effective visual storytelling methods and a candid assessment of approaches that fall short.

Shay Wallace

Senior Director of Sales and Marketing
Pacific Retirement Services
Medford, OR
  • 61-B. Let Current Residents Help You Identify Future Residents

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    61-B. Let Current Residents Help You Identify Future Residents

    Life plan communities seeking new feeder markets beyond their local area need look no further than their own residents to identify ideal prospects. In this session, a panel of marketing experts will explain how a multisite senior living organization partnered with a marketing agency to improve outreach to local consumers and reach qualified prospects beyond its immediate area. Presenters will describe how the organization’s marketing team used information about current residents including their affiliations and personal passions to conduct targeted outreach to prospective residents with similar interests. You’ll learn how to boost lead quality by crafting innovative strategies to reach prospects seeking a new home where they genuinely belong.

Jodi Waterhouse

Director, Strategic Partnerships & Programs
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO
  • 22-J. Innovating Together: Working with Academic Health Partners

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    22-J. Innovating Together: Working with Academic Health Partners

    Partnering with academic health institutions can help your senior living organization unlock resources, foster innovation, and improve older adults’ quality of life. During this session, representatives from a university and a life plan community will describe their collaboration and explain how it created opportunities for both partners. Presenters will outline how the community gained access to cutting-edge medical research and health screenings, while university researchers collaborated with community team members and residents to co-create solutions to pressing challenges. You’ll learn how to identify and approach potential partners, bridge cultural gaps, navigate challenges, and sustain momentum. Get ready to connect aging and academia to deliver measurable benefits to all stakeholders.

Carolyn Weaver

Interior Designer
SFCS Architects
Roanoke, VA
  • 121-A. Tiny Home, Massive Lifestyle: Selling Studio Apartments

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    121-A. Tiny Home, Massive Lifestyle: Selling Studio Apartments

    Does your life plan community have small studio apartments that it’s struggling to fill because they can’t be expanded or combined with larger units? This session may offer some solutions. A chief marketing officer, an interior designer, and a senior living advisor will share how they successfully marketed and quickly filled five studio apartments that had been sitting empty or used for storage. They did so by tapping into the current interest in stylish, functional tiny-home residences and giving the units a facelift with updated designs and size-appropriate furnishings. You’ll see before-and-after photos showing how the community redesigned and marketed the studio apartments as part of its successful “Tiny Home, Massive Lifestyle” campaign.

Sandy Webster

VP Culinary, Nutrition & Hospitality
International Council on Active Aging
Vancouver, BC
  • 118-J. Turn Your Dining Venue into a Wellness Engine

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    118-J. Turn Your Dining Venue into a Wellness Engine

    When Baby Boomers and members of Gen X arrive at your community’s dining venue, they’ll likely bring new expectations to the table. How will you measure up? This session will report on consumer preferences for culinary programs that deliver flavor, cultural relevance, agency, and a sense of community connection. Presenters will help you meet those preferences with a new culinary framework pioneered by the International Council on Active Aging’s Culinary, Nutrition & Hospitality Network. You’ll learn to reframe senior living dining venues as strategic wellness engines that support physical health, cognitive vitality, and social connection. Get the support you need to rethink how food environments can foster purpose, engagement, and wellness for today’s older adults.

Tim Webster

CEO
Kintura
Greensboro, NC
  • 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.

Jesse Wescott

Associate Vice President
The Towers at Tower Lane
New Haven, CT
  • 130-J. Design with Data: Reducing Loneliness in Senior Housing

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    130-J. Design with Data: Reducing Loneliness in Senior Housing

    Social architecture deliberately designs environments to shape human behavior and foster meaningful connections. This session will show how a senior housing development used this approach to design a 30,000-square-foot ground-floor renovation. Presenters will explain how they tracked residents’ engagement and support needs using a customized, artificial intelligence-enabled platform, then applied proxemics the study of how humans use physical space and distance to communicate to determine hallway widths, select furniture, and set seating capacity. You’ll learn the science behind the community’s planning process and consider how isolation measurement tools might help you design spaces that encourage connection.

Marsha Wesley Coleman

Principal
Marsha Wesley Colean Consulting, LLC
Plymouth Meeting, PA
  • 138-E. Unlock the Leadership Potential of Your Frontline Workforce

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    138-E. Unlock the Leadership Potential of Your Frontline Workforce

    Frontline caregivers are the heart of every aging services organization, yet most have limited opportunities to develop their leadership skills. During this session, a panel of human resources and leadership development professionals from LeadingAge member organizations will highlight promising programs that harness the leadership potential of the frontline workforce, enhance organizational culture, increase retention, and help caregivers contribute more effectively to their organizations. Presenters will share learning modules that have resonated with frontline learners and offer tips for adapting them to diverse learning needs and day-to-day operational challenges. You’ll gain practical strategies for launching or strengthening a frontline leadership program that benefits all levels of your organization.

Rick Westermann

SVP, Chief Marketing Officer
LCS
Des Moines, IA
  • 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 LCS built that can help. You’ll hear about Retention Radar, a predictive workforce intelligence solution that identifies departments with employees most at risk of leaving their jobs and recommends targeted, practical interventions to support engagement and stability. By analyzing indicators such as benefits participation, scheduling alignment, supervisor stability, and PTO utilization, this innovative tool helps community leaders focus their efforts where they can have the greatest impact. Presenters will explain how Retention Radar equips Executive Directors, Administrations, Human Resources teams, and other operations leaders 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 is helping to reduce turnover while enhancing the resident experience.

Asa Whitcomb

COO
Vermont Veterans’ Home
Bennington, VT
  • 109-A. Supporting Human Connection through Intimacy Policies

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    109-A. Supporting Human Connection through Intimacy Policies

    Many organizations recognize the importance of honoring residents’ rights, yet few have clear guidelines for supporting intimate expression, especially when decision-making capacity is impaired. This session will introduce you to a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to developing an intimacy and sexuality policy. Presenters will highlight how one nursing home worked with a medical ethicist, staff, residents, and families to develop a framework that safeguards vulnerable adults while affirming their fundamental human need for connection, companionship, and intimate expression. You’ll take away information to help you support residents’ intimacy responsibly and compassionately, honor individual rights, and enhance overall quality of life, all while complying with regulations.