Dawn Elizabeth Todd

ELL Program Coordinator
Friendsview Retirement Community
Newberg, OR
  • 29-D. Creating Career Pathways for English Language Learners

    • Monday, October 28, 2024

    8:15 – 9:15 a.m.

    29-D. Creating Career Pathways for English Language Learners

    Building the skills of English language learners can help senior living organizations fill critical vacancies, retain professional caregivers, and mentor trusted staff. During this session, team members from Friendsview Retirement Community in Newberg, OR, will describe how their organization is putting English language learners on a career path in healthcare, as well as how they addressed academic bias in their training programs in order to help their housekeeping staff to succeed. Get tips for starting an English Language Learners Program in your organization and ensuring that the program leads to new hires. You’ll learn how to partner with external education programs, smooth out your hiring process to be more welcoming to English language learners, ease communication between learners, coworkers, and residents, and boost retention through training and advancement. Most of all, you will learn how benefits transfer to better learning for all your employees.

Eric Tracy

Associate
Kimley-Horn & Associates
Lisle, IL
  • 17-D. Navigating the Stormy Waters of a Campus Expansion

    • Monday, October 28, 2024

    8:15 – 9:15 a.m.

    17-D. Navigating the Stormy Waters of a Campus Expansion

    What happens when an older life plan community campus with a growing need for new housing plans an expansion that involves relocating a stream and adding a detention basin to an adjacent property? During this session, representatives of Covenant Living Communities and Services in Skokie, IL, will describe how they addressed myriad obstacles while still maintaining a quality design. Presenters will offer advice to help you garner support for your project from stakeholders, stay within your budget, obtain additional funding to address delays, and manage a process you don’t fully control. Get an up-close view of the often-turbulent process of seeking approval for a senior living development expansion. Take home advice that could help your next project succeed.

Lindsay Troge

Director of Marketing
Town & Country Senior Living
Santa Ana, CA
  • 84-K. Unleashing Your Nonprofit Superpowers to Boost Census

    • Wednesday, October 30, 2024

    9:30 – 10:30 a.m.

    84-K. Unleashing Your Nonprofit Superpowers to Boost Census

    Nonprofit life plan communities are the superheroes of the senior living world. So why are so many communities losing census to for-profit communities? Your nonprofit status brings with it a wealth of powerful advantages, but communicating those advantages to prospective residents takes time and effort. This session will help census-challenged nonprofit communities identify game-changing messaging that will improve their marketing, sales, hiring, and fundraising. Presenters will share a dozen impactful nonprofit messages and stories proven to resonate with different target audiences. They’ll also show you how to identify and mitigate operational activities and behavior patterns that can weaken sales performance, depress lead generation, and impact census.

Jeff Tucker

Vice President of Human Resources
Christian Living Communities
Englewood, CO
  • 150-J. Reboot Your Organization’s Workforce Culture

    • Wednesday, October 30, 2024

    8:00 – 9:00 a.m.

    150-J. Reboot Your Organization’s Workforce Culture

    The aging services workplace changed forever in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on our organizations and the people we serve. As a result, many pre-COVID organizational processes, structures, and strategies are no longer relevant and must be retooled or replaced. During this session, Human Resources experts will describe the methods they used to reboot their organization’s workforce culture by questioning past assumptions about what impacts that culture, building back effective strategies, and experimenting with new approaches. Hear about their successes and failures and take home actionable strategies for helping your organization attract, engage, and retain excellent team members dedicated to enriching the daily lives and experiences of older adults.

Nikia Tucker

Student
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Denver, CO
  • 143-F. Embracing Students as Future Leaders in Aging Services

    • Monday, October 28, 2024

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    143-F. Embracing Students as Future Leaders in Aging Services

    The field of aging services faces a pressing challenge: finding innovative strategies to recruit and retain employees to meet the projected demand of 20 million caregiving positions by 2040. Fresh approaches are essential to tackle this critical need. This session will present a solution that includes actively recruiting from colleges and universities that offer aging services and gerontology programs. Representatives from Metropolitan State University of Denver will demonstrate how to stay ahead of the recruitment curve by creating entry-level job opportunities, volunteer experiences, intergenerational learning moments, and internships to attract college graduates to the field. Attendees will hear from current students, alumni, and faculty and leave with practical strategies for collaborating with educational institutions to address the workforce shortage.

Melissa Turzanski

Program Director, Care Innovation and Transformation
Baycrest
North York, ON
  • 114-J. Transforming the Living Experience for People with Dementia

    • Wednesday, October 30, 2024

    8:00 – 9:00 a.m.

    114-J. Transforming the Living Experience for People with Dementia

    People living with dementia shouldn’t have to give up their values, purpose, preferences, connections, choices, and autonomy when they move into residential care. Instead, they should have access to models that disrupt traditional institutionalized approaches and enable an exceptional residential experience. This session will describe Possibilities by Baycrestu2122, a formal approach to delivering care for people living with dementia in residential settings. Representatives of Baycrest Health Sciences in Toronto, Canada, will give you a high-level overview of the model and explain how it maximizes abilities and potential by customizing a living experience for each person.

Celia Van Lenten

Principal
Miles & Stockbridge
Baltimore, MD
  • 71-K. Growing Pains: Avoiding Landmines as Your Organization Grows

    • Wednesday, October 30, 2024

    9:30 – 10:30 a.m.

    71-K. Growing Pains: Avoiding Landmines as Your Organization Grows

    All senior living organizations strive for growth, but it’s not always easy. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities that various organizations have encountered while following a growth strategy. Senior leaders, board members, financing partners, an attorney, and an advisor of Goodwin Living in Alexandria, VA, will tell you how to gain buy-in for your growth plans from residents, employees, lenders, and the local community so your organization can achieve its mission. You’ll take home tips for ensuring your organizational growth reflects its corporate structure, governance, and nonprofit status. You’ll also learn how to identify long-term goals and make tough decisions if growth-related projects are not proceeding according to plan.

Steven VanderVelde

Director of Senior Living Partnership
ProviNET Solutions
Tinley Park, IL
  • 11-J. Are You Inviting Hackers to Compromise Your Cybersecurity?

    • Wednesday, October 30, 2024

    8:00 – 9:00 a.m.

    11-J. Are You Inviting Hackers to Compromise Your Cybersecurity?

    No provider of aging services would volunteer to have their technology systems hacked, but many providers unknowingly invite hackers to compromise their cybersecurity. This session will explore common practices and pitfalls that leave senior living organizations open to potential harm and actions providers can take to avoid dangerous situations. You’ll hear from a technology consultant who works with hundreds of providers nationwide, a penetration tester who acts as a “bad guy” to help provider organizations assess and test their vulnerabilities, and a chief information officer who will offer the provider’s perspective on cybersecurity. Hear stories of providers who fell prey to hackers and learn how to promote a culture of security awareness in your organization.

Anya Vanecek

University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
  • 14-A. Living Well Initiative: A Sea Change for Community Planning

    • Sunday, October 27, 2024

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    14-A. Living Well Initiative: A Sea Change for Community Planning

    Housing the country’s future aging population will require a sea change in how architects and planners think about community spaces, services, and what it means to grow older. That sea change is already taking shape through the Living Well Initiative, a consortium of Milwaukee-area corporations seeking to help future architects and designers consult with older adults as they imagine the future of senior housing. This session will describe a participatory research experience during which University of Wisconsin Milwaukee students worked with older adults to create alternative models of university-affiliated communities for older adults. Presenters will show you how to use the same techniques to imagine new housing options while integrating older adults into the community’s social fabric.

Joe Velderman

Vice President of Innovation
Cypress Cove
Fort Myers, FL
  • 1-A. What AI-Driven Solutions Will Impact Aging Services?

    • Sunday, October 27, 2024

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    1-A. What AI-Driven Solutions Will Impact Aging Services?

    Artificial intelligence (AI) can help aging services organizations provide the best possible care while relieving pressure on overburdened staff and engaging older adults in preserving their health, independence, and dignity. During this session, a global aging expert, technology innovator, and aging services provider will discuss the current and future market for AI-driven solutions in senior living and the innovations that promise to make the most significant impact now and in the future. Presenters will showcase Cypress Living in Ft. Myers, FL, which is using an AI-powered solution to detect and prevent falls. You’ll go home ready to begin your AI journey.

  • 8-G. Advancing Aging Services: Embracing Generative AI and Large Language Models

    • Tuesday, October 29, 2024

    8:15 – 9:15 a.m.

    8-G. Advancing Aging Services: Embracing Generative AI and Large Language Models

    Two out of five nonprofit executives responding to a recent Google survey admitted their organizations were not currently using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, even though they felt optimistic about the role these technologies could play in their organizations. What’s holding these executives back? They are simply unfamiliar with rapidly evolving technologies like Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM). If a lack of familiarity keeps you from exploring AI, this session is for you. Presenters will share practical examples of how aging services organizations use AI and LLMs to increase administrative efficiency, streamline communications, enhance the resident experience, and support the workforce.

Samantha Victor-Alvarado

VP of Human Resources
Presbyterian LIving
Skokie, IL
  • 139-D. A Systems-Level Initiative to Support Employee Well-Being

    • Monday, October 28, 2024

    8:15 – 9:15 a.m.

    139-D. A Systems-Level Initiative to Support Employee Well-Being

    The well-being of individuals working at every level of senior living organizations has been seriously challenged over the past few years. Presbyterian Homes in Skokie, IL, established a systems-level intervention to help employees address those challenges. This session will describe the processes and strategies the organization used to implement a well-being initiative with help from leadership, staff, and resident champions. Presenters will review the latest research about workplace well-being and explore the connection between staff well-being, quality of care, clinical outcomes, and operations. Let yourself be inspired to establish similar interventions to foster emotional well-being among staff while stabilizing and empowering the aging services workforce.

Robin Visser

Director of Marketing and Digital Strategies
Christian Living Communities
Englewood, CO
  • 85-L. Mastering Authentic Digital Marketing Strategies

    • Wednesday, October 30, 2024

    11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

    85-L. Mastering Authentic Digital Marketing Strategies

    Most people begin searching for a senior living community by sitting in front of a computer, not taking an in-person campus tour. These prospective residents are digitally savvy and have little patience for digital marketing they don’t find relevant. Senior living organizations can best meet their marketing goals by building an integrated strategy that addresses the needs of these prospects. This session will share best practices for setting clear and realistic digital marketing goals, using search engine optimization to generate leads, and crafting relevant marketing content to address prospects’ pain points. Presenters will show you how to strengthen your online reputation, create a positive user experience on your website, gauge your marketing success, and adjust your strategy when necessary.