Laura Shirer

VP of Human Resources
Presbyterian Communities of South Carolina
Columbia, SC, USA
  • 144-E. It’s Time to Rethink Your Training Strategies

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    144-E. It’s Time to Rethink Your Training Strategies

    Senior living communities excel at developing “compliance” training programs to meet legal requirements. However, they often overlook the need for “learning and development” training programs that emphasize employee engagement, service excellence, and clinical outcomes. This session will challenge the status quo by recommending that providers adopt a more intentional training strategy. Presenters will share examples of aging services organizations that have used learning and development strategies to redesign an employee orientation program, create an award-winning customer service program, and develop an in-house leadership academy. You’ll gain tools to evaluate your organization’s learning and development offerings and find inspiration to rethink your training approach.

David Siegelman

Senior Vice President of Quality and Corporate Compliance
Hebrew Home at Riverdale – RiverSpring Living
Bronx, NY, USA
  • 13-J. Value-Based Payments: Using Technology to Ensure Success

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    13-J. Value-Based Payments: Using Technology to Ensure Success

    Is your care setting working to improve resident outcomes through value-based payment models that prioritize high-quality, cost-effective, personalized, and data-driven care? A variety of technology solutions could ensure your success. This session will describe how artificial intelligence can help you reduce hospital readmissions and improve care quality by identifying at-risk residents, predicting potential health complications, and tailoring interventions accordingly. Presenters will also describe technology platforms that lower costs by supporting continuous monitoring and virtual healthcare visits. You’ll even learn how to use robotics to streamline repetitive and labor-intensive tasks, allowing staff to concentrate on intensive therapy services. Join this session to discover how technology solutions can help you improve your services and bottom line.

Cara Silletto

President and Chief Retention Officer
Magnet Culture, formerly Crescendo Strategies
Jeffersonville, IN, USA

Elizabeth Simpson

Doctoral Candidate
UMass Boston Gerontology
Boston, MA, USA
  • 105-A. Nursing Home Quality: The Role of Medicaid Payment Rates

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    105-A. Nursing Home Quality: The Role of Medicaid Payment Rates

    Medicaid is the largest source of funding for nursing home care in the United States. However, the program’s reimbursement rates cover only a portion of nursing homes’ costs. This session will present findings from three studies exploring the relationship between Medicaid payment policies and the quality of care in nursing homes. Presenters will share insights from studies examining how payment rates and payment-to-cost ratios impact nursing homes’ five-star ratings, the connection between Medicaid rates and staffing levels across different ownership types, and how nursing home staffing levels and expenditures relate to their reliance on Medicaid. Don’t miss this opportunity to examine the connection between nursing home quality and Medicaid payment rates.

Melissa Smalley

Senior Strategist
Marketing Essentials, LLC
New Bremen, OH, USA
  • 58-B. Communicating Through Change: Marketing Your Acquisition

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    58-B. Communicating Through Change: Marketing Your Acquisition

    Marketing and communication can’t pause when your organization begins preparing for an acquisition. Quite the opposite! This session will demonstrate how your organization’s marketing team can effectively navigate a change in ownership by ensuring that communication and marketing messages remain ongoing, clear, carefully worded, and reassuring to all stakeholders. Presenters will teach you how to maintain customer trust, brand strength, and market momentum by positioning your organization’s acquisition as a strategic growth opportunity. You’ll learn essential lessons to help you develop a strategic marketing plan that effectively engages stakeholders as you promote your company’s acquisition.

Katie Smith Sloan

President and CEO & Executive Dir. The Global Ageing Network
LeadingAge
Washington, DC, US

Jennifer Sodo

Senior Living Market Leader
Eppstein Uhen Architects
Milwaukee, WI, USA
  • 127-C. Refresh and Expand Your Independent Living Offerings

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    127-C. Refresh and Expand Your Independent Living Offerings

    Enhancing the independent living options on your campus could help keep your organization competitive in today’s market. This session will show you how. The chief administrative officer of a multi-site organization will discuss how their organization is diversifying its independent living offerings to include standalone ranch homes, duplexes, converted loft residences, and conventional apartments. An architect will review design trends and considerations for various price points. A financing expert will outline how to model and evaluate different independent living options. Whether you’re facing low occupancy in older inventory or exploring new options to meet growing demand, you’ll leave this session with fresh ideas for strategic campus planning.

Maddie Spearman

Attorney
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
Nashville, TN, USA
  • 109-C. SNF Regulations: Get the Clarity You Need to Succeed

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    109-C. SNF Regulations: Get the Clarity You Need to Succeed

    Regulatory changes and survey trends impact all skilled nursing facilities (SNF) across the nation. This session will review and evaluate significant regulatory developments from the past year. Presenters will provide updates on the minimum staffing standards and other long-term care regulations. They will also identify current survey trends by reviewing the top survey citations issued regionally and nationally. Throughout the session, you’ll be encouraged to discuss common regulatory challenges in skilled nursing and share best practices related to regulatory developments and survey trends. You’ll also learn how to anticipate and prepare for future regulatory developments and surveys.

Mary Cate Spires

Vice President of Marketing & Digital Strategy
The Arbor Company
Atlanta, GA, USA
  • 57-A. Messaging Roadmap: Aligning Corporate and Community Branding

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    57-A. Messaging Roadmap: Aligning Corporate and Community Branding

    It can be challenging for a marketing team to strike the right balance between promoting a provider organization’s corporate brand and advancing the brand identity of one of its senior living communities. During this session, a multi-site senior living leader and a marketing consultant will team up to present primary research on how prospective residents perceive corporate senior living brands compared to the brands of individual communities. Presenters will share a roadmap to help you refine your brand identity, boost occupancy, and create a unified, compelling message that reflects both corporate values and local charm. You’ll take home tips for ensuring your brand stands out in a competitive senior living market.

Sarah Starcher-Lane

COO/Executive Director
Byron Health Community
Fort Wayne, IN, USA
  • 139-A. Training the Next Generation of Caregivers in Aging Services

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    139-A. Training the Next Generation of Caregivers in Aging Services

    Byron Health Center in Fort Wayne, IN, addresses the needs of individuals with complex medical conditions through a range of Medicaid-funded care and services. This session will highlight how the community has engaged local young people in its volunteer program and enrolled high school students in a work-based learning initiative to help them explore careers in aging services. Two Byron executives will describe how these young volunteers work alongside residents aged 20 to 98 who live with dementia, traumatic brain injuries, severe and chronic mental illnesses, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. They will explain how they train young people, the lessons learned, and their plans for the future.

Bob Stillman

CFO
Ohio Living
Columbus, OH, USA
  • 135-I. Design and Construction: A Better Way to Keep Budgets on Track

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    135-I. Design and Construction: A Better Way to Keep Budgets on Track

    High interest rates and construction costs have many organizations struggling to complete senior living projects within budget. Unfortunately, budget overruns often occur late in the construction process, forcing project teams to cut building costs after making significant investments in the design process. This session will present a better approach. Senior living construction experts will demonstrate how to use pre-design programming to set your projects up for success. You’ll learn how to transform financial projections, market demand data, and consumer preferences into detailed project requirements, identify essential construction process components and how each contributes to the total cost, and establish a realistic project scope. This practical guidance will help ensure your project objectives align with your budget.

Robyn Stone

SVP, Research/Co-Director, LTSS Center
LeadingAge
Washington, DC, USA
  • 141-B. How Direct Care Supervisors Can Improve Employee Retention

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    141-B. How Direct Care Supervisors Can Improve Employee Retention

    Nursing supervisors in aging services play a critical role in motivating, teaching, and mentoring certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who provide direct care to nursing home residents. A strong, positive relationship between a nurse supervisor and a CNA boosts job satisfaction and reduces turnover. This session will explore actions that nursing supervisors can take to develop the leadership skills they need to work with CNAs so that the entire team can deliver high quality care. Presenters will also emphasize the critical role that a supportive organizational culture, aligned structures and policies, and consistent reinforcement from leadership play so that supervision strategies are effectively integrated into daily practice. Learn about programs that help nursing supervisors create a supportive workplace culture and become effective leaders of CNAs and teams.

  • 145-E. How a Trauma-Informed Approach Can Promote Workforce Wellness

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    145-E. How a Trauma-Informed Approach Can Promote Workforce Wellness

    Many older Americans will experience at least one traumatic event that affects their physical, mental, and social health. This session will propose that trauma also affects the people who care for older adults, and that a person-centered, trauma-informed (PCTI) approach can enhance the health and well-being of these caregivers. Presenters will describe the implementation of PCTI, highlight the model’s potential to improve workforce wellness, and offer solutions to reduce staff vacancies, decrease turnover, and attract new talent. You’ll take home practical tips for integrating PCTI principles into organizational policies and procedures that benefit team members, care recipients, family caregivers, volunteers, and organizations providing care.

  • 152-K. International Perspectives: Addressing Workforce Shortages While Enhancing Global Justice

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    152-K. International Perspectives: Addressing Workforce Shortages While Enhancing Global Justice

    By 2040, employers worldwide will need an additional 13.5 million professional caregivers to serve a growing population of older adults. Unfortunately, not enough native-born workers are available to fill the required positions. This session will explore global workforce shortages and describe sustainable labor mobility programs aimed at addressing worker scarcity while reducing poverty and enhancing global justice. Learn how two international organizations Labor Mobility Partnerships and the Global Ageing Network have joined forces to encourage better public policies and private-sector practices by creating a database containing migrant workers’ priorities and perspectives. Discover how quality overseas jobs in developed economies can provide economic mobility for the globally disadvantaged while benefiting employers, consumers, and economies around the world.