Wendy Strain

Director of Consulting
Polaris Group
Tampa, FL, USA
  • 82-H. Financial and Clinical Collaboration in Nursing Homes

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    82-H. Financial and Clinical Collaboration in Nursing Homes

    Ensuring financial sustainability while delivering high-quality care presents an ongoing challenge for today’s nursing homes. This session will present an effective way to address this challenge: developing a close working relationship between your Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) team and Minimum Data Set (MDS) coordinators. Presenters will share several case studies illustrating how RCM-MDS collaborations within an organization can enhance accuracy in resident assessments, optimize reimbursements, and ensure regulatory compliance. You’ll gain insights to help you align your financial and clinical management systems to improve operational efficiency and financial performance outcomes while maintaining regulatory compliance and avoiding penalties.

  • 113-E. How to Ace Your 2025 Annual Recertification Survey

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    113-E. How to Ace Your 2025 Annual Recertification Survey

    Are you dreading your upcoming annual state survey? Take a deep breath and then attend this session to gain expert tips for preventing surveys from causing stressful disruptions to your operations. Presenters will suggest practical strategies for managing the state survey process, such as conducting a comprehensive mock survey that identifies compliance gaps and assesses high-risk areas. Learn how a mock survey helped one provider improve survey outcomes and strengthen operational compliance. You’ll discover how this approach can foster a culture of continuous improvement by helping all team members understand compliance requirements and feel a shared responsibility for survey readiness.

Kelly Stranburg

Vice President of Health Aging and Longevity
Westminster Communities of Florida, Inc.
Orlando, FL, USA
  • 5-D. Using Technology to Foster Meaningful Relationships

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    5-D. Using Technology to Foster Meaningful Relationships

    Research suggests that strong social connections can help reduce loneliness and depression, ease emotional challenges, support cognitive function, and enhance life satisfaction and fulfillment. This session will showcase how technology engagement platforms facilitate these vital connections in senior living communities by providing opportunities for meaningful interactions, offering residents personalized content, and encouraging their active participation in community events. You’ll learn about the steps taken by other communities to implement these platforms and how residents use them. Take home tools to help your team create a stronger, more connected community that nurtures meaningful relationships among residents, their peers, and team members.

Brad Straub

Executive Vice President
Greystone
Irving, TX, USA
  • 50-G. The Senior Living Imperative: Prepare for Sustained Growth

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    50-G. The Senior Living Imperative: Prepare for Sustained Growth

    Senior living providers are experiencing unprecedented demand for housing and services from a changing consumer base. Providers can respond most effectively by identifying and capitalizing on new growth opportunities. During this session, experts from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, NIC MAP, and Greystone will discuss relevant analytics and research findings related to market absorption, occupancy rates, and revenue growth in the senior living sector. Presenters will identify markets poised for expansion, help you assess financial performance and growth opportunities, and show you how to act on data trends and market dynamics to prepare your organization for sustainable growth. You’ll acquire the tools and insights to transform today’s market complexities into tomorrow’s successes.

Mark Sunderman

Director of Rehabilitation
Eastmont Towers Community
Lincoln, NE, USA
  • 126-B. Innovative Designs for Active Adult and Independent Living Communities

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    126-B. Innovative Designs for Active Adult and Independent Living Communities

    The next generation of senior living residents will seek aesthetically pleasing homes and apartments that support their independence, adapt to their evolving needs, and preserve their dignity. This session will explore innovative designs for active-adult and independent living that will help you meet the preferences of current and future consumers. Presenters will draw on insights from design, marketing, sales, and therapy experts to help you envision life plan community homes and apartments that quickly adapt to residents’ needs, balance safety and autonomy, and maintain a non-institutional feel. They’ll also examine the latest in-home technology, including voice-activated controls, automated lighting, and fall detection sensors. Discover how to design your community’s dwellings to support aging and choice while discreetly addressing residents’ changing needs.

Tom Symondson

Chief Executive Officer
Ageing Australia
East Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Lee Syria

President and CEO
EveryAge
Newton, NC, USA
  • 39-K. Navigating Transition: The Providence Place Acquisition Story

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    39-K. Navigating Transition: The Providence Place Acquisition Story

    Providence Place, a retirement community in High Point, NC, faced a pivotal moment in January 2024 as it navigated the retirements of its chief executive officer and chief operating officer while grappling with financial challenges and initiating an acquisition process. This session will detail the 10-month journey leading to the community’s acquisition by EveryAge, a multi-site provider based in Newton, NC. Presenters will highlight the strategies, challenges, and lessons learned during the acquisition process and explore how collaboration, mission-driven leadership, and stakeholder commitment ensured a smooth transition for both organizations. They will offer advice on maintaining organizational stability during leadership transitions and financial challenges, fostering teamwork during an acquisition, and successfully linking two middle market organizations with complementary visions.

Aisling Taft

Social Worker
Vermont Veterans’ Home
Bennington, VT, USA
  • 99-H. Assessing “Challenging Behaviors” to Identify Unmet Needs

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    99-H. Assessing “Challenging Behaviors” to Identify Unmet Needs

    Are you having a bad day? If you lived in a nursing home, you might be labeled as a difficult, combative, or unpredictable resident who exhibits “challenging behaviors.” This session will highlight how the Vermont Veterans Home works to eliminate negative labels by helping team members embody compassion, curiosity, and empathy when interacting with residents. Presenters will describe how the community proactively assesses what a resident’s actions communicate about their unmet needs so team members can take a strengths-based approach to improving that person’s quality of life. Discover how language influences staff perceptions of residents, how behaviors communicate unmet needs, and how to eliminate negative labels in your organization.

Mary Tangeman

Chief Operating Officer
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.

Jesse Tauriac

Chief Diversity Officer
Lasell Village
Auburndale, MA, USA
  • 20-E. Every Voice: Creating Inclusive Senior Living Communities

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    20-E. Every Voice: Creating Inclusive Senior Living Communities

    Lasell Village in Newton, MA, is implementing a resident-driven, employee-engaged framework called “Every Voice” that fosters inclusion and belonging by integrating voices across generations, backgrounds, and identities. This session will describe how residents and team members of the life plan community worked together to embed belonging into daily life through inclusive policies, respectful dialogue, and change-oriented programming. Presenters will offer guidance to help you build a culture of inclusion that aligns with your organization’s values, engages community members, and measures progress. You’ll return home with the tools you need to ensure that your community reflects the richness of the world while it continues working toward a more diverse future.

Tom Taylor

Chair of the Website Committee
Kendal at Oberlin
Oberlin, OH, USA
  • 14-K. What’s Best for All? Making Inclusive Technology Decisions

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    14-K. What’s Best for All? Making Inclusive Technology Decisions

    Technology adoption can be more challenging when senior living residents and staff feel disconnected from the process of selecting and implementing suitable high-tech platforms. Kendal at Oberlin tackled this challenge by incorporating resident input into every stage of its technology selection and implementation process. This session will provide an overview of how the organization’s collaborative model empowered residents while ensuring the chosen platform met their unique needs. You’ll gain tools to ensure that your new technology enhances your community’s quality of life, improves resident engagement and satisfaction, streamlines operations, and sets the stage for future technology upgrades. Discover practical strategies for promoting inclusive decision-making and leveraging resident feedback while implementing technology.

Ingrid Tenglin

National Director, Talent Development
Covenant Living Communities and Services
Skokie, IL, USA

Lea Tessitore

Director, Strategy and Partnerships
TFA Analytics
Vancouver, WA, USA
  • 122-K. Paying for Palliative Care: Hopeful News from the States

    • Wednesday, November 05, 2025

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    122-K. Paying for Palliative Care: Hopeful News from the States

    An older adult with serious illnesses can benefit greatly from palliative care. Unfortunately, inadequate or nonexistent Medicaid payments restrict beneficiaries’ access to these services and prevent providers from delivering the support older adults need. This session will provide some hope for patients and providers. Presenters will explain how Medicaid agencies across the country are working to create and implement statewide benefits for palliative care by employing value-based payment and bundled payment models to increase reimbursement rates. You’ll discover how paying for palliative care can lead to better and more equitable care, improved quality of life, and better outcomes for Medicaid recipients and their families.