Brian Black

Partner and Senior Consultant
Unitas Communities
Lancaster, PA
  • 31-H. Affiliation Strategies that Balance Autonomy with Collaboration

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    31-H. Affiliation Strategies that Balance Autonomy with Collaboration

    Affiliation can help nonprofit senior living organizations achieve long-term sustainability, foster innovation, and remain true to their core mission and values amid today’s operational challenges. This session will explore the affiliation process that united two life plan communities under a shared governance structure while preserving their individual identities. Presenters will outline steps for building a successful affiliation, including establishing a robust legal and governance framework, drafting bylaws that reflect shared values and priorities, and addressing board composition and responsibilities. Whether you’re considering affiliation, engaged in partnership talks, or refining an existing relationship, you’ll learn how to build an affiliation that promotes stability, improves services, and ensures long-term success.

Haleigh Blackburn

Regional Director of EMR
Majestic Care
Westfield, IN
  • 82-F. Early Warning: Using Proactive Risk Awareness to Delay Decline

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    82-F. Early Warning: Using Proactive Risk Awareness to Delay Decline

    Providers of aging services face increasing pressure to help residents and clients maintain their highest level of wellness in the most appropriate, lowest-cost setting. Unfortunately, subtle health and functional changes often go unnoticed until decline triggers care transitions. This session will show you how to delay residents’ decline by shifting from reactive care management to proactive risk awareness. Presenters will explain how everyday observations, care documentation, and caregiver insights can help care teams identify emerging health issues and intervene earlier to prevent unnecessary transitions. They’ll also offer strategies for managing unavoidable care transitions more effectively. You’ll understand why earlier risk awareness is becoming a foundational capability for sustainable, person-centered care.

Daniel Bleck

Member
Mintz
Boston, MA
  • 44-E. Secure Your Future: Restructure and Reimagine

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    44-E. Secure Your Future: Restructure and Reimagine

    Executive teams update their strategic plans annually to refine the traditional continuum model they’ve offered for decades. These organizations now face unprecedented challenges as more for-profit developers enter the field, consumer preferences shift, and government payments decline. Tweaking the continuum won’t be enough to secure the future. Instead, this session will show you how to restructure your organization and reimagine the continuum. Presenters will offer guidance on selling or repurposing assets to advance your mission, collaborating with and learning from investors, restructuring your debt, and addressing your legal issues. Let a turnaround manager and an investment banker help you develop an achievable restructuring plan that will appeal to investors and secure your organization’s future.

Rachel Blumberg

President and CEO
Sinai Residences of Boca Raton
Boca Raton, FL
  • 107-K. Immigration Policy: A Key to Mission-Driven Aging Services

    • Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

    107-K. Immigration Policy: A Key to Mission-Driven Aging Services

    Immigration policy has become increasingly important to aging services providers, shaping both the immediate availability and the long-term sustainability of the caregiving workforce. This session will feature a panel presentation and an interactive exchange that explore immigration’s key role in helping providers meet the service and support needs of older adults. Presenters will examine how immigration policy affects providers’ ability to attract and retain essential caregiving talent. They’ll also explore specific policies that could help address current and future workforce needs. You’ll leave this session equipped with strategies to make your immigration-related advocacy as effective as possible.

Paul Blymire

Director, Purchasing & Materials Management
Masonic Villages of the Grand Lodge of PA
Elizabethtown, PA
  • 76-B. Overcoming Supply Chain Hurdles in Senior Living

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    76-B. Overcoming Supply Chain Hurdles in Senior Living

    Nonprofit senior living organizations understand all too well how supply chain disruptions strain operations, leading to higher prices, operational disruptions, supply shortages, staff burnout, and dissatisfied residents. During this session, a representative from LeadingAge Gold Partner Value First will join LeadingAge members to share strategies for optimizing operations and overcoming supply chain hurdles. They’ll discuss the pros and cons of outsourcing operations; the impact of tariffs and workforce challenges; and how organizations can keep their supply chains open. Join the conversation to pinpoint supply chain and operational challenges and learn how your peers are tackling them.

Susan Bogan

Co-CEO
AgePop
  • 28-E. Drive Growth by Aligning Governance, Operations, and Sales

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    28-E. Drive Growth by Aligning Governance, Operations, and Sales

    Does your organization’s board focus on stewardship and risk, while your leaders handle operations, your marketers oversee branding, and your sales teams focus on conversions? Organizations struggle when stakeholders follow separate pathways, pursue siloed priorities, and tell different stories. This session will help you align governance, operations, marketing, and sales into a unified, credible narrative. Presenters will show you how to connect boardroom decisions to sales outcomes; what boards need to know about brand and sales; how leadership behaviors influence the brand promise; and how misalignment affects growth. You’ll learn to break down organizational silos, manage tensions, and build trust so that external messaging feels authentic and consistent.

Susan Bogan

Co-CEO
AgePop
Overland Park, KS
  • 28-E. Drive Growth by Aligning Governance, Operations, and Sales

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    28-E. Drive Growth by Aligning Governance, Operations, and Sales

    Does your organization’s board focus on stewardship and risk, while your leaders handle operations, your marketers oversee branding, and your sales teams focus on conversions? Organizations struggle when stakeholders follow separate pathways, pursue siloed priorities, and tell different stories. This session will help you align governance, operations, marketing, and sales into a unified, credible narrative. Presenters will show you how to connect boardroom decisions to sales outcomes; what boards need to know about brand and sales; how leadership behaviors influence the brand promise; and how misalignment affects growth. You’ll learn to break down organizational silos, manage tensions, and build trust so that external messaging feels authentic and consistent.

Ted Bolles

Project Development Manager
  • 41-D. Design Strategies for Transformational Repositioning

    • Monday, October 26, 2026

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    41-D. Design Strategies for Transformational Repositioning

    Senior living providers share a common mission to serve the aging population, yet their approaches to repositioning their communities to meet that goal can vary widely. This session will feature two organizations that considered similar campus expansions but took very different paths after conducting collaborative design processes that incorporated the voices of diverse user groups. One community chose a campus refresh with renovations and new construction, while the other reallocated space on its urban site to meet immediate market demands while preparing for future construction. Join team members from both organizations to learn how their teams balanced financial constraints with stakeholder input and built consensus for final plans that suited each community.

Alice Bonner

Senior Advisor for Aging
Institute For Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Boston, MA
  • 142-H. A Collaborative Strategy for Developing the CNA Workforce

    • Tuesday, October 27, 2026

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    142-H. A Collaborative Strategy for Developing the CNA Workforce

    Educators, providers, policymakers, and workforce leaders nationwide are rethinking how aging services providers recruit, train, support, and retain frontline caregivers. This session will highlight this collaborative effort. Presenters will describe a recent national meeting that examined the potential for multi-state collaboration to standardize certified nursing assistant (CNA) career pathways through state-based Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Programs. They’ll share lessons learned from convening stakeholders across education, workforce development, aging services, finance, policy, and care delivery systems to discuss workforce solutions. You’ll discover how stakeholder collaboration can drive system-wide changes in policy, practice, and workforce development.

Cindy Borden

Director Training and TA
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
Washington, DC
  • 14-B. Serving Aging Veterans: Let’s Close the Information Gap

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    14-B. Serving Aging Veterans: Let’s Close the Information Gap

    Nearly half of U.S. veterans are 65 or older. Yet most aging services professionals lack training to address this population’s unique needs, and aging-focused resources rarely address them. This session aims to fill those gaps. Presenters will explain how military culture, trauma, service-related injuries, and the complexity of benefit eligibility shape veterans’ needs as they age. They will also discuss cultural and trauma-informed approaches to supporting veterans across housing, health, and social-service settings, including a pilot program that helps high-acuity veterans with low incomes age in place. You’ll gain insights into the program’s implementation and early outcomes and take home lessons you can adapt to your care and service settings.

Colleen Bottens

Vice President, Anywhere Care
EverTrue
Saint Louis, MO
  • 36-A. Building In-Home Services through Acquisition and Innovation

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    36-A. Building In-Home Services through Acquisition and Innovation

    Many providers of aging services are interested in new ways to deliver high-quality support in the home, especially for middle-market consumers. This session will explore how one multisite sponsor of affordable housing and life plan communities expanded its at-home services through a strategic mix of acquisitions, program innovation, and affiliations with home and community-based service providers. Presenters will also highlight two new programs they designed to serve life plan community residents and the broader community: a concierge care navigation and coaching service, and an at-home support program for older adults with incomes just below traditional private-pay thresholds. Gain concrete ideas for building or expanding scalable in-home services to serve current residents and the price-sensitive middle market.

Jessica Bourque

Director of Vitality & Well Being
The Sharon at SouthPark
Charlotte, NC
  • 1-A. Using AI to Measure Resident Well-Being

    • Sunday, October 25, 2026

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    1-A. Using AI to Measure Resident Well-Being

    Community engagement teams at aging services organizations prioritize the resident experience because they know residents’ voices help shape their communities. Unfortunately, not every resident speaks up. That’s where “Happy Aging” comes in. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the survey-driven prediction tool measures 23 observed indicators of resident well-being. This session will focus on the experiences of two life plan communities that engaged residents in a two-year research project to co-develop the “Happy Aging” tool. Presenters will describe the technology’s development process and residents’ participation in it. You’ll discover how objective behavioral data, when paired with AI, can accurately predict resident well-being and enable engagement teams to plan timely interventions.