Tim Buist

Chief Strategic & Implementation Officer
The Reserves at Spring Hill
Spring Hill, TN, USA
  • 52-H. How to Identify Your Organization’s Growth Path

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

    52-H. How to Identify Your Organization’s Growth Path

    How do progressive organizations adapt to meet growing market demand? This session will explore two approaches. You’ll learn how a Florida-based single-site life plan community implemented a strategic growth plan to establish a satellite campus, and how a Tennessee-based multi-site organization’s growth strategy led it to expand an existing campus. While both growth initiatives were similar, each organization employed unique strategies to achieve its goals. Presenters will guide you in formulating key questions to ask yourself, your board, and other stakeholders when developing market-based, mission-aligned growth strategies. You’ll also learn how market analysis, vision setting, and strategic repositioning contribute to successful growth. Don’t miss this opportunity to identify your organization’s growth path.

Lisa Buksbaum

CEO & Founder
Soaringwords
New York, NY, USA
  • 91-C. Cultivate Well-Being for Residents, Staff, and Families

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    91-C. Cultivate Well-Being for Residents, Staff, and Families

    Are you interested in learning how to help residents, team members, and families develop a deeper appreciation for life and a greater ability to move forward after setbacks and trauma? This session will introduce you to an award-winning program designed to help everyone in your senior living community achieve these goals. Presenters will describe the SOARING Into Resilience workshop they developed and share research documenting the program’s success in helping staff, residents, and their families experience a heightened sense of belonging, connection with peers, meaning, and purpose. They’ll also offer you an opportunity to participate in immersive exercises aimed at enhancing individual, organizational, and communal well-being.

Diane Burfeindt

Managing Principal
Trilogy Connect
Cogan Station, PA, USA
  • 28-B. Interested in Growth? Make Sure Your Board is Prepared

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    28-B. Interested in Growth? Make Sure Your Board is Prepared

    Growth is a popular topic among leaders of aging services organizations striving to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding older population. However, these leaders must remember that growth brings the prospect of significant change for organizations and the boards that govern them. This session will help ensure that your board is fully prepared for growth, whether your organization is expanding its services, footprint, or customer base. Presenters will offer strategies to help guide your board as it evaluates your organization’s capacity for growth, determines how it should grow, and develops the decision-making processes needed to manage growth. You’ll return home with practical strategies to help your organization establish the strategic governance required for future success.

John Burns

President & CEO
Westminster Canterbury Richmond
Richmond, VA, USA
  • 49-F. Strategic Success: Engage Stakeholders and Measure Progress

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    49-F. Strategic Success: Engage Stakeholders and Measure Progress

    Westminster Canterbury Richmond took deliberate steps to enhance transparency and collaboration during its 2022 strategic planning process, which laid the groundwork for a major campus expansion. During this session, the organization’s chief executive and director of strategic growth will describe how they engaged workgroups of organizational leaders, board members, residents, and staff to set organizational priorities and identify desired outcomes. Presenters will showcase the accountability tool they used to check in regularly with more than 35 of the organization’s leaders. They’ll also present two case studies detailing the organization’s recommitment to strategic growth and its evolving approach to wellness and fitness. Learn how to implement a strategic planning process that engages stakeholders, measures progress, and ensures accountability.

Libby Bush

President and CEO
Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community Inc
Asheville, NC, USA
  • 27-A. Leading in a Crisis: Lessons from Hurricane Helene

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    27-A. Leading in a Crisis: Lessons from Hurricane Helene

    On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene brought unprecedented challenges to western North Carolina as it destroyed homes, caused severe flooding, and left thousands without electricity, cell service, or water. During this session, a panel of CEOs from three senior living organizations in the storm’s path will reflect on their experiences during and after the storm and share the essential leadership lessons they learned. Listen as they recount how they supported one another, how they adapted or rewrote their emergency plans in real-time to address the storm’s catastrophic impacts, and how assistance from other LeadingAge members helped them navigate the crisis. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into the critical role leaders play in guiding their organizations through natural disasters.

  • 28-B. Interested in Growth? Make Sure Your Board is Prepared

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    2:45 – 3:45 p.m.

    28-B. Interested in Growth? Make Sure Your Board is Prepared

    Growth is a popular topic among leaders of aging services organizations striving to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding older population. However, these leaders must remember that growth brings the prospect of significant change for organizations and the boards that govern them. This session will help ensure that your board is fully prepared for growth, whether your organization is expanding its services, footprint, or customer base. Presenters will offer strategies to help guide your board as it evaluates your organization’s capacity for growth, determines how it should grow, and develops the decision-making processes needed to manage growth. You’ll return home with practical strategies to help your organization establish the strategic governance required for future success.

Lindsey Buzzard

Director of Home Health and Hospice
LeadingAge Ohio
Columbus, OH, USA
  • 106-A. Hospice Agencies: It’s Time to Sharpen Your Survey Skills

    • Sunday, November 02, 2025

    1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

    106-A. Hospice Agencies: It’s Time to Sharpen Your Survey Skills

    The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) employs surveys as a primary tool in its fight against hospice fraud. With changes to the Hospice Special Focus Program on the horizon, now is the perfect time to deepen your understanding of the hospice survey process and sharpen your survey skills. Join this session to learn what types of fraud CMS and its survey contractors look for during a survey. You’ll gain insights and tips for using mock surveys to prepare your hospice team for its next survey.

Ben Caffey

Corporate Director of Revenue Enhancement
EverTrue
Saint Louis, MO, USA
  • 46-D. Keep Your Brand Fresh While Preserving What Sets You Apart

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    46-D. Keep Your Brand Fresh While Preserving What Sets You Apart

    EverTrue, formerly Lutheran Senior Services, is proud of its 165-year legacy of caring for older adults. However, this legacy hasn’t prevented the nation’s 12th-largest nonprofit aging services provider from embarking on a transformative journey driven by innovation. This session will highlight how the St. Louis-based organization expanded housing options and in-home services to serve a broader demographic, implemented innovative service models like palliative care, diversified its revenue streams, adjusted its residential mix, embraced technology, and adopted systems to manage data more efficiently. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear the EverTrue management team discuss how they embraced the future while honoring their organization’s past. You’ll take home valuable tips for keeping your brand fresh while preserving what makes you special.

Wesley Calton

AVP HR
Otterbein SeniorLife
Lebanon, OH, 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.

Terrence Carolan

Managing Director of Medical Rehabilitation and Aging Services
CARF International
Tucson, AZ, United States
  • 75-D. International Perspectives: Field-Driven Standards Lead to Person-Centered Innovation

    • Monday, November 03, 2025

    8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

    75-D. International Perspectives: Field-Driven Standards Lead to Person-Centered Innovation

    Providers of aging services in China have used CARF International’s field-driven, person-centered accreditation standards to improve the care experience of their residents and the business outcomes of their organizations. This session will showcase China’s innovative business and care delivery in independent living, assisted living, rehabilitation programs, and other care models unique to China. Presenters will introduce you to China’s aging services system, explain how it compares to aging services worldwide, and suggest ways it could be replicated in other countries. Panelists will also share how Chinese providers are expanding person-centered practices across entire systems of care.

Molly Carpenter

Director, Workforce Strategy and Development
LeadingAge
Omaha, NE, 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.

Deke Cateau

Chief Executive Officer
A.G. Rhodes Health & Rehab
Atlanta, GA, USA
  • 37-I. Workforce Development: Join the Leadership Fellowship Program

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    37-I. Workforce Development: Join the Leadership Fellowship Program

    The Leadership Fellowship Pilot Program, a collaboration between LeadingAge and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), aims to raise awareness about careers in aging services by inviting high-potential, mid-level leaders to spend a year working in non-clinical roles at LeadingAge provider organizations. This session will explore the pilot program’s strategic approach to workforce development in aging services, explain how UNCF recruits prospective fellows for provider-specific positions, and review the program’s curriculum, which introduces fellows to the field of aging services. You’ll hear from providers and fellows about their experiences in the program and learn about the mentoring support fellows receive as they prepare to pursue promising careers in aging.

Ky Chaffin

Board Chair
Saint Simeon’s Episcopal Home
Tulsa, OK, USA
  • 36-I. What’s Your Organization’s Good Governance Score?

    • Tuesday, November 04, 2025

    4:30 – 5:30 p.m.

    36-I. What’s Your Organization’s Good Governance Score?

    True or false? “Most of our board’s meeting time is devoted to hearing management reports; directors speak less than 10% of the time.” During this session, a governance advisor will use this and other true-false statements to help you evaluate your board’s performance on the “Good Governance Index.” Along the way, you’ll explore key governance principles, including the role board members play in charting and securing the future of their organizations, and how governance structures and policies influence the board’s effectiveness. Join this session to discover how closely your board’s practices align with sound governance principles, identify policies and actions that will strengthen your board, and learn strategies for overcoming obstacles that hinder good governance.