Bartels Lutheran Retirement Community announces new CEO, Paula Geise
Paula Geise began serving as CEO of Bartels Lutheran Retirement Community, Waverly, IA, on Nov. 11.
She succeeds Deb Schroeder, who retired after serving the community for more than 24 years.
Geise has more than 30 years of experience in various roles in the healthcare industry. She most recently was regional director of operational initiatives for Unity Point at Home.
Geise has a master’s degree in nursing with an emphasis in leadership from the University of Northern Iowa and Allen College.
Cadence Living promotes Susie Stangroom to chief operating officer
Susie Stangroom has been promoted to chief operating officer of Scottsdale, AZ-based Cadence Living.
She formerly was vice president of operations for the west region at Cadence, having joined Cadence after having been head of operations for the Westmont Living portfolio and having previously held operational roles at Atria Senior Living and Episcopal Senior Communities.
Stangroom has more than 27 years of senior living experience. She also is a trained chef from the Culinary Institute of America.
Treva Whalen will succeed Stangroom as vice president of operations for the west region at Cadence. She has been director of operations for the region.
Episcopal Retirement Services names Dan Steward chief financial officer
Dan Steward has been named chief financial officer of Cincinnati-based Episcopal Retirement Services. He will provide strategic leadership and management for all accounting, financial analysis, financing and insurance reimbursement processes of the organization.
Steward is a certified public accountant and most recently was an audit partner at RSM US LLP, a national public accounting firm. He brings almost 20 years of experience to the role, having served in auditing and consulting roles for both for-profit and nonprofit middle-market organizations in a variety of industries with a specialty focus in the senior living industry.
Steward earned his undergraduate degree from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, Oxford, OH, with a double major in accountancy and finance. He has been a CPA since 2002.
NHI promotes John L. Spaid to chief financial officer
John L. Spaid has been promoted from executive vice president of finance to chief financial officer at Murfreesboro, TN-based National Health Investors. He is responsible for finance, strategic planning, investor relations, treasury, tax and accounting.
Spaid joined NHI in March 2016 with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, real estate, finance and senior housing. From November 2015 until joining NHI, he provided consulting services to NHI, including acquisition underwriting analyses and board presentations.
Previously, Spaid was senior vice president of financial planning and analysis at Emeritus Senior Living, where he led corporate and operational financial analysis and support teams. His responsibilities included forecasting, investor presentation, annual budget, debt and lease obligation underwriting, merger and acquisition processes, financial modeling, due diligence, board presentations and employee development from 2012 to 2014.
Before Emeritus, Spaid was an independent financial consultant who provided mergers and acquisitions, work-out and private equity consulting services from 2010 to 2011. He also was the CFO of a regional assisted living and memory care provider in Redmond, WA, from 2008 to 2009.
Spaid has an undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Texas and an MBA degree with high distinction from the University of Michigan.
Mennonite Home Communities of Ohio appoints John Fischbach team leader
John Fischbach has been appointed team leader at Mennonite Home Communities of Ohio, Bluffton. The position was created to coordinate with Brethren Retirement Community, with which MHCO recently entered into a partnership.
He also will continue in his current role as director of finance.
Fischbach has 29 years of long-term care experience. He joined the MHCO team as director of finance in April.
Fischbach served in multiple capacities in the finance department of HCF Management from 1996 to 2015. He then was chief financial officer of Lima Memorial Hospital, Lima, OH, from 2015 to 2018.
Integral Senior Living announces several promotions and appointments
Integral Senior Living has announced promotions within its leadership team:
- Jeffery Smith has been promoted to senior vice president of sales and marketing.
- Allison Singler has been promoted to regional vice president of sales and marketing.
- Cathy Battles has been promoted to regional vice president of human resources.
- Erin Rohrbacher has been promoted to senior regional human resources director.
Several appointments were announced at the community level, too:
- At South High Senior Living, Knoxville, TN, Helen Porter has been named executive director and Hannah Lewis has been named director of sales and marketing.
- At The Capstone at Royal Palm, Royal Palm Beach, FL, Melanie Acevedo has been named executive director and Hope Garling has been named director of sales and marketing.
- At Shavano Park Senior Living, Shavano Park, TX, Michael Dorazio has been named executive director.
- At Foothill Village Senior Living, Angels Camp, CA, Hope Bitler has been named executive director.
Buckner Parkway Place names Abraham Mathew executive director
Abraham Mathew has been named the new executive director for faith-based senior living community Buckner Parkway Place, Houston. He succeeds Susan Phelps, who retired after being with Buckner Retirement Services since 2003.
Mathew’s career working with senior adults began in 2003, and he since has held positions in Texas and Illinois as a licensed healthcare administrator.
He holds a Master’s in Social Work degree and is working on a Doctorate in Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Leadership from California Intercontinental University in Irvine, CA.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot appointed Mathew to the Nursing Facility Administrators Advisory Committee, and he also is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Waltonwood Ashburn announces new executive director, Chris Leinauer
Chris Leinauer has been named executive director of Waltonwood Ashburn, Ashburn, VA.
He brings more than 15 years of experience in senior living to his new role. Leinauer previously was a director of operations, executive director and most recently a regional vice president responsible for 29 senior living properties across five regions.
Leinauer received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees at Frostburg State University.
The Kenwood by Senior Star appoints Scott Gibson deputy executive director
Scott Gibson has been named assistant executive director and director of health services at The Kenwood by Senior Star, a continuing care retirement community in Cincinnati. In this dual role, he will work closely with The Kenwood’s executive director, Steve Slayton, to manage day-to-day operations while also leading health services.
One of Gibson’s major focuses in his new role will be the rollout and management of The Kenwood’s new specialized memory care program, Progressive Pathways. Focusing on advanced Alzheimer’s and dementia, the program will serve a small number of residents (14 to start) with a higher staff-to-resident ratio.
Before joining The Kenwood’s leadership team, Gibson was executive director for Life Care Services, where he operated two senior communities, in Bloomington, IN, and Loveland, OH.
Jackson Creek Senior Living names Dena Mackey executive director
Dena Mackey has been named executive director at Jackson Creek Senior Living, Monument, CO. She will oversee operations of the community’s 137 independent living, assisted living and memory care units.
Mackey has more than 16 years of experience in the senior living industry. She started her career as a certified nursing assistant in an Alzheimer’s unit and eventually worked at Poudre Valley Hospital on the medical floor and in the operating room. She since has gained experience as an assisted living director, memory care director and hospice area manager.
Broadview – Senior Living at Purchase names Tina Rao Witthoefft residency counselor
Tina Rao Witthoefft has been named residency counselor at Broadview – Senior Living at Purchase, an independent living “senior learning community” with intergenerational programming under development on the Purchase College campus in Purchase, NY.
She brings more than 25 years of sales and marketing experience to the Broadview team. Witthoefft previously was community sales director at Brightview on New Canaan – Senior Assisted Living & Memory Care in Connecticut. She also was a retirement sales counselor at The Knolls Retirement Community in Valhalla, NY.
Witthoefft is a licensed real estate agent in Connecticut with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, where she has 10 years of experience. She earned her undergraduate degree in marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
White Horse Village hires Joan Sobel as sales and healthcare professional
Joan Sobel has joined the sales team at White Horse Village, Newtown Square, PA.
Sobel most recently was area director of community relations for Sage Senior Living. In that role, she provided leadership and sales support to census challenged communities. Throughout her career, she has worked in multiple community relations roles for both Sage Senior Living and Sunrise Senior Living.
Cascades Verdae welcomes new care services administrator Leslie Fryar
Leslie Fryar has joined Cascades Verdae, a retirement community in Greenville, SC, that is owned and operated by Senior Living Communities, as care services administrator. She will be working across care services, memory care, assisted living and skilled nursing, and the resident care coordinator in memory care and assisted living, as well as the director of nursing in skilled nursing will be reporting directly to her.
Fryar has been an administrator and executive director with Senior Living Communities for the past nine years. She joined Senior Living Communities in 2010 as director of member services at The Lakes at Litchfield on Pawleys Island, SC. She became a licensed administrator in 2014. She also has worked at Brightwater, Myrtle Beach, SC.
Ensign Group announces board appointments, departure
John Nackel, Ph.D., will resign from The Ensign Group’s Board of Directors effective Jan. 1 to focus on other endeavors, according to Ensign.
Nackel recently was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of The Pennant Group, the new publicly traded senior living, hospice and home health-related company recently spun out of the company effective Oct. 1. He has been a member of the Ensign board since June 2008. At the time of his resignation he was serving as the chair of the Quality and Assurance Committee and as the chair of the Special Committee.
Swati Abbott will fill the vacancy created by Nackel’s resignation and also She also will serve on the Quality and Assurance Committee and the Audit Committee. Abbott’s appointment as director will begin Jan. 1 and end on the date of the company’s 2020 annual shareholders meeting, where it is expected that she will be nominated to serve a three-year term.
Since 2011, Abbott has been president and CEO of healthcare data and analytics company Health Intelligence Co., doing business as Blue Health Intelligence. Prior to joining Blue Health Intelligence, she was the president of predictive analytics company MEDai before its acquisition by Reed Elsevier in 2008. She also was managing director for the Medical Management Strategic Business Unit at ViPS.
Abbott also is a director of Prognos, a private healthcare data analytics company, and Magellan Health, a for-profit managed health care company focused on special populations, pharmacy benefits and other specialty areas of healthcare.
Also effective Jan. 1, Barry Smith has been appointed to chair the Special Committee, and Ann Blouin will serve on the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee.
Hillcrest Healthcare promotes Brandi Miller to regional educator position
Hillcrest Healthcare has promoted Brandi Miller to regional staff education director to oversee the orientation and training programs for all new hires and assist in the development of advanced training programs for chronic disease management and other healthcare matters for the organization.
Miller has served the Island Home Park Health and Rehab community for Hillcrest Healthcare since April 2017. She began as a certified nurse assistant, completed her nursing program and then served as a registered nurse. Miller most recently has provided staff development at Island Home.
She brings a diverse background to the new position. Before beginning her secondary education, Miller was a real estate agent. She enrolled in college to become a teacher and then completed an Associate of Science in Nursing degree at Lincoln Memorial University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from King University.
Holleran announces new executive director of client services, Sara Baker
Sara Baker has joined research and business intelligence firm Holleran, Wrightsville, PA, as executive director of client services. In this role, she leads Holleran’s client services operations, including oversight of research activities from data collection and analysis to data-driven action planning and solutions.
Before joining Holleran, Baker was a leader in the quality department at the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, where she worked to increase patient safety and mitigate patient harm events in hospital settings. Previously, she was a faculty member at the Penn State College of Medicine in the Department of Public Health Sciences, for more than 12 years. There, her responsibilities included health services research project direction; teaching medical students and undergraduate and graduate public health students; and the direction of two graduate programs in public health. She also was the faculty administrator for the Penn State Center for Women’s Health Research for 10 years. Additionally, Baker’s responsibilities included coordinating the Community Engagement and Research Core of the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
Baker has more than 20 years of leadership experience in not-for-profit health organizations, government and higher education. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Master of Social Work degree with dual concentrations in clinical practice and social policy from Temple University.
Walker & Dunlop expands property sales platform to Milwaukee with seniors housing professional
Brett Gardner has been hired as managing director of Walker & Dunlop Investment Sales. He will be a partner on the investment sales teams in Chicago and Portland, OR, and will be focused on originating and executing seniors housing property sales opportunities across the United States.
Before joining Walker & Dunlop, Gardner was senior vice president of business development at Direct Supply.
Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare names new CEO, Robert Size
Robert Size has been named the new CEO of Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, Port Washington, NY, with the departure of CEO Bob Gilligan. He will assume day-to-day leadership of the company and will also join the Drive Board of Directors.
Size comes to Drive after serving in various executive leadership roles at dental materials and equipment supplier Dentsply Sirona over the past 15 years. With Dentsply Sirona, Size had enterprise-wide executive and operating responsibilities as well as responsibilities over both manufacturing operations and sales organizations located in the United States and Europe.
Before joining Dentsply, Size was CEO and president of Superior MicroPowders following a 16-year career with the Cookson Group, where he held various cross-functional and international leadership positions.
Drive recently received $35 million in new capital coupled with a reduction in cash debt service obligations from its current lenders of approximately $100 million over the next two and a half years.
Merchants Mortgage hires two mortgage loan originators
Jan Olmstead and Steve Clark have joined Merchants Mortgage, Carmel, IN, as mortgage loan originators.
Olmstead brings more than 25 years of residential lending, title insurance and real estate services experience to the role. Prior to joining Merchants, she held positions with Stonegate Mortgage, GMAC Mortgage and Waterfield Mortgage.
Clark, an Indiana University Bloomington graduate, joins the Merchants team after holding various roles in other industries.
