Editor’s Note: We are profiling the McKnight’s 2020 Women of Distinction honorees daily through the program’s July 28 online awards ceremony. To learn more about this digital celebration, the Forum the next day (which offers three free continuing education credits July 29) and the program in general, visit mcknightswomenofdistinction.com.
As a bit of a latecomer to senior living, Robyn Childs has more than made up for lost time.
After receiving her MBA, she took a sales and marketing position in a low-occupancy community and soon increased the business by 30%, earning a promotion. Next, after a large senior living operator recruited her for a sales and marketing role, Childs helped the community hit 100% occupancy within eight months and kept it there for the next three years.
In her work, she developed a highly personalized, prospect-centered senior living sales process that resulted in a substantial increase in sales/move-in conversion. Now regional sales director at Koelsch Communities in Salt Lake City, Childs focuses on increasing occupancy and helping people through the development of best-in-class sales teams.
Beyond her work in sales, Childs lives by a personal mission statement: To “leave every situation better than the way I found it.” She has done this through various endeavors, such as serving as chairman of the state Alzheimer’s Association Gala Auction for two years and serving on the boards of two local senior centers. She also planned and collaborated with local professional groups to fundraise for the opening of a new Draper, UT, senior center. And as a former president of a local women’s organization of 1,200 members, she was able to facilitate a support group centered on love, families and increasing awareness for gender identity differences.
Thanks to her child, who is on the autism spectrum and transgender, she was introduced to senior living many years ago. Through research on socialization, she took her child to volunteer at a community. They had incredible experiences interacting with residents, who were more patient than her child’s peers. Childs was asked to work there and spent the next year working part-time while completing graduate school, selling a small business and growing to love the professional environment.
The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. The program’s Diamond sponsor is PointClickCare. Silver sponsors are OnShift and PharMerica, and the Signature sponsor is Acadia Pharmaceuticals.
