On the heels of Women’s Equality Day, Aug. 26, one not-for-profit senior living organization is celebrating setting a new standard in leadership in senior living with women heading 11 of its 12 communities.
Women leaders throughout Newark, DE-based Kendal Corp. are nothing new, but the company said that women CEOs now lead 92% of its affiliates. In addition, the company’s chief financial officer and interim CEO, Amy Harrison, as well as Kendal Board Chair Annetha Hall, are women.
The achievement, Kendal said, is the result of the diversity and inclusion efforts behind its vision and mission. That commitment has resulted in a workforce that “reflects the affiliates it serves and a culture that values, resorts and celebrates everyone’s unique perspectives and experiences,” the company said.
Harrison told McKnight’s Senior Living that Kendal boards search for leaders aligned with its mission and who have the experience, strategic perspective and skills required. The success of women leaders is not defined by their gender, she added.
“While it is a coincidence that Kendal leaders are women, it is certainly one worth mentioning and one we embrace,” Harrison said. “In alignment with Quaker roots and values, we cultivate an environment of compassion, acceptance, psychological safety, trust and belonging for all.”
Compared with CEOs and leadership positions filled by women in the Fortune 500 — and even many senior living organizations — Harrison said, Kendal is uncommon in having women fill so many leadership roles.
“At Kendal, we don’t just talk equality; we live it out every day,” she said. “Until women business leaders are noticed for their expertise, not their gender, women will continue to be underrepresented in positions of leadership.”
She added that what makes Kendal attractive to any values-driven executive — not just women — is that it is a values-based organization that enables it to attract some of the best leaders in the field.
According to Kendal, the organization’s female leaders are at various career stages but share a “passion for making a difference.”
Kendal at Oberlin CEO Barbara Thomas, for example, has worked for the company for more than 30 years and was one of the first women leaders in senior living. And Lynne Giacobbe has led Kendal at Home for 20 years and created a model program that provides a “Life care at Home” option.
Other female leaders at Kendal:
- Barclay Friends Executive Director Linda Sterthous, West Chester, PA
- Collington CEO Ann Gillespie, Mitchellville, MD
- Kendal at Hanover CEO Beth Vettori, Hanover, NH
- Kendal at Ithaca Executive Director Laurie Mante, Ithaca, NY
- Kendal at Lexington Executive Director and CEO Jan Bigelow, Lexington, VA
- Kendal-Crosslands Communities CEO Lisa Marsilio, Kennett Square, PA
- Kendal on Hudson Interim CEO and CFO Jean Eccleston, Sleepy Hollow, NY
- The Admiral at the Lake CEO Nadia Geiger, Chicago
- Enso Village CEO Rosemary Jordan, Healdsburg, CA
Women in leadership
A growing number of women have advanced to corporate leadership positions in senior living over the past several years.
Earlier this year, for instance, Emerald Communities in Redmond, WA, announced that it had an entirely women-led executive leadership team for the first time in its history.
“It just happened organically, and as positions opened up and we were recruiting, we hired the most qualified individuals, and it just happened to be they were all women,” Emerald Communities President and CEO Lisa Hardy told McKnight’s Senior Living Editor Lois Bowers in a recent podcast interview.
Last year, a “Women in the Workplace” report found that female leaders were switching positions at the highest rate in years, moving to companies with better career opportunities, flexibility and a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. The report was not specific to the senior living industry, but many leaders in the profession have been prioritizing or calling attention to the elevation of deserving women.
The importance — and benefits — of reaching gender parity on corporate boards in senior living and other industries was noted by Juniper Communities’ founder and CEO Lynne Katzmann, PhD, when she accepted the inaugural McKnight’s Women of Distinction Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. “Gender-balanced boards are imperative, and gender-balanced boards get results,” she said at the time.
McKnight’s had launched the Women of Distinction program in 2018 “to give some long-overdue recognition to the many women … who are truly making a difference.”
Also in 2018, Argentum launched an initiative to cultivate a new generation of women leaders in senior living and to increase diversity. The next year, the association made women a focal point of its Senior Living Executive Conference. Two years after that, its Largest Providers Report shared evidence of growth in women in leadership in the senior living industry, which went from 8% of companies led by women chief executives in 2014 to 19% in 2021 — and women leading three of the top 10 companies.
Also of note, in 2019, history-making elections placed women at the head of the National Center for Assisted Living Board of Directors and the American Health Care Association Board of Governors simultaneously. Helen Crunk of Nebraska was elected chair of the NCAL board, and Debbie Meade of Georgia was elected chair of the AHCA board for the 2019-2020 terms.
