A new crop of leaders is at the helm at a handful of senior living nonprofits. Now, they are collectively plotting their organizations’ next steps with an eye for what the incoming generation of residents will want.
Some of the nonprofit senior living sector’s newest leaders include Erin Shadbolt, who ascended to the CEO role at Ascension Living in July after working for the organization for two years; Brett Anderson, who officially became CEO at Ebenezer in July; Glen Lewis, who joined Rose Villa in April as its top leader; and Sheri Peifer, who became CEO of Eskaton in September, 2023.
All of those leaders are taking a relatively optimistic view of the future amid expectations of strong demand from the baby boomer generation, while also weighing the challenges they and other operators will face in the years to come. What they do now will help shape the sector’s next offerings, from how they staff and operate communities to the kind of care they offer older adults.
“I think there are a million healthcare leaders out there that are passionate and energetic and creative. If they knew what the opportunities in senior living really were, I think we could easily recruit some of the best and brightest in healthcare into our setting,” Shadbolt told Senior Housing News. “I’m hoping that myself and other younger, new CEOs [in] senior living and the non-profit space can start to really shout from the rooftop.”
‘Passing the torch’
Lewis said he thinks the future of nonprofit senior housing is exciting due to the ongoing shift from the former generation of nonprofit senior living leaders to the current one.
“We have a lot of current leaders that have been in the industry for a long time that are passing the torch to new to new leaders, who have been and remain very inspirational,” he said.
In the years to come, an estimated 76 million baby boomers are bringing new wants and needs with them as they age into senior housing. Senior living companies across the profit spectrum are preparing to “change the paradigm” for them by catering to their experiences, backgrounds, education and affinities. That extends to the nonprofit sector of senior living, where leaders such as Shadbolt and Lewis are looking to concepts such as Rose Villa completing a master planned redevelopment to offer a more unique product that residents asked for, adding in higher acuity care and expanding services such as home health and hospice to serve the generation.
That said, those leaders will have their work cut out for them in the years ahead. Non-profit operators usually must walk a more delicate balance between mission and margin than their for-profit peers. In recent years, pressures due to operations, staffing and revenue have prompted nonprofits to join forces through affiliations and M&A, with record levels in 2024.
Both Shadbolt and Lewis said that staffing – including recruiting and retaining workers– remains the most critical pressure that non-profit senior living operators face. The current higher-acuity nature of assisted living and skilled nursing will only complicate those efforts, given those residents typically need a higher level of hands-on care, requiring more staff time.
“The registered nursing hiring is probably going to be the biggest challenge for us,” Shadbolt said. “Being able to meet that staffing guideline is going to be really, really tricky.”
According to Shadbolt, there is an opportunity for the nonprofit sector to actively recruit from the healthcare industry, particularly due to being able to directly see the impact leaders can have on a local community for residents. Shadbolt, who previously worked at the Mayo Clinic, said these were benefits she didn’t see in healthcare until she shifted into senior housing.
However, despite the challenge, Shadbolt added she believes the pacing of senior housing care compared to acute care can allow organizations such as Ascension to win over additional nurses due to being less frantic and being able to take care of residents more or less in their home environment.
While Rose Villa is benefiting from having a “launch pad” established for its next efforts following the leadership of Vassar Byrd, the organization is looking at how it can continue to grow with a new leader at the helm.
“We have a very deep waiting list at Rose Villa,” Lewis told Senior Housing News. “The product that has been established at Rose Villa is one that has a lot of interest from future residents, and so we have to really continue to evaluate our growth.”
Preparing organizations for the future
The non-profit senior living sector’s newest leaders are preparing to leave their marks on the industry by reshaping the organizations they lead.
For example, fellow nonprofit Eskaton is in the process of moving more towards private-pay and offering new service levels for residents due to the demand for more robust lifestyle offerings. The organization is also in the process of master planning to shape its coming amenities and communities.
Rose Villa and Ascension Living are also taking their own respective paths forward.
Shadbolt is currently in the process of leading the nonprofit through a sale process , one of which involves selling four of the organization’s senior housing communities and nine hospitals to Prime Healthcare. With the sale, the organization’s senior housing footprint will total 32 communities.
“We’re working through as we think about aligning our footprint to be more closely aligned to our hospital and acute care footprint within the larger Ascension organization,” Shadbolt said.
Shadbolt is focusing on people, technology and processes to help stabilize and improve the organization. And beyond that, there are still plenty of “fun” things to undertake, like attracting a newer, energetic workforce by leaning into the organization’s faith-based roots as a Catholic organization.
“We offer an environment that I think is pretty unique here where associates … can pray with residents, they can pray with each other – or not pray,” Shadbolt said. “Allowing associates to come and be their whole selves in a way that supports the whole being of our residents is really important to us.”
Shadbolt is also aiming to improve flexibility for staff, both in scheduling practices and being able to move into different roles. So far, the efforts are already paying off and the turnover rate of certified nursing assistants has dropped to 31% in July, down from 45% in June 2023.
Rose Villa’s future lies in expanding its zero-energy neighborhood concept, which focuses on utilizing renewable energy and gray water systems to reduce waste. The community has already opened two of those communities on its campus, with plans for more units in the future. It is also looking at opening its services to a higher level of acuity care by expanding into skilled nursing. Lewis anticipates the organization could have more skilled beds in place in the next year and a half, provided certification goes smoothly.
“There are no data points that indicate there are less people going into the hospital that are discharging and need skilled care, and so somebody has to serve that market,” Lewis said. “I think that’s part of our mission as a CCRC. I think having that space, having that quality of care and having that safety and security for residents is paramount.”
