In aging care since 1981, my professional background is solid with aging care issues and solutions. Fearless in my pursuit of serving others, I founded one of the first private pay home care businesses in the United States. It is this model of care managed home care that is currently used by Humana at Home Senior Bridge©. In 1997 I worked with the founder, Larry Sosnow, using what is now the Private Duty Business Manual as the basis for the creation of that business, started originally as Cambridge Companions.
As one of the founders of the Midwest Chapter of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, I served on the board of that national association, now Aging Life Care Professionals. Currently in its 4th edition, I have authored a chapter in the only textbook on the profession, The Handbook of Geriatric Care Management. I also chaired two national conferences for the care manager organization, one offered in conjunction with the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
Still active in the industry at a national level, I am a past Chair of the Private Duty Homecare Association of America, and served on the board of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC). Following my board membership and chairmanship, I served as the Chief Strategic Officer for the Private Duty Homecare Association. corecubed, the business I founded in 1998, served as President/CEO until 2020 and now am Board Chair, was the agency of record for the Home Care Association of America (HCAOA) from its inception (as the National Private Duty Association) in 2002 to when I joined the board of their “rival” national association in 2008. A regular speaker at conferences and events across the country, it appears that my place is solidified as one of the industry’s thought leaders in the future and trends of home and aging care in America, including “retail” concierge home care services, marketing and communications targeting those needing aging care, and incorporating technology into the aging process and care services.
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1947, and raised by a working mother, Dorothy May Orsini Jones, who not only was an attorney, but who was elected to the Presidency of the National Association of Women Lawyers, I grew up seeing women in leadership positions. Until I was 10 years old, I actually thought most doctors, lawyers, and judges were women! One of my earliest pen pals was Judge Florence E Allen, the first woman to ever serve on a state supreme court and one of two of the first women to serve as federal court judges. Her correspondence with me, which started when I was 8 years old, is still treasured in my personal archives.