Armed with the soul of a caregiver and a background in all facets of management—operations, team building, staff development, efficiency, continuous improvement and a focus on customer satisfaction—Rhonda St. Onge went to work as a licensed nursing home administrator and became a certified executive for assisted living and an executive director of senior living communities. 

St. Onge has an undergraduate degree in marketing from the University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande, OH. She then earned a master’s degree with a focus on lean management at Ohio State University, Columbus. 

St. Onge became the executive director of Wesley Woods, a Life Enriching Communities continuing care retirement community in New Albany, OH, in late 2018. There, she oversaw operations that included 118 units, including villas, independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing. While serving as executive director at Wesley Woods, St. Onge increased occupancy from 35% in 2018 to 85% in 2020. She retained 100% of the community’s directors, managers and coordinators. 

Since December 2020, St. Onge has been executive director of Brookdale Trillium Crossing, a 213-unit independent and assisted living community in Columbus, OH. At Trillium Crossing, she manages an operating budget of almost $7 million and leads a team of nine direct and 130 indirect reports. 

A key part of St. Onge’s success is her client-focused managerial training combined with her deep love of people and understanding of the needs of residents. St. Onge is the first and only McKnight’s Women of Distinction honoree whose nomination came from residents. Residents say they know that they have her full support (and that of her dedicated staff) in pursuing any interests or activities. 

St. Onge goes about her work with intensity, with her eyes always on the goal, forever juggling the myriad aspects of her role. Residents say she is the consummate team player and always maintains a sense of humor, a ready wit and a steady calm as she makes Trillium Crossing a true home. 

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

Friendly, approachable and unquenchably driven, Aimee Middleton brings the heart and humility of a frontline caregiver to the C-suite. As she climbed the corporate ladder at the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, she never forgot her humble beginnings waiting tables. And even though she no longer is working for tips, she didn’t lose that occupation’s service mindset. 

Middleton held leadership and faculty roles at Clarkson College and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She has served as a branch manager for Associated Staffing, a national account manager for Hirease, an administrator for home care specialties and director of client development for Tabitha Health Care Services, and administrator for Vetter Health Services. 

Middleton joined Good Samaritan in 2017, serving first as an administrator (2017-2019) and then as a regional executive director of operations before taking on the vice president of operations role in January 2022. In addition to her professional responsibilities, she taught college-level healthcare business classes as an adjunct professor as a way to share her love for older adults with the next generation of healthcare administrators. 

Middleton is known as someone who runs toward trouble, not away from it. As Hurricane Ian was bearing down on Florida in September 2022, she was on-site at Good Samaritan communities, helping staff evacuate residents and making sure they had everything they needed. It was important to her that everything possible was done to ensure that residents retained their dignity throughout the evacuation. 

In addition to tending to the needs of residents displaced by the hurricane, Middleton led Good Samaritan’s incident command process and gave numerous media interviews, always propelled by the needs of residents. 

Middleton energizes those around her to find a way to do more with less, to be creative, to serve with passion and to not take no for an answer if something is in the best interests of those the organization serves.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

Kelly MacNeill-Cooney began her career as a speech-language pathologist and quickly took on more responsibility, becoming a program manager and then a regional therapy manager. Her passion for treating patients, mentoring employees in clinical excellence and leading organizations in developing strategies based on regulatory and legislative requirements led her to the National Association of Rehab Providers and Agencies in 2011. 

After joining NARA, MacNeill-Cooney quickly jumped in to support the association’s mission of creating collaborative opportunities for members and advancing the therapy industry through advocacy and education. She currently is NARA’s president. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, MacNeill-Cooney set up a biweekly town hall call for NARA members to share rapidly changing regulatory guidelines and solutions to operational and clinical challenges. She helps NARA create collaborative opportunities for members and advance the therapy industry. 

She has worked in healthcare service for more than 28 years and was vice president of clinical compliance and training at Therapy Specialists before that organization was acquired by HealthPRO-Heritage. 

At Therapy Specialists, MacNeill-Cooney was responsible for ensuring that the goals of employees and clients were met through aligning the clinical team’s therapeutic skills, programming, documentation and clinical compliance with current rules and regulations, as well as the goals of the organization. In her current role as a member of the senior leadership team at HealthPro-Heritage, she is responsible for reporting observations on the status of regulatory issues and strategies to the executive team. 

She is also the steering committee secretary for the Princess Project in San Diego, which promotes self-confidence and individual beauty by providing free prom dresses and accessories to high school teens. 

MacNeill-Cooney’s steadfast focus on advocacy, education and collaborative relationships has allowed both NARA and HealthPro-Heritage to meet the needs of all stakeholders amid some of the most tumultuous times the healthcare industry has ever seen. 

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

Patricia Lutzky has more than 35 years of management experience in the not-for-profit field and has been part of the Peconic Landing team for almost 26 years. 

She is a graduate of the New York Institute of Art and Design’s interior design program and has used her passion for interior design to become an leader in the community’s overall design and physical vision.

She has served the organization since its inception in 1997, starting as the marketing coordinator—and Peconic Landing’s third employee. Thanks to her tenacity and dedication, she moved up to director of member services, then vice president of member services and, in 2022, her current role of senior vice president of independent living.

Lutzky is a member of the Southold, NY, Housing Advisory Commission, which reviews and makes recommendations regarding the town’s housing fund. 

Today, Lutzky is known among the Peconic Landing team members as “The General” and is widely respected by both residents and employees across the community’s campus. 

Lutzky’s leadership areas encompass a broad range of member services, including transportation, cultural arts programming, wellness and fitness programs, member communication, family and guest concerns, customer service, social accountability and more than 30 clubs and committees. She takes a hands-on approach to ensure that all residents are offered a variety of opportunities to stay happy, healthy and engaged. 

In 2014, Lutzky was awarded LeadingAge New York’s Professional of the Year Award, which honors a senior living professional’s contributions to the well-being of older adults and efforts toward creating high-quality experiences in his or her community. Upon her winning, the Peconic Landing team put their creative skills to work to show Lutzky how proud of her they were by making a video as a testament to the dedication and joy that she has brought to Peconic Landing and the many lives she has touched in a positive way.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

Nystrom is a seasoned home care professional with degrees in both nursing and law. She joined the home care field in 1995 as an administrative assistant at Health Resources Home Care and became president of New England Home Care in 2000. Since 2018, she has served as a leader in the mission-driven growth of the multi-state home health provider Elara Caring, where she is president of skilled home health. 

Nystrom joined Dallas-based Elara Caring as president of behavioral health. In that role, she designed a specialized service line dedicated to helping individuals with chronic behavioral health conditions, and she formed a team of behavioral health nursing leaders with field-based expertise and the passion to expand care to those most vulnerable, wherever they called home. 

Nystrom has been an active member of the Connecticut Association for Home Care since 2001. She has held membership and leadership positions. 

Nystrom was appointed by the director of the Connecticut Department of Social Services to serve as the home healthcare representative to the state’s Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council in 2010. In 2014, Nystrom was honored with CAHH’s Judith Hriceniak Award for Excellence in Nursing Leadership. It recognizes nursing leaders who are visionary role models. 

In 2020, Nystrom assumed the additional role of president of Elara’s skilled home care service line, maintaining a dual leadership role throughout the early days of the COVID pandemic. Under her leadership, both divisions improved their operational and financial performance while continuing to attract and retain caregivers. 

In addition to her many years of employment in the home health arena, Nystrom has long served as a passionate home health and mental health and wellness volunteer, leader and advocate. 

In 2022, she created the Elara Caring “We Definitely Care” model of patient engagement, which works to ensure that every patient and patient family touchpoint with Elara reflects the provider’s commitment to caring.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

Having a disabled father, Cindy Longfellow from a young age had a passion for helping those with health vulnerabilities. Her early work was in vocational rehabilitation. This experience led her to the insurance and worker’s compensation industry and eventually into long-term care with Alterra Healthcare. She joined Juniper Communities in 2003 as the director of community relations. 

Juniper’s focus on helping residents and their families obtain quality, highly individualized care resonated with Longfellow. She was promoted to regional sales director, national director of sales and, in 2014, to her current role of vice president of business development, sales and marketing, bridging the gap between sales and operations. 

Longfellow’s responsibilities have grown along with Juniper’s portfolio and census. Juniper had 12 communities in 2010 and 30 at the end of 2022. She serves on the advisory board of the American Seniors Housing Association’s Where You Live Matters consumer campaign. 

During Longfellow’s time as in that role, Juniper has implemented a comprehensive digital strategy that has delivered more than 8,000 inquiries with a qualification rate of 73% and a move-in rate of 19%; developed a “scorecard” designed in conjunction with operations that assesses the health of a community via more than 100 benchmarks; and introduced customer relationship management systems that improve data collection, reporting and analysis of sales metrics. In 2021, Juniper exceeded industry standards for inquiry-to-lead qualification (79%), speed to lead (less than one hour) and tours. 

Longfellow was the primary creator of Camp Aging Insurrection at Burning Man, Juniper’s camp focused on combating ageism, and she has been central to the development of many of Juniper’s acclaimed programs. 

Her colleagues know Longfellow as a consummate professional who has charisma, passion, humility, an intense professional will and the ability to relate to many different individuals and work styles. She also provides a constant reminder of the positives to be found in each individual.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

Payne is responsible for VHCA-VCAL’s quality improvement initiatives and provides extensive support to members in dealing with regulatory, compliance and clinical issues. Prior to joining VHCA-VCAL, she was the vice president of operations and assisted living services/administrator for Beth Sholom retirement community in Richmond, VA. 

Payne represents the long-term care sector before various state agencies, boards and committees, including the Virginia Board of Nursing, the Virginia Board of Long-Term Care Administrators and regulatory task forces led by the Virginia Department of Health. She also is an active participant in various American Health Care Association/National Center or Assisted Living committees and initiatives. 

It has been Payne’s mission to create a collaborative relationship between regulators, policymakers and long-term care providers. She is a bridge between providers, regulators and policymakers in Virginia who may not have a common understanding of issues, and she has built trust among the state survey agencies that regulate and oversee skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities. 

Payne was a key contributor to the efforts to design Virginia’s Medicaid Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing Program.

She helped VHCA/VCAL earn civil money penalty reinvestment funds in 2019 to achieve an overall reduction in preventable rehospitalizations for individuals who reside in nursing facilities throughout Virginia. She also played a key role in the development and ongoing value of VHCA’s Survey Management Analysis Resource Tool.

With her extensive knowledge of federal and state regulations, she has helped state legislators understand the effects of their proposed legislation on issues such as staffing minimums, discharge requirements, scope of practice, licensing, resident screenings and more. 

Payne understands that achieving regulatory compliance and doing what is right for residents requires taking care of the staff members who care for the residents.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

CEO of American Senior Communities at the time of her selection as a McKnight’s Women of Distinction honoree, Donna Kelsey has overseen more than 100 memory care, rehabilitation, retirement and senior living communities, leading a team of more than 10,000 professionals who make it their mission to enhance the lives of residents and their families as well as staff members. Currently, she is transitioning to the position of senior adviser at the organization.

A veteran leader in senior healthcare, Kelsey has specialized in multi-site management, bottom line impact and continuous improvement. As CEO, she was responsible for driving strategic plans to carry out the vision, mission and values of ASC. One of Kelsey’s top priorities as CEO was to recruit and retain quality employees by instilling the company’s core values of compassion, accountability, relationships and excellence into the culture. 

The Indianapolis Business Journal in 2020 honored Kelsey as a Woman of Influence, and under her leadership, ASC was recognized in 2020 as one of Central Indiana’s top workplaces by the Indianapolis Star. She has been a member of the Indiana Health Care Association Board of Directors for more than five years, including several as chairperson. 

Kelsey has maintained high levels of customer satisfaction through quality care and positive clinical outcomes, keeping ASC in compliance with federal and state regulations, and leading teams that drive total quality management processes designed to generate profitability and growth. ASC’s overall CMS quality rating is 3.33, exceeding the Indiana state average of 2.84 and the national average of 2.90. 

In service to its employees, ASC has partnered with Workplace Chaplains to support team members and their families. In addition, the company’s Share to Care fund was created to assist ASC employees and/or their immediate families during times of hardship. 

Kelsey is a 26-year veteran of the US Naval Reserve, where she achieved the rank of captain.

Kelsey lives her principles of servant leadership. She maintains a balance of operational excellence with a passion to provide quality care for each resident. By prioritizing each resident and family, she strives to epitomize person-centered care.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

In her 26-year career in long-term care, Harmon has worked her way from serving as a certified nursing assistant at a continuing care retirement community to spearheading quality and regulatory efforts for the nation’s largest association representing the long-term care profession. 

Harmon joined the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living as a senior director in 2014. Today, she is senior vice president, quality, regulatory and clinical services. Before joining the national association, she was the director of quality improvement for the Maine Health Care Association, a state affiliate of AHCA/NCAL.

Harmon brings a wealth of clinical and operational experience to her role at AHCA/NCAL. She led the associations’ quality initiative, which identified national priority goals and developed tools and resources for providers to achieve those goals. She designed and launched AHCA/ NCAL’s infection preventionist certificate program, which has trained more than 4,000 individuals nationally. In addition, she coordinates the development of staff training modules in AHCA/NCAL’s online learning management system, ahcancalED. Notably, ahcancalED helped train more than 200,000 individuals as temporary nurse assistants during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Harmon also has led AHCA/NCAL’s advocacy and feedback to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how clinical guidance needs to consider the resident’s quality of life. 

Harmon is a fellow at the American College of Health Care Administrators and a senior clinical fellow at the Center for Health Policy Evaluation in Long-Term Care. She serves on the NHA Exam Committee at the National Association of Long-Term Care Administrator Boards. 

Harmon has served the Maine Culture Change Coalition/LANE as president, the Maine Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes as co-chair and the Maine chapter of ACHCA as vice president.

Harmon understands the intersection between clinical practice, regulations, payment and policy as well as the critical role individuals working in a facility play in meeting the residents’ needs. Those perspectives help make her an influential force in the senior living and care industry. 

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.

When thinking of the qualities and contributions one must possess to be honored as an inspirational Women of Distinction honoree, colleagues say Collette Gray, president and CEO of Integral Senior Living and Solstice Senior Living, Carlsbad, CA, checks every box. She is a motivated leader whose life aspirations are to better everything that crosses her path, both professionally and personally. 

Gray’s passion and dedication to enhancing the lives of older adults through her professional contributions is a driving force in the industry, according to those who know her. Throughout her career, her focus on establishing a culture that provides high-quality care for residents and an inclusive, positive work environment for staff members has led to countless successes in her organization and within the senior living industry as a whole. 

During her tenure, Integral Senior Living has been ranked the ninth largest senior housing provider in the nation and one of the larger providers in the state of California. As president and CEO, she provides day-to-day operations, sales and resident care oversight for all communities Integral Senior Living manages, as well as oversees all new development projects. 

Gray is a board member of the California Assisted Living Association and, for three years, chaired its Workforce Development Committee. She has been a leader with Argentum since 2016 and is one of the founding members of Argentum’s Women in Leadership initiative.

Her dedication and hard work have had a powerful impact on the senior living industry over the past two decades, and her continued efforts undoubtedly will help shape the future of senior living as well, changing the lives of residents, employees and future leaders of the profession. 

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. PointClickCare is the Diamond sponsor of this year’s program. PharMerica is the Silver sponsor. Additional sponsors include American HealthTech, Healthcare Services Group, Omnicare, Sentrics and ShiftKey.

Visit this web page to see lists of honorees from 2023 and previous years.