Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2023 Women of Distinction honorees daily from July 5 to Aug. 15. For additional McKnight’s Women of Distinction content, visit this page.

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.