Dedicated, creative, selfless leaders have built the mission-driven aging services field. Learn why Awards winners inspire new generations of leaders.

The Annual LeadingAge Awards have been honoring leaders, educators, innovators, and builders since the earliest days of the organization, when LeadingAge was known as the American Association of Homes for the Aging (AAHA).

The nomination period for the 2023 LeadingAge Awards ended at midnight on June 16, 2023. Many thanks to all those who nominated deserving candidates.

Honorees will be notified in July, and receive their awards at the LeadingAge Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, November 5-8.

The LeadingAge Award of Honor, the association’s highest honor, has been given to 75 distinguished leaders since 1963—which was only two years after AAHA’s founding. The Joan Anne McHugh Award for Leadership in Long-Term Services and Supports Nursing was established in 2005 in memory of McHugh, a registered nurse, nurse manager, and nursing consultant, to recognize outstanding nurse leaders in our field.

The mission-driven, person-centered focus of LeadingAge member organizations is always demonstrated by the nominees and winners of the awards. For a new generation of aging-services leaders, as well as young people looking for careers that make a difference, the example these Award winners set shows the possibilities our field offers.

Award of Honor: Leaders Demonstrating Creativity, Resourcefulness, and Passion for Service

Award of Honor winners show the best characteristics of leaders in our field through long careers of serving older adults.

Last year’s Award of Honor winner, James Bernardo of Presbyterian Senior Living, is known for building strong teams, instilling a collaborative organizational culture, and developing leaders. This emphasis also drove his commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the aging services field, which grew out of his social work training. Read more about Bernardo here.

The 2021 winner, Paul Winkler of Presbyterian SeniorCare Network (PSCN), is a pioneer in person-centered care for people living with dementia, having helped create groundbreaking dementia-specific personal care models, as well as of one of the nation’s first personal care homes and affordable housing communities for people living with HIV/AIDS. Learn more about Winkler’s passion for service here.

A time of trauma, sadness, and exhaustion, 2020 was the most difficult year most LeadingAge members had ever experienced. As members moved mountains to keep residents, clients, and staff safe while keeping their organizations afloat, the choice for the Award of Honor was obvious. See a moving video in which President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan bestowed the Award of Honor on every member.

The 2019 winner, Dan Lindh of Presbyterian Homes & Services, is known as a visionary and builder, having built PHS into one of the nation’s largest nonprofit providers, partnering to build innovative home and community-based services, a geriatric primary care practice, a cutting-edge transitional care service, and a broad array of housing options. Learn what motivates Lindh here.

Joan Anne McHugh Award: Leading Care and Services on the Frontline

Dedicated nurse leaders ensure that the foundational interactions of our field—where caregivers serve residents and clients—is a place of empathy, quality, and person-centered attention to detail.

Andrea MacDonald of Nascentia Health Home Health Aides, recipient of last year’s McHugh Award, began her health care career as a candy striper. Her love of people feeds her passion for building a comfortable and happy workplace environment, which was tested to an extreme during the pandemic, when almost a third of her staff left due to COVID fears. She helped Nascentia Health through the crisis with creative re-thinking of benefits, scheduling, and recruitment.

Kristen Schulmerich, the 2021 McHugh winner, became director of nursing services for Monroe Community Hospital in November 2020, the height of the pandemic. Taking over a demoralized staff and instituting new ideas for job descriptions, hiring, and compensation, she turned around morale and made staff feel valued. Learn more about her innovations here.

Jamey Walker of Lutheran Life Villages (LLV) at Kendallville is known as a great multitasker. The 2019 McHugh Award recipient shepherded her staff and residents through a challenging seven-month renovation while switching the campus to a new EMR provider, helping staff work through a new dementia care program, and even filling in when the administrator took a leave of absence.