Kim Gaskell​​​​, vice president of operations for Exeter, NH-based RiverWoods, is known by staff and residents for her many strengths: decisiveness, a collaborative spirit that engages residents and staff, skill in organizing operations, and the ability to create community with compassion and a sense of fun. She joined RiverWoods in 2018 as the first executive director for the organization’s still-under-construction new community, RiverWoods Durham. When the COVID-19 pandemic began only four months after the community’s opening, it threw the best-laid plans into an unexpected new reality, and Gaskell rose to the challenge.

For her person-centered leadership, adaptability, and creativity, Kim Gaskell has been chosen to receive the LeadingAge Leadership Award for 2025. Now in its second year, the Award, to be presented at the 2025 LeadingAge Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, on April 8, recognizes leaders who drive change, developing strong teams and delivering exceptional mission-driven services.

A Collaborative and Transparent Leader

Gaskell is noted for making staff and residents feel their voices are heard. “Most people don’t like to just be told ‘this is what we’re doing.’ They want to feel they were part of the decision-making process or had an influence,” she says. Natalee Belanger, Gaskell’s successor as executive director at RiverWoods Durham, echoes that and describes Gaskell’s ability to combine her own vision with openness to new ideas. “Kim encourages collaboration and values input from everyone,” says Belanger, “creating a culture where diverse perspectives are not just heard but actively integrated into decision-making.”

Her collaboration includes residents. Deborah Karmozyn, a member of the RiverWoods Durham Resident Council who has observed Gaskell’s leadership for seven years, lauds her strong engagement with residents, including frequent face-to-face contact and presentations on all issues affecting the community. In a recommendation letter, Karmozyn wrote, “Kim was well-received and she built up trust and confidence among residents—they knew she was a straight shooter, but they appreciated her information.” That was the case, Karmozyn says, even when the residents didn’t like a change, such as an increase in monthly service fees. Resident Curt Ley, chairman of the RiverWoods Durham Resident Council, wrote, “Perhaps least recognized, but most important among [leadership skills], is the ability to listen. Kim listens, not only to her supervision and resident constituency, but, perhaps more importantly, to her staff.”

Organizational Skills That Enable Innovation

Gaskell’s organizational skills have come to the fore in her role as RiverWoods’ vice president of operations, a new position created for her in 2022. She has systematized procedures and record-keeping across the three RiverWoods communities in order to enable innovation. “If you have an established process that you follow,” she says, “people’s brain space can be used [instead] for working with residents, or looking at a new technology, or just being more creative.”

Regular meetings begun under her watch, for instance, facilitate organization-wide communication and save time. Monthly in-person gatherings for executive directors and leaders from other departments help build relationships and also streamline the time spent sharing necessary information. These “bring people together, [and ensure] that everybody’s hearing our message in the same way,” Gaskell says. Monthly virtual calls for the organization’s 75-plus managers, supervisors, and directors have improved communication and collaboration across the organization. In addition to reorganizing operations, she’s taken an active role in the planning for the new Exeter Health Center, envisioned as a centralized building for all nursing, assisted living, and memory care services at RiverWoods’ large Exeter community.

Despite her organizational achievements, Gaskell laughs at the suggestion she must have a process-oriented personality. “I am actually wildly creative,” she says. “I have a musical background [her daily piano playing at RiverWoods during the pandemic was a respite for all, including herself] and I grew up doing theater, so there’s a part of me that is just full of ideas and creativity, but at the same time, I like structure and having a process.”

Partnering for Internships and Boosting Careers

A current focus for Gaskell is forging a partnership with the University of New Hampshire (UNH), not only to increase student internships in nursing, physical and occupational therapy, social work, and more in RiverWoods communities, but to spread the word among students about opportunities in aging services. Gaskell has teamed up with Kirsten Corazzini, dean of UNH’s College of Health and Human Services (and a RiverWoods Community Board member), to build the partnership, and to evangelize for career opportunities in aging services.

Out of a Crisis, a Career

The pandemic reinforced Gaskell’s belief that a career in aging services was the right choice for her. At the start of March 2020, she says, things were going well at her brand-new community. “It was an all-out sprint from November 2019 through the beginning of March. On March 4, we hit 95% occupancy, and on March 11, we basically shut down due to COVID.”

She remembers walking through an empty dining hall and deciding that despite whatever difficulties lay ahead, she and her staff still had to provide community for the residents, and “to make this right for them.” At that point, she says, “It clicked for me: I would do absolutely anything to dedicate myself to this industry, my community, my residents, and my team.”