Drawing inspiration from Robert F. Kennedy’s ripple of hope idea, over the course of four days in Boston, LeadingAge’s leadership illuminated how individual acts of courage, compassion, and conviction can create waves of transformation across aging services—and beyond.

Opening the 2025 Annual Meeting on Monday, November 3, President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan reminded the 6,000-plus attendees that at LeadingAge’s start more than 60 years ago, the association’s founders understood the value of collective action, and “embraced our responsibility, as leaders, to address the needs of a society that is aging … with integrity, grit, and vision.” While acknowledging the hurdles ahead for the aging services sector, such as increased demand as America’s population ages and policy-created barriers that inhibit the ability to deliver care and services, Sloan celebrated examples of member innovation and recent advocacy successes. “The challenges ahead are enormous, and the possibilities are vast and exciting,” she said. “Let’s use our imaginations and think out loud together” to find actions that will lead to impact.

Taking the stage on Tuesday, November 4, outgoing board chair Roberto Muñiz, president and CEO of Parker Health Group, reiterated the importance of partnership—which includes investing in others—as he shared his deeply personal journey from an at-risk youth to a national leader. At the same time, members, he said, must also invest in themselves. “When we challenge and push ourselves,” he said, “we are in a much better position to elevate others.” Additional parting advice included the need to engage policymakers with authentic stories, as catalysts for change: “Be bold; we are on the verge of a transformative era.”

Picking up on the theme of potential, incoming board chair Christie Hinrichs, president and CEO of Frasier, shared her journey from a “farm kid from small-town Nebraska, visiting seniors and homebound neighbors” to an aging services chief. Curiosity led her to a lifelong passion to create and nurture healthy workforce cultures, a pursuit she urged members to embrace. “Those who provide care, services, and support to older adults every single day are the heartbeat of our field,” she said. “We must be relentless in our pursuit to  honor them, recognize them, invest in them, and keep them.”

Highlighting how communities thrive when employees feel seen, valued, and supported, “culture is strategy,” she observed—which is why members “must keep innovating. Keep investing. Because the future of our organizations will rise or fall on whether we make our organizations places where our employees choose to stay.”

There are challenges ahead, she acknowledged. But acting together, “we will shape a future where aging is honored, and those who serve are celebrated,” she said, ending with a call to action—“Let’s create ripples of impact that become waves of change,” echoing the Annual Meeting 2025’s collective spirit.

Photos by Courtney Bush.