CJE SeniorLife

Bios

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  Mark D. Weiner

  President & CEO

  has helped CJE SeniorLife in addressing a growing and diverse eldercare population, changing governmental policies and funding sources and a transformative health care environment. During this period, CJE has advanced the development of innovative programming and now serves more than 23,000 older adults and family members per year. Mark’s key responsibilities are strategic direction and development, operational and financial management, advancement of a highly engaged Board of Directors and enhancement of external relationships and partnerships. Mark speaks proudly of the development of CJE’s Strategic Plan. CJE’s Strategic Plan has provided needed focus and direction in the success of the organization. The Plan developed in 2004/2005 was updated in 2007, 2009, 2010 2012 and 2015. Current attention is being directed to a major revision of the Strategic Plan with attention to revenue enhancement, care and program models, advancement of CJE’s brand (trustworthy, customer-centric and innovative), and continued attention to the advancement of business operations and systems with major focus on technology application. Mark is equally proud of the recruitment of highly capable and effective management team. In collaboration with the Board, CJE is a strategic, accountable and measured organization. Mark has a strong background in health care management, strategic planning program management and leadership, and change management. Mark started his professional career with the Addiction Senior Agency, New York City Department of Health, where he served as Program Officer for the Borough of Brooklyn. Following graduate school, Mark had eleven years of progressive experience in acute-care hospital settings. Mark was at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital and held the position of Vice President Administration and Corporate Planning. Following his passion Mark established the Mark Resource Group, a consulting firm specializing in business services for older adult provider organizations. Mark was then recruited by one of his clients, and served as Vice President- Program Development and Marketing North America for ARJO, an international medical equipment manufacturing and sales organization. Prior to joining CJE, Mark led a business advisory practice for OWP/P and Perkins Eastman with consultation to more than 100 older adult, hospital and educational organizations. Mark has a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He earned a MS in Health Care Management from the University of Michigan. Mark is active in the community. This includes a long history of Federation and Jewish communal leadership and involvement. Professionally, Mark has served on the Board of Life Services Network of Illinois and several Committees/Task Teams for LeadingAge. Mark has a major passion and commitment to his undergraduate school where he currently serves as Vice Chair, Dean’s Advisory Council, College of Arts & Sciences, State University at Buffalo. Mark was recently elected to the Board of the University’s Alumni Association. Mark and his family are active members of Aitz Hayim Center for Jewish Living. Mark enjoys swimming, platform tennis, hiking, photography, travel and especially being with his wife Patty, his daughter Samie and son Daniel. Mark often says he is honored to be the President & CEO of CJE SeniorLife. He is most appreciative of our 725-plus member staff that he regularly recognizes for their dedication to CJE and their commitment to enhancing the lives of seniors in the Jewish and larger community.

  Link: Mark D. Weiner

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  Thomas Lockwood

  Vice President/CFO

  Thomas “Tom” Lockwood, CJE’s Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare and eldercare fields, including several hospitals and Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC). He has served on the board of trustees for various senior service organizations, including an inner-city nursing home, the largest meals-on-wheels program in the Greater Cincinnati area, and an organization operating four group homes for the developmentally disabled. Lockwood was previously an attorney at Peck, Shaffer & Williams, a division of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP in Cincinnati, in the area of public finances, refinancing capital expansions, and annual capital needs for not-for-profit organizations and local and county government. Prior to that, he served as VP of Finance and CFO for Life Enriching Communities, Inc. (a multi-site CCRC) and the Jewish Home of Cincinnati, Inc., and worked in the finance departments of Children’s Hospital Medical Center as Controller and The Deaconess Hospital as Internal Auditor and Staff Accountant. Lockwood has direct experience leading CCRC campus development as well as merger and consolidation of long term care facilities and operations. In addition to his strategic planning and budget management experience, he has been involved in the planning and development of an upscale retirement community as well as merger of two existing inner-city nursing home operations into a new facility. His experience with labor negotiations, managed care and benefit program contracting, Medicare and Medicaid compliance, and information technology planning will serve him well at CJE.

  Link: Thomas Lockwood

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  Laura Prohov

  Vice President of Community Services

  Laura Prohov joined CJE SeniorLife in 2005 as Director of Planning & Government Affairs before she became VP of Community Services in 2006. Laura’s entire career has been related to social work, healthcare, advocacy, and community. From the moment she started at the local YMCA as a camp counselor, the impact of the role seemed “right” and energizing. Since beginning her career as a medical social worker, pursuing her MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and joining CJE SeniorLife’s team, among her many other ventures in healthcare, her work has been an invigorating process. Although her current role as VP of Community Services is not necessarily as “hands-on” as her job once was while working directly with clients in the field, she values implementing new programs and observing the results of their impact. Stemming from an earlier time in her career embracing an advocacy role as a social worker working with individual clients, her advocacy efforts have now evolved into a programmatic and policy level. Of course, you can’t take a social worker out of the field. She emphasizes that her work is always about the people, not just the widgets that make it function. When the opportunity arises, such as a special event at one of the Adult Day programs, she is still very active in her approach to seeing how the programs are currently operating by meeting the participants. With a great team in place in community services at CJE SeniorLife, Laura finds it exciting at the ground level. She watches people who are struggling with dementia and frailties come alive through the Adult Day Service programs and caregivers. She listens to what transportation providers and nurses, who have often dedicated decades of service to the agency, observe and discuss when it comes to issues involving members of the community. As innovators from the core, she notes that all members of the CJE staff are eager to try new things, and have the desire and willingness to come up with alternate proposals. Ideas come from all over the agency. Coming into such a pioneering atmosphere, she immediately realized that working for CJE offers not only the opportunity to come up with new possibilities for programs and reach uncharted geographic or service areas, but also presents chances to build on older programs in creative and resourceful ways to meet the needs of the community, particularly in spite of economic decline. As for the future, Laura would also like to see CJE SeniorLife continue to broaden its reach to keep people in the community through continued efforts to develop innovative approaches to meet the growing population’s needs.

  Link: Laura Prohov

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  Ron Roman

  Vice President, HR and Learning

  As Vice President of the Human Resources and Learning department, Ron has been in a prime position to discover the overarching complexity of CJE SeniorLife as a multi-faceted agency, and how each division operates independently in terms of their staffing and training needs. After 25 years directing human resources initiatives in various institutions, often working with unionized environments, Ron wanted to become part of a non-profit, mission-based organization. Since 2005, he has dedicated his professional career to CJE SeniorLife, drawing from his extensive education at Michigan State University with a Master of Labor and Industrial Relations, additional professional certifications, and previous experiences serving in the human resources departments of a number of established institutions, including Cardinal Health, Exelon Corporation/Commonwealth Edison, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. He has enjoyed working with those involved in a non-profit environment, and the most rewarding aspect of his job at CJE SeniorLife is the opportunity to work closely with dedicated, passionate staff members, as well as the ability to build on both a traditional HR team as well as groups of staff that support the agency’s non-traditional elements, such as the learning team. The learning team develops and manages the regulatory education and training programs for CJE, which is a unique challenge in that the organization is comprised of a wide variety of services and programs with roots running deep within the community. As a Certified Senior Professional in Human Resources himself, Ron encourages his team to pursue higher credentials within the field of human resources. Five of his staff members have earned their Professional in HR certifications through a series of examinations. Fueled by the dedication to his own professional development and love for teaching, he has continued to instruct students at Northern Illinois University through a human resources credentialing course for the past 15 years. He also pushes his own department to continually think of innovative ways to recruit new staff members, such as through social networks like LinkedIn. This foundation of encouragement sets the tone for the rest of CJE with its agency-wide rewards and recognition programs, which range from ‘One Mitzvah at a Time’ recognitions to Perfect Attendance and Service Anniversary awards to the President’s Award for Innovation and Achievement. He has worked hard to provide CJE SeniorLife employees with competitive compensation and benefits packages, informative orientations and in-services, and continues to hire staff that help maintain the solid, supportive work culture with vision and values that will inevitably increase employee retention in the long run. He hopes to continue to meet the ever-changing needs of the community in a challenging environment, maintain union relationships, and retain and build upon CJE SeniorLife’s dedicated employees.

  Link: Ron Roman

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  Gerri Fiterman Persin

  Director

  Gerri has been with CJE SeniorLife since 1999. She is responsible for Center for Healthy Living programming, including outreach to faith-based and community organizations. She is a trained leader for the Healthy Eating and Food $ense programs. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and a Certificate in Aging Studies from the University of Iowa.

  Link: Gerri Fiterman Persin

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  Barbara Milsk

  Wellness and Technology Program Manager

  Barbara oversees health and technology projects within CHL, and is the program manager of the Virtual Senior Center. She is a trained leader for the Building Better Bones osteoporosis program, Take Charge of Your Diabetes, Take Charge of Your Arthritis, Healthy Eating and Total Memory Workout. Barb is passionate about technology and how it can enhance our everyday lives. Ms. Milsk has been with CHL since 2005, and is a member of the agency-wide Dementia Services Committee.

  Link: Barbara Milsk

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  Esther Craven

  Program Coordinator

  Esther has been a CJE staff member since 1987 during which time she has held many positions in community-based programming. She is a trained leader for Healthy Eating, Take Charge of Your Health and Food $ense. Ms. Craven is also the coordinator for several popular and longstanding programs such as: The Lakeshore Mercaz Center for Older Jewish Adults, Community Senior Adults (held at Lieberman Center) and a variety of Lunch and Learn programs. She is CJE’s lead Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP) trainer for all SHIP-trained staff members.

  Link: Esther Craven

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  Andrea Kaplan

  Community Nurse

  Andrea is a health educator and facilitator with a background in community health and a special focus on older adults. Ms. Kaplan received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Illinois, Chicago. Since 2005, Ms. Kaplan has been responsible for developing and implementing evidence-based health community programs and screenings. She is a trained leader for Total Memory Workout, Matter of Balance, Take Charge of Your Health, Take Charge of Your Diabetes, Take Charge of Your Arthritis, Healthy Eating for Successful Living , Food $ense, Active Living Every Day and Arthritis Foundation Exercise.

  Link: Andrea Kaplan

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  Bernina Sykes

  Program Support Specialist

  Bernina joined the Center for Healthy Living team in August 2014. Ms. Sykes assists in data collection, program planning, and overall support for CHL. Her positive and helpful customer service skills are an asset to everyone she assists on the phone and in-person.

  Link: Bernina Sykes