Well-Being as a Framework: Rethinking Communities of Care
Release Date: 07/09/2025
Reimagining Senior Living for the Middle Market
Elevate Eldercare
In this episode, Joe Jasmon, CEO of American Healthcare Management and co-founder of Elevate Senior Living, joins AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan on the podcast to share the origin story and philosophy behind Elevate, a mid-market senior housing model designed from the ground up around residents—not corporate overhead. Drawing on a career spanning hospitality, healthcare turnarounds, and senior living operations, Jasmon explains how Elevate was born from a simple question: “What would senior living look like if we designed it entirely around personal needs, dignity, and efficiency?”...
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Brain Health, Longevity, and the Future of Senior Living
Elevate Eldercare
In this episode, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan sits down with longtime senior living leader and consultant Michele Holleran for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, resident voices, and why brain health must become a strategic priority in senior living. A passionate advocate for leadership development, Michele discusses her role in initiatives such as the Larry Minnix Leadership Academy, the LeadingAge Women in Leadership Task Force, and the Senior Living Women’s Leadership Retreat, all aimed at cultivating the next generation of mission-driven...
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Why Longevity Demands a Cultural Shift
Elevate Eldercare
In this episode, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan sits down with Bob Kramer to explore a career shaped by purpose, perspective, and a deep commitment to improving the lives of older adults. Kramer reflects on his personal and professional journey—from his early work as a pastor, to leadership roles in government, to founding the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC)—and the values that have guided his work across decades in aging services. Throughout the conversation, Kramer emphasizes the importance of legacy, listening, and being “multilingual” across sectors,...
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Measuring What Matters: How Research Can Transform Aging Services
Elevate Eldercare
In our final replay of 2025’s most popular conversations, Lisa McCracken, head of research and analytics at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), sits down with AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan to discuss her organization’s work to demystify the financial side of eldercare with data. In what was a clear-eyed forecast of the year, McCracken examines how high-quality, third-party information can inform the next generation of services and supports for older adults. You can’t fix what you can’t measure, but far too often, leaders from around the eldercare...
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Elder Awesome: Lessons on Saging, Sufficiency, and the Power of Paradigm Shifts
Elevate Eldercare
This week’s replay, one of the most popular episodes of 2025, features a profound conversation between Barry Barkan, visionary eldercare advocate and Pioneer Network co-founder, and AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan. These longtime friends discuss reimagining aging and the transformative potential of community, spirit, and consciousness. Barkan shares his journey from founding the Live Oak Institute to helping launch the Pioneer Network, driven by a belief that aging is not a problem to solve but a gift to elevate. He recounts his efforts to create a regenerative, inclusive community at...
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The Bold Ideas Behind University Retirement Communities
Elevate Eldercare
As we continue to replay the most popular episodes of 2025, this week’s features an insightful interview by AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan as she sits down with senior living innovator Andy Carle, consultant and founder of . Andy shares his personal journey into eldercare and the bold moves he’s made to elevate the field, from founding a 70-community company to creating the first university-level curriculum for senior living executives. Andy also dives into the concept of “nana technology”—his term for tech that supports aging with dignity—and explores the rise of University...
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Rethinking Eldercare Across America
Elevate Eldercare
This week’s episode is a replay of one of the most popular of 2025. It features a conversation with policy experts Joe Angelelli and Anne Montgomery as they discuss the EINSTEIN Option (which is now known as Connected Communities), a collaborative effort of eldercare changemakers dedicated to advancing a comprehensive plan to reimagine the entire care delivery system. The late Alex Spanko, who served as AgingIN’s director of communications and marketing at the time, moderates a compelling conversation about how this model could create full care continuums in communities around the country,...
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Building Villages to Support Aging in Place
Elevate Eldercare
This week marks our first of four encore episodes this month – the most popular of 2025. As we close out the year, we are happy to present @AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan’s interview with Village to VillageNetwork national director Barbara Sullivan. The Village to Village Network works to create durable webs of support in communities all across the country, organizing volunteers to provide the kind of nuts-and-bolts assistance — transportation, home maintenance, tech support — and social experiences that make thriving in place possible. Sullivan joins Ryan to discuss her journey through...
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Honoring a Renaissance Woman: Revisiting Our Conversation with Dr. Elders
Elevate Eldercare
This week on Elevate Eldercare is an encore episode with former U.S. Surgeon General and current AgingIN Board Member, Joycelyn Elders, MD. In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, we thought this very special discussion, in which AgingIN’s Susan Ryan and the late Alex Spanko (who served as director of communications from 2021 to 2024) engage Dr. Elders in a discussion about her trailblazing life and career. An added motivation for the replay of this episode is that the New York Academy of Medicine recently presented Dr. Elders with the . With humor and refreshing honesty, Dr. Elders...
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Everyone Matters: The Power of Truly Human Leadership
Elevate Eldercare
In this week’s episode of Elevate Eldercare, AgingIN CEO Susan Ryan welcomes Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller and a global ambassador for human-centered leadership. Chapman shares how he transformed a struggling $20 million family business into a thriving $4 billion enterprise by embracing a simple but radical idea: leaders have a profound responsibility for the lives entrusted to them. Drawing on decades of experience across industries—including healthcare, government, education, and business—Ryan and Chapman dive into why empathy, listening, and recognition are not...
info_outlineIn this episode, Susan Ryan sits down with Rachel Broudy, MD, a passionate physician, innovator, and advocate for transforming eldercare. Her extensive experience includes serving as medical director at two PACE programs and currently as medical director of Pioneer Valley Hospice and Palliative Care and eldercare faculty at Ariadne Labs.
This episode explores Dr. Broudy’s journey into aging services and her groundbreaking work at Ariadne Labs, where she led the creation of a well-being framework and conversation guide for nursing homes. Developed through Ariadne's Innovation Arc process—research, design, test, and spread—this four-year project culminated in a pilot at two Mississippi nursing homes. The result? A practical, scalable toolkit that empowers staff and centers care on purpose, connection, and meaning.
Dr. Broudy also shares her work on the Living Well with Dementia Toolkit, which redefines dementia care as an adaptive, relational journey. The toolkit includes conversation and emotion cards that help families and caregivers explore emotions, relationships, and identity—helping shift how we understand and support those living with dementia.
If you're looking for inspiring ideas and practical tools to shift the culture of aging and long-term care, this episode is a must-listen.
Some links of interest:
Ariadne Labs Innovation Arc: https://www.ariadnelabs.org/about-us/ariadne-labs-arc/
Ariadne Labs Well-being Framework & Conversation Guide: https://www.ariadnelabs.org/resources/downloads/wellbeing-toolkit-conversation-guide/
Ariadne Labs Living Well with Dementia Toolkit: https://www.ariadnelabs.org/dementia-solutions/