When I was 15 years old, I began my journey into senior healthcare as a part-time Nurses Aid while in high school and subsequently obtained my Licensed Practical Nursing certificate. That was the beginning of a 40+ year career in Senior Care. Years later, I would enter college as a non-traditional student in my early thirties, married with 2 school age children to obtain my Associate and Bachelor Degrees in Nursing. I then obtained my Graduate Nursing Degree and my Post-graduate Certification as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. I subsequently became certified and sub-specialized in Palliative Care, assisted in the development of the Nurse Practitioner model in Hospice Care, developing a Palliative Care program for a national provider of senior care, opening a satellite location for P.A.C.E. Program- Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly as well as developing and marketing several other Senior-based medical and community-based  programs/businesses including a niche 501c3 not-for-profit senior transition program, after obtaining my real estate license.

My work led me to be chosen as the developer and host moderator of the Pennsylvania LINK for Aging and Disabilities Area 13 Partners, “What YOU Need to Know,” u-Tube educational channel.  I have enjoyed teaching senior care nursing principles as an adjunct nursing professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Alvernia University, being a guest lecturer nationally and internationally at nursing and business-related events and the author of two books about Senior transition planning, “In a Senior Moment: Are YOU Ready?” and my recently published book, “Abundant Aging: A Guide for Seniors and their Families.”

I am a passionate supporter of abundant living and aging. Throughout the years in my interactions with seniors, I have discovered that many older individuals have done little to no planning for their future, including no health care planning, no financial or legal planning and no planning as to the direction of their healthcare in the event of progressive disease or an unexpected health emergency.  Those that have, seldom share the information with the key people in their life who would need to know the information in an emergency. Even worse, the average person in the United States is unaware that it is their right to provide advanced notification of their choices for health care in advanced disease near the end of life. The root cause of this lack of planning often stems from maladaptive learning models from childhood.  Learning models and attitudes that suggest, “life just happens,” or put another way, “I really have no control over my life.”