Kay Kallander Receives Highest Honor from LeadingAge
Kay Kallander, ABHOW's senior vice president of strategic planning, earned the highest recognition from LeadingAge, a national association representing 6,000 nonprofit aging-services organizations throughout the United States.
- San Francisco, CA (1888PressRelease) October 22, 2014 - Kay Kallander, ABHOW's senior vice president of strategic planning, received the LeadingAge Award of Honor at the 2014 LeadingAge Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, Oct. 19-22. This is the highest recognition from LeadingAge, a national association representing 6,000 nonprofit aging-services organizations throughout the United States.
Kallander has served as a mentor and leader to hundreds of senior living professionals throughout ABHOW, LeadingAge and the nation for almost 30 years. She helped LeadingAge launch its first national Leadership Academy for senior living professionals in 2006 and served as the program's first lead coach. At the same time, she created LeadingAge California's yearlong EMERGE program and developed Leadership ABHOW to train future leaders within the company.
"Leadership guru Parker Palmer defines leaders as people who cast a big light or big shadow on a culture where people live and breathe," says Larry Minnix, president and CEO of LeadingAge. "I know of no one in our profession in the last generation who has cast a bigger light in so many ways than Kay Kallander."
A registered nurse with an MBA, Kallander joined ABHOW in 1985, first as director of nursing then executive director of Plymouth Village, ABHOW's continuing care retirement community in Redlands, California.
In 1996, ABHOW appointed her chief of operations, then to her current position of senior vice president for strategic planning, where she facilitates the corporation's organizational development and long-term planning.
She created The Grove, ABHOW's memory support program, in 1996 while working at Plymouth Village, after an anonymous donor contributed $150,000 toward her dream to open a special community for people with memory loss. The Grove will soon be available in all 11 of ABHOW's continuing care retirement communities.
"The opportunity to be of service in the communities, The Groves, the board, at the home office and especially with the fellows in Leadership ABHOW and LeadingAge Academy has been my joy," Kallander says.
Keith Kasin, now executive director at Plymouth Village, met Kallander as a student at the University of Redlands in 1986.
"Kay was so kind to give me a tour of Plymouth Village, show me the regulations and explain some of the responsibility one assumes when choosing a career in long-term care," he says. "Kay is a class act, a great mentor, and likely a far greater inspiration than she really knows."
"Her profound impact on creating a pipeline of passionate, committed and talented leaders will be felt for decades," says Joanne Handy, LeadingAge California's president and CEO. "Kay understands that a commitment to excellence must include the intentional formation of leaders. In her teaching and coaching, Kay's aim is always the growth and self-development of others, and she motivates people by first having faith in them."
Kallander joins two other ABHOW team members who have received LeadingAge Awards of Honor: the late Dr. Richard Ice, president emeritus; and David Ferguson, current president.
At the awards presentation, Kallander had some words of advice for the next generation of senior living leaders.
"Define yourself by what you hope to do," she said. "Spend time reflecting on your dream both professionally and personally. What defines you? Make choices because of that dream."
###
space
space
Satisfied Users & 
Approved Press Releases
Print
Email
Report Spam