Glenmeadow President, CEO Reflects on First Year in Senior Living

Learning Experience

Kathy Martin had built an impressive career on higher education — first as a teacher, then as an administrator, most recently as assistant provost for Accreditation and Administration at UMass Amherst — when she saw an opportunity to make a sharp turn. And she took it.

“It was the right time for me to think about trying something else,” said Martin, who had been serving on the board of Glenmeadow, a senior-living community in Longmeadow, when the position of president and CEO opened up there in 2023. “Glenmeadow’s timeline for its presidential search coincided with my timeline for seeking a new opportunity because the provost I was working with at UMass got a new job, so she was leaving UMass anyway. So it was just an opportunity of timing.”

Her role on the board had been a great introduction to that venerable (as in 140-year-old) community, and to senior living in general.

“I was at a point professionally where I needed to make a decision about what I wanted to do. Did I want to continue to pursue a presidency in higher education, or did I want to try something else?” she told BusinessWest.

The shift — she’s been on the job 15 months now — has been dramatic in some ways, but rewarding as well.

“This is a new language for me in many ways, but I love learning new things. This was an opportunity for me to take on the challenge of learning and leading in a new sector. And there are more overlaps between higher ed and senior living than you might think.”

“This is a new language for me in many ways, but I love learning new things. This was an opportunity for me to take on the challenge of learning and leading in a new sector. And there are more overlaps between higher ed and senior living than you might think,” Martin continued. “Some of the challenges and opportunities are the same, and leadership is leadership, but I have really enjoyed the pivot from working primarily with college students to working with seniors. It’s been a wonderful shift of perspective.”

It has also been a process of learning about the day-to-day operations and everything the frontline staff and the leadership team do to keep a 24/7 operation working efficiently, she added.

“We think of it from our residents’ perspective first. What do they need? What are they interested in? What would make their Glenmeadow experience everything that they’ve always wanted it to be? And then there are all of the behind-the-scenes, operational decisions that we’re making; we’re looking at things like how reliant are we on paper processes, and can we move more things to the cloud, and how can we become more efficient in our operations?”

But most decisions come down to enhancing the resident experience, Martin said.

“Every decision that we make is based on what’s best for our residents and ensuring that we have enough programming, and the kind of programming that is meaningful for our residents,” she explained. “One of the things we’ve had a lot of conversation about in the last year is intellectual engagement, that it’s not just about playing mahjong, but it’s about having access to local speakers or a TED Talk or a guided discussion on a topic of interest. So we’re making sure we’re being responsive to what is interesting for the residents and engages their families as well in life at Glenmeadow.”

Long History

Glenmeadow traces its roots to 1884, when a group of civic leaders raised funds among themselves and other area families and purchased a house on Main Street in Springfield’s South End, establishing the Springfield Home for Aged Women. This residence opened in November 1886 and accommodated 16 women from the community without family or means.

Fourteen years later, a new, larger home opened nearby, and in 1960, its name changed to Chestnut Knoll. In 1992, the facility began admitting men alongside the women.

“Home care is a nice gateway to Glenmeadow as a community. We do have residents who started as Glenmeadow at Home clients. We also have residents who use Glenmeadow at Home for some additional care. So it’s an important part of our business model.”

In 1993, the organization purchased a 23-acre parcel in Longmeadow to build a new community that would provide both independent and assisted-living apartments with various common areas, and the name changed again, this time to Glenmeadow. In 2002, it unveiled Glenmeadow at Home, offering personal care, companionship, and home-care services to older adults living in their homes throughout Greater Springfield.

The home-care service is important for a couple of reasons, Martin said. “We recognize how important it is for seniors to stay at home as long as they possibly can. It can be very emotional to think about leaving your family home and making a move to a community like Glenmeadow, so we wanted to do everything we can to make it possible for seniors to stay at home a bit longer.”

In addition, she said, “home care is a nice gateway to Glenmeadow as a community. We do have residents who started as Glenmeadow at Home clients. We also have residents who use Glenmeadow at Home for some additional care. So it’s an important part of our business model, not only for what it provides our residents, but what we can give back to the local community to make home care more accessible.”

One crucial piece of the organization’s services is the concept of aging in community, she noted.

“One of the reasons that our residents thrive at Glenmeadow is because they’re with people who are having similar life experiences. We actively work to combat social isolation. And for those seniors who are staying at home and maybe increasingly infirm, it’s harder to maintain those social interactions. So a lot of our residents just enjoy being with people of the same age … it’s a social community as much as it is a residential one.”

In 2024, Glenmeadow elevated the senior experience in a different way, by recognizing accomplished individuals over age 60 throughout the region in its first annual Age of Excellence awards program.

“That was really born out of a conversation among our board of directors about how we can have a hallmark event for Glenmeadow as a fundraiser,” Martin said. “We thought it was important to highlight the accomplishments and inspiration of those over 60.

“I think, too often, when you are approaching retirement, it feels like the end of something and that your best years are behind you,” she went on. “And we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight older adults that are doing amazing things. For some people, it’s a new career. For some people, it’s a new hobby. We wanted to be the ones to put a very appropriate spotlight on those individuals.”

The inaugural honorees, celebrated with a gala event in September, included Springfield Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers; Debbie Gardner of the Reminder; Jeffrey Greim of Jeff’s Granola; Ethel Griffin from Revitalize CDC; James Lagodich, who has been involved in local youth and adult sports; Maria Roy of the Indian Orchard Citizens Council; Patrick Sullivan, recently retired executive director of Springfield Parks; and Karen Tetreault of the Springfield Regional Chamber.

They were honored for a variety of reasons, from mentorship to volunteerism to leadership to simply inspiring change, and the selection process was challenging, Martin said, explaining that the public nominated individuals, and a small panel of local community leaders evaluated the nominations and made the selections.

“It’s been wonderful for us to hear people say, ‘oh, I wish we had done this 10 years ago,’ or ‘why hasn’t anybody had this idea before?’ And it was really inspirational, I think, for everybody who was involved in the selection process, but certainly everybody who went to the event in September. I think we all walked out of there with a little lift in our step from hearing what all of these honorees have accomplished.

“And there are dozens more like them, so we’re looking forward to the opportunity in 2025 to select the next class of Age of Excellence honorees,” she went on, noting that event will take place on Sept. 3.

Challenges and Opportunities

Senior living is a challenging field in many ways, Martin said, but right now, one of the biggest is the continued generational shift as the average age of Americans continues to rise.

“We have about 10,000 new Medicare subscribers every day with the Baby Boomers reaching retirement age. So, while we’re focused on how can we best serve the needs of our current residents, we’re also thinking about how to get ahead of what the Baby Boomer generation is going to be seeking in a community like Glenmeadow.”

To that end, the community is in the final stages of an $11 million renovation aimed to entice seniors interested in maintaining a wellness-focused lifestyle into retirement, she noted.

“Trying to forecast the needs of the next generation, I think, is certainly a challenge. And we’re a nonprofit, and maintaining a healthy revenue stream as a nonprofit is always a challenge. We focus on our occupancy, but we are grateful for the support that our residents and local members of the community and organizations make in supporting Glenmeadow financially so that we can continue to do what we do.”

Another industry challenge — one common to many industries these days — is recruiting and retaining a workforce, and on that front, Glenmeadow has been fortunate, Martin said.

“Through the pandemic and since then, our workforce has been relatively stable. We don’t have very many open positions,” she elaborated. “We focus a great deal on staff engagement, and I think that goes a long way toward that retention figure, but it’s also the interactions that our staff has with our residents.

“Every time I ask the staff what’s their favorite part about working here, they say the residents,” she went on. “And when I ask the residents what’s their favorite part about living here, they say the staff. So, it’s really a wonderful work environment for our staff, and we see that we’re all doing really good and important work, and it makes it much easier to come to work every day knowing about the positive impact that you have.”

Martin said that feeling extends to families, some of whom live far away, but many of whom live locally and stop by regularly for visits, meals, and events. “We love to see their interactions with our residents because it’s really their home. So we want our residents to treat it like their home and have their families here for holidays and other special occasions, or just to come watch a movie on a Thursday night.”

As for her own experience, Martin said she’s happy to have made this intriguing career shift — and she’s still learning.

“I love that it’s new every day,” she told BusinessWest. “There’s always something new that happens that I wouldn’t have anticipated. But I’ve loved getting to know the residents, their families, and our staff. It’s really the people that make a difference in this work, and getting to know the stories of the people who are here has been really inspiring and motivating and reinforcing of why this is such a great career path.”