NIC Board of Directors

Lucinda (“Cindy”) Baier is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors of Brookdale Senior Living, the nation’s premier operator of senior living communities. As of year-end 2020, the $3.5 billion company operates nearly 700 senior living communities and has the ability to serve approximately 60,000 residents through its independent living, assisted living, Alzheimer’s and other dementia care, and continuing care retirement communities and through its comprehensive network of services. The company’s 40,000+ employees are taking care of America’s seniors and, in 2020, Fortune magazine ranked Brookdale as one of the top 200 largest publicly listed employers in the country.

Ms. Baier became Brookdale’s President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors on February 28, 2018. From the beginning, she initiated the company’s operational turnaround strategy and developed the “Winning Locally” action plan. Within her second year, the company’s Net Promoter Score® increased 20%. In her third year as CEO in 2020, J.D. Power recognized the company as #1 in customer satisfaction (in a tie) in assisted living/memory care communities. As CEO, she led the company through the largest public health crisis in 100 years by prioritizing the health and well-being of its residents, patients, and associates. She focused the company’s efforts on increasing diversity, including the Board and executive leadership team approaching gender parity in 2020. Ms. Baier led Brookdale’s efforts to negotiate and restructure leases with its largest three REIT partners. She led the company through the sale of assets, including Brookdale’s interest in the unconsolidated entry CCRC ventures and the majority share of its home health, hospice, and outpatient therapy business. These deals unlocked significant value for Brookdale and shareholders. In 2022 Baier published her first book Heroes Work Here: An Extraordinary Story of Courage, Resilience, and Hope from the front lines of COVID-19 in which she shares how she and her team led Brookdale through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms. Baier has served more than a decade as a board member for public and private companies. Currently, she is on the board of directors of Argentum, the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), and the Nashville Health Care Council, where she serves as Vice-Chair. She is a member of the NYSE Board Advisory Council, which identifies and connects diverse board candidates to NYSE-listed companies seeking new directors, and serves on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Board.

A number of organizations have recognized Ms. Baier. Some of her awards and honors include Amazon Best Selling Author, CEO Forum Group’s 2021 Top 10 CEOs Transforming Healthcare in America; Nashville Medical News’ Class of 2021 “Women to Watch ”; Corporate Citizenship 2020 Award from the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board; one of McKnight’s 2020 “Women of Distinction”; and Nashville Business Journal’s “Most Admired CEO” list for two consecutive years.

Before becoming CEO of Brookdale, Ms. Baier was the company’s Chief Financial Officer beginning in December 2015. In addition to experience as a seasoned chief financial officer for several companies, she has been responsible for multi-billion-dollar operations, the chief executive officer for a publicly-traded retailer, and served as an executive officer of a Fortune 30 company.

Ms. Baier is a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of Illinois State University, with Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Accounting.

Susan Barlow is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business, product development, capital formation and along with Kathryn Sweeney, setting the long-term strategic direction for Blue Moon Capital Partners. Susan is Chairperson of the Management and Investment Committees. She has over 30 years of experience advising institutional real estate clients on branding, strategy implementation, product development and capital formation.

Previously, Susan was Managing Director and Head of Global Client Relations for RREEF, a global institutional real estate investment manager wholly owned by Deutsche Bank. At RREEF, she directed the activities of the firm’s 60-person global client relations team and led the firm’s product development, client relations, sales, marketing and investor communications. She was a member of the global Executive Committee responsible for managing RREEF and also, a member of the Infrastructure Executive Committee, Private Equity Executive Committee and Board of Directors of Rosen Real Estate Securities.

Susan co-founded a real estate fund-of-funds investment management firm allocating capital to small and mid-size operating companies. Previously, she was the CEO and President of a strategic advisory firm assisting real estate operating partners and investment managers in developing investment vehicles and capital formation strategies for the institutional marketplace. Early in her career, she founded the institutional real estate consulting practice for Callan Associates, one of the largest independently owned investment consulting firms in the United States.

Susan earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Science degree from Black Hills State University.

As NIC’s president, Ray Braun oversees overall strategy, volunteer leadership governance, organizational performance, culture, and mission delivery.
Prior to joining NIC, Mr. Braun served as the Dean of the Allen W. and Carol M. Schmidthorst College of Business at Bowling Green State University where headed all aspects of the college’s vision, strategic direction, planning, operations, and budgeting. Prior to his deanship, Mr. Braun served as the president and CEO of Cogdell Spencer and president of Health Care REIT, Inc. (now Welltower) where he was inducted into the Stifel Nicolaus Senior Housing & Healthcare Real Estate Hall of Fame.

Additionally, Mr. Braun served as a board member to NIC during 2000 – 2007 serving as its chair for the last two years of his term. During his term, he served as the NIC MAP Task Force Co-chair, helping to bring data transparency to the sector.

Mr. Braun holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting & Economics from Bowling Green State University.

Jack R. Callison is a seasoned senior living leader and a passionate advocate for championing quality of life for all seniors. Under his leadership, Sunrise seeks to create the preferred lifestyle for seniors to enjoy longer, healthier, happier lives. Jack has a proven record of building and growing cohesive organizational cultures, high-performing teams, and scalable operating platforms in mission-driven organizations. Jack’s team-focused approach seeks to cultivate wellness, engagement, inclusivity, and growth throughout all aspects of the company.

Prior to Sunrise, Jack held several executive positions: CEO of senior living operator Enlivant, CEO of Holiday Retirement, and president of U.S. operations for Archstone. He is a Board Director and previous Vice Chair of the National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Care (NIC). Jack also serves on the Board of Directors for Argentum and is an Executive Board Member of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA). Jack also formerly served as a member of the Medical Center Board of Directors of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, including as Vice Chair of the Quality and Credentialing Committee.

In his role as Executive Chairman, Chip Gabriel oversees strategic alignment, new business development and partner relations. An integral part of Generations leadership since 1989, Chip brings an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for integrating technology, health care and intergenerational experiences into Generations campuses. He loves the process of visioning and creating new communities and has overseen the development of over 3,500 units of senior housing. Most fulfilling for Chip is that his life’s work positively impacts the lives of residents and staff – in his words, “our job is to make people happy!”

Bre Grubbs is Leisure Care’s Chief Strategy Office as well as a Partner in the company.  In her current role, Bre guides strategy for Leisure Care’s business development, sales and marketing, and human resource initiatives.  Her focus is on collaboration with all company disciplines and external partners, guiding her teams in utilizing data, market research, and community-level experiences to maximize performance and drive responsible growth.  Leisure Care’s philosophy of making a positive impact on the company’s residents, families, employees, and business partners is a driving force in all Bre does.   She’s extended this philosophy to her contributions outside of the office as well, with the goal of sharing the career opportunities that existing in senior living with a broader audience.  In support of these endeavors, she is Chair Emeritus of the Steering Committee for Washington State’s Granger Cobb Institute for Senior Living, the first operations-focused, hospitality-guided senior living program in the US.  She is also actively involved with the NIC, serving on the Fall Conference Planning Committee and the Future Leader’s Oversight Committee.  Outside of work, Bre can be found at a baseball field, watching her teenage son play or taking in a Mariner’s game with her family.   

Vikas Gupta is the Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Development at Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. and has served in this capacity since April 2015. Mr. Gupta is involved in acquisitions, construction, and capital expenditure activity, overseeing a team of investment professionals, while being one of the primary contacts for operator relationships at Omega. From 2003 to July 2011, Mr. Gupta served in various roles at CapitalSource Finance, most recently as a Sr. Loan Officer/VP, where he oversaw a portfolio of healthcare assets. He also currently serves as a Board Member for the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (“FIRMC”) and the Alzheimer’s Association of Maryland.

Kai was previously Senior Managing Director – Senior Housing Properties at HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP) a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests primarily in real estate serving the healthcare industry.

Prior to HCP, Kai served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Holiday Retirement, the second largest senior housing operator in the United States, growing the company’s occupancy, NOI and EBITDA through organic growth and acquisitions, recapitalizing the company through triple net and third-party management transactions, and centralizing operationally intensive functions. During his tenure at Holiday, Kai held several leadership positions, including overseeing operations, field support functions, acquisitions and new business strategy. Previous to Holiday, Kai worked at Macerich (NYSE: MAC), a retail REIT, where he worked in operations, marketing, and both ground up developments and redevelopments. And prior to Macerich, Kai worked at world-renown spa resort, Canyon Ranch, where he focused on new hospitality and real estate developments.

Kai serves as a member on the Argentum (previously known as the Assisted Living Federation of America, ALFA) Board of Directors and is on the Executive Board of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA). He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Arizona.

Eclipse Senior Living is a national 3rd party manager of Independent, Assisted and Memory Care communities across the United States under various brands, including Elmcroft and Embark.

J. Justin Hutchens is the Executive Vice President, Senior Housing, North America for Ventas, Inc.

A member of the Ventas executive leadership team, Hutchens is responsible for the Company’s North American Senior Housing portfolio, which includes more than 700 properties that provide high-quality environments for approximately 60,000 seniors and represents 53% of the Company’s net operating income (NOI).

With more than 25 years of experience in the U.S. and the U.K. including successful C-suite operations in both publicly traded and private equity-backed investments, Hutchens joined Ventas from HC-One where he served as Chief Executive Officer. During his HC-One tenure, he led the company during a significant period of refinement and growth resulting in Britain’s largest residential and nursing care home operator with more than 300 communities in England, Scotland and Wales. Hutchens’s prior roles include serving as Chief Operating Officer of Emeritus, a senior living company that was the largest operator of assisted living in the U.S. during his tenure; Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and President of National Health Investors; and President of HCP (now Healthpeak Properties, Inc.). He began his career in senior care operations.

A frequent speaker on investment practices, company performance and senior housing and care operations, Hutchens was recognized in Forbes Magazine’s Top 20 “Most Powerful CEOs Age 40 and Under” list for four consecutive years.

Hutchens serves on the Board of Eclipse Senior Living (ESL). He earned his Bachelor of Science – Human Services from the University of Northern Colorado and his Masters of Science in Management from Regis University.

Mr. Javaid offers more than 20 years of investment, finance, and management experience with a variety of institutions both public and private. For the past 15 years, Mr. Javaid has been actively involved in the Seniors Housing and Care industry. He has been quoted as a thought leader by numerous industry publications and presented at several industry conferences and webinars. Currently, Mr. Javaid currently leads BMO Harris Bank’s Commercial Real Estate Healthcare group. The group provides full array of commercial banking services to facilities based clients in the healthcare space including, Medical Office, Seniors Housing and Care Industries. From 2011 through December 2015, Mr. Javaid was Managing Director of the Healthcare Real Estate Group, a lending practice within Capital One Bank’s Commercial and Specialty Finance business. He built, from the ground up, Capital One’s brand name and presence in the senior housing and care industry. He led the team that built a diversified (geographically and by operator) portfolio of loans and led loan negotiations. Previously, Mr. Javaid served as a Director in the Healthcare Real Estate Group of CapitalSource, Inc. a commercial lending and banking, investment and asset management company from 2001 through 2011. He led loan transactions and direct real estate investments for long-term care facilities including Skilled Nursing Facilities and Assisted Living Facilities. He was involved in lending over $2.7 billion in capital. Mr. Javaid also led large acquisitions and dispositions between CapitalSource and Omega Healthcare Investors as well as between CapitalSource and Healthcare Property Investors, Inc. He served as the Chair of CapitalSource’s Enterprise Risk Committee, leading efforts in enterprise risk management, corporate wide systems development, and strategic growth planning. Prior to joining CapitalSource, Mr. Javaid worked for the Carlyle Group, a nationally renowned private equity firm where he undertook portfolio management and financial modeling for office and telecom buildings, hotels, and light industrial facilities. Prior to joining the Carlyle Group, Mr. Javaid worked for KPMG, a global professional services firm. Mr. Javaid holds a Bachelor’s in Accounting from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is non-practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in the State of New York. Additionally, he is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Lynne Katzmann is Founder and President of Juniper Communities, which invests in, develops and manages senior living and long-term care communities. With 20 properties in four states and more than 1200 employees, Juniper, has $65 million in revenues. Celebrating its 27th Anniversary, Juniper is ranked #14 by Crain’s New York on its Top 50 ranking of woman-owned companies for the New York tri-state area. Juniper is the only woman- founded, owned and led business among the top 40 national assisted living companies. Katzmann launched the business when she was 32, with six years’ experience in the health care industry and a PhD in economics. An active leader in the social entrepreneurship movement at its beginning, she was a firm believer in the so-called double bottom line: doing well by doing good. Katzmann leads an organization known for resident-centered, personalized care. Juniper’s priorities and its many award-winning innovations are consistent with her belief: “Aging and its challenges are a natural part of our life cycle. Quality of life in this third stage should be enjoyed to its fullest according to each person’s choosing. There is no reason that a frail body should not allow a life of joy and meaning.” Katzmann has been involved in the health care industry for almost 30 years, working in the public and private sectors in the United States and Europe. ​

As President of Belmont Village Senior Living, Mercedes Kerr is responsible for the performance and expansion of the company’s premier portfolio, the growth and opportunity of its employees and the care and satisfaction of its residents. A well-recognized health care and real estate professional, Ms. Kerr has more than 20 years of experience in the seniors housing sector.

Prior to joining Belmont Village in 2019, she was Executive Vice President of Welltower, Inc., where she worked for more than a decade to establish enduring healthcare partnerships to build innovative, wellness-focused care delivery. Prior to her time at Welltower, Ms. Kerr was Vice President of Acquisitions at HCP, Inc. for nearly 10 years. Before joining HCP, she was a member of the consulting division of Ernst & Young LLP. Ms. Kerr has served on boards of leading national and state organizations dedicated to setting policy and standards for seniors housing and care. She was recently named to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Aging Stakeholder Advisory Committee. Ms. Kerr began her career in real estate development in her native Mexico. She is a graduate with honors from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara and earned a Master of Real Estate Development degree from the University of Southern California.

Bob Kramer is Co-founder, former CEO, and now Strategic Advisor at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). Mr. Kramer is also Founder and Fellow at Nexus Insights, a think tank advancing the well-being of older adults through innovative models of housing, community and healthcare. He is broadly recognized as one of senior living’s most influential and high profile thought leaders and connectors. With over 35 years of industry leadership, he has earned the reputation of “agent provocateur” in the senior housing and care industry. He has been described as an “ice-cutter” and scout in identifying industries and trends that will disrupt the future of senior housing, aging services, and aging more broadly.

In 1991, Mr. Kramer co-founded NIC to advance access and choice in senior housing and care by attracting capital to grow the sector. Under his leadership, NIC became the go-to resource for data and analytics for the rapidly expanding senior housing and care industry and an acknowledged thought leader for new ideas and trends impacting the provision of housing, services and care for older adults. Mr. Kramer stepped out of the CEO role in 2107 and continues to serve NIC as Strategic Advisor.

In 2019, Mr. Kramer conceived of and championed “The Forgotten Middle,” a landmark study of the health and socioeconomic status of middle-income adults who will be 75+ in 2029 and their ability to afford private pay senior housing. The report on the study, published in Health Affairs, was the 5th most read article appearing in this leading health policy monthly journal in 2019.

In April 2020, Mr. Kramer launched Nexus Insights to “rethink aging from every angle.” The organization engages a network of leading thinkers and thinking leaders to create and champion bold ideas and actionable models to catalyze the next generation of housing, community, health, and engagement for and with older adults. In March, he received the 2023 McKnight’s Pinnacle Career Achievement Award for his enduring contributions to the senior housing and long-term care field.

A former county government official and Maryland state legislator, Mr. Kramer was a leader on health and environmental issues while representing the state capital of Annapolis in the 1980s. Mr. Kramer was educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary.

Prior to entering operations in Senior Housing, Sevy’s investment banking career spanned a decade of lending and structuring debt solutions for Senior Housing & Healthcare. She began her career in Public Finance at Natcity Investments and moved to Chicago as an SVP for 5/3 Securities. Later at Merrill Lynch Capital she focused solely on balance sheet lending in Senior Housing. In 2009, she and her family changed their career directions as they saw a larger need in the affordable and publicly funded sector, as the growing demands in senior housing lacked private pay funds.

With her banking experience, she focused on identifying viable properties, producing lenders and investor pro forms & budgets that provided turn-around plans, including assistance in securing & structuring debt for the properties in areas that support alternatives to private-pay assisted living.

Priority Life Care currently focuses on 3rd party management partnerships and provides all services available to our seniors in Independent, Assisted Living and Memory Care communities. Their focus historically has been on buildings that require significant turnaround that includes licensing, rehab, additions of specialty care units and census growth. These 12+ years of operational expertise has since lent to operations of new developments, receivership appointments by financial institutions and operations of high-end private pay market rate communities further expanding PLC’s focus of supporting Independence of Seniors throughout the country.

As a family owned & operated business, she, her family, and management team have worked to create a family-centric model that permeates to the building level. Culture, career advancement & evolving training platforms are part of the cornerstone for co-workers who join the PLC team.<p>As CEO, Sevy is also charged with leading the company in pursuit of its purpose to support independence. She strives to empower and inspire her management team as well as Community level employees to be mindful of the importance of their roles serving their residents in their homes daily. 

Kurt Read, Principal, RSF Partners, oversees RSF’s fund and corporate development. RSF is a real estate private equity firm that is actively investing its latest fund, RSF Partners VII ($450 million in committed equity), in senior living and opportunistic commercial real estate.  Over the past two decades RSF has managed over $1B in equity commitments in seven discretionary funds.  Mr. Read has opportunistically invested in operating intensive real estate assets and companies for over 30 years and has been a director of a number of private and public senior living and hospitality companies including the Forum Group, Inc., Omega Healthcare, Inc. and Bristol Hotels and Resorts.  Mr. Read is the immediate past chair of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) Board and is Chairman of the Board of NIC MAP Vision, the leading data provider to the senior living industry.

John P. Rijos is a Co-Founder/Operating Partner of Chicago Pacific Founders, a private equity firm that specializes in investments across the healthcare spectrum with offices in Chicago and San Francisco. He is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CPF Living Communities, their seniors housing subsidiary. Prior to that, Mr. Rijos spent thirteen years as Co-President and Chief Operating Officer of Brookdale Senior Living, Inc., the largest senior living company in the United States. During his tenure, the company grew from 22 communities to approximately 650 communities serving residents in independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and large campus continuous care retirement communities.

Prior to Brookdale, Mr. Rijos spent 20 years as President and Chief Operating Officer of Lane Hospitality, owner and operator of more than 40 hotels and resorts and its affiliate, High Country Corporation. During that time, he spent three years as Chairman of ITT Sheraton’s Owners Council.

During his distinguished career, Mr. Rijos has served on numerous boards and advisory committees in senior living and universities. He is Chairman Emeritus of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) and is a founding board member of the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures. He has also recently been elected to the Board of the National Investment Center (NIC). He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University in hotel administration and has a CHA designation.

Matt Ruark is a Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and Healthcare Mortgage Production in the Real Estate Capital Market Group of KeyBank. Additionally, Matt leads the Investor Placement team, which he started at Key in 2011. As Head of Commercial and Healthcare Mortgage Production, Mr. Ruark oversees multiple teams of mortgage bankers and analysts. The teams work with all of KeyBank’s corporate real estate offices nationally in the origination of permanent debt placements. These groups originated more than $4 billion of fixed and floating rate permanent mortgages in 2019. Matt is also part of the Commercial Mortgage Group’s management team.

Additional responsibilities internally at KeyBank include: Diversity & Inclusion Co-Champion for the Corporate Bank and Advisory Committee Member for the Commercial/Corporate Bank.

Mr. Ruark has worked in the Commercial Mortgage Banking industry for more than 20 years. Responsibilities throughout his career have included originating debt and equity financing for private and public real estate owners through relationships with a variety of capital sources, including insurance companies, investment banks, governmental agencies, commercial banks and credit institutions.

Mr. Ruark has served on the NIC Planning Committee for the past two years (2019, 2020). He has previously served on the Olathe Kansas Economic Development Council board, The Northeast Industrial Association board, Kansas City Industrial Council, and was an affiliate member of the Kansas City CCIM Chapter. Matt is a graduate of Kansas City’s Chamber of Commerce Centurion Leadership Program, and was recognized by Ingram’s magazine in 2007 as one of Kansas City’s “40 Under 40” business leaders.

Mr. Ruark earned a BS in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska (Finance, major and Mathematics, minor), and an MBA from Rockhurst University (dual focus Finance and Marketing).

Since 2017, Kathy has led Freddie Mac’s national Seniors Housing Underwriting and Credit team. She is responsible for a 35% increase in loan originations by spearheading the build of a nationwide credit and underwriting platform, resulting in annual volume of 200 loans per year, representing 30% of the nation’s Seniors Housing permanent debt market. Freddie Mac is a secondary market Multifamily mortgage lender with over $70 billion of loans funded annually. Since 2009, the firm has funded over $17 billion of seniors housing loans and securitized through Freddie Mac’ signature K and KS series securitization platform.

Fee Stubblefield is the Founder and CEO of The Springs Living with its home office in McMinnville, Oregon.  Fee started The Springs Living in 1996, with an idea to build a retirement community acceptable to his grandmother who was facing challenges of aging. Today there are 11 communities in Oregon and four in Montana.  They offer senior living with options for independent retirement living, assisted living and memory care. The focus of The Springs Living has never been to be the biggest, but simply to be the best by changing the way people experience senior living as residents and employees.  Fee embraces the fact that the “magic” is in the daily interactions between the residents and direct care staff.  In addition to nurturing an atmosphere of warmth and caring, The Springs Living has been successful in developing beautiful communities from the ground up. The Springs at Greer Gardens in Eugene, Oregon, is the newest property in the family with 216 units (independent, assisted and memory care) and opened in June of 2017. Additional communities are under construction in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Bozeman, Montana, and scheduled to open in late 2019. Fee attended Clemson University; is married and has three adult children.  He is the Chair of the Oregon Health Care Association (OHCA) and on the Operator Advisory Board of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC).

Mr. Will began his career with the predecessor company to CBRE Capital Markets and helped launch the senior housing debt practice for the firm. In 2016, Mr. Will was named the youngest Vice Chairman in company history. Today, Mr. Will Co-Heads Senior Housing for CBRE Capital Markets, both the Debt & Structured Finance and Investment Sales platforms. His specialty is the capitalization of 55+/Active Adult, Independent Living, Assisted Living, Alzheimer’s Care and Skilled Nursing facilities/Post Acute. Mr. Will’s primary focus is on the origination of new business, the analysis of debt and equity investment opportunities, structuring complex loans, negotiating investment sales transactions, and largescale senior housing capital mandates in collaboration with CBRE Capital Advisors.