About Us

“As our population ages, increasingly we are seeing a
huge care gap and a critical need for caregiver support.”

-David Inns, CEO GreatCall

As the need for caregiving increases, various emotional and financial issues arise. The Family Caregiver Council was born from a desire to look at these issues in a collaborative, meaningful way, providing support and resources so caregivers won’t become overwhelmed. Comprised of leaders from 13 national family caregiver organizations and other experts, we’ve combined our resources to support family caregivers more effectively than any of us can do alone. Caregivers need help, too. The Family Caregivers Council is here to provide it.

David Inns, President & CEO, GreatCall, Inc.

David Inns is CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of GreatCall Inc., the leader in connected health solutions for active aging. Since its inception in 2006, GreatCall has developed a complete portfolio of products and services that help enable independent aging, including: telehealth services, medication adherence programs, emergency response, fall detection and activity monitoring. GreatCall’s commitment to simplicity and best-in-class service helps the older consumer adopt and enjoy connected health solutions while keeping caregivers up-to-date on their own smartphones with the GreatCall Link app. Under David’s leadership, GreatCall has grown from a startup in 2006 to a company with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue and over 1,000 employees.

Brigid Bonner, Chief Experience Officer, CaringBridge

Brigid Bonner directs all aspects of development, marketing and customer service for CaringBridge. She has driven innovation and growth in many technology savvy, consumer-based businesses including Schwans Home Service, UnitedHealth Group and Target.

Scott Collins, CEO, Link-age

Scott Collins is President and CEO of Link-age, created to address opportunities in managed care. Today Link-age is comprised of three companies: Link-age Connect, Link-age Solutions and Link-age Ventures, with more than 460 senior living communities in 16 states. Scott previously was a vice president with GE Capital Commercial Asset Funding. Scott was a nominee for the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2012.

Danielle Glorioso, Executive Director, Center for Healthy Aging, UCSD

Danielle K. Glorioso is the Executive Director of the Center for Healthy Aging and the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she has been a member of the UC San Diego Division of Geriatric Psychiatry since 2001. Danielle provides leadership and direct oversight of Center operations including strategic planning, organizational development, community outreach, training, philanthropy, communications and marketing.  She is also a certified complicated grief therapist with a specialty working with those bereaved to suicide loss.  Danielle is a co-author on a number of publications in the fields of aging, ethics, mental health, suicide and grief and is active in a number of community organizations and serves as a board member for San Diego chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

Meg Kabat, National Director, Caregiver Support Program, Department of Veteran Affairs

Meg Kabat is the National Director of the Department of Veteran Affairs’ Caregiver Support Program. In this role she serves as the principal advisor to senior leaders across the Veteran Affairs (VA) on caregiving. She is responsible for national policy development as well as oversight and implementation of the Caregiver Support Program and serves as the principal manager in developing a Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers and a Program of General Caregiver Support Services. Meg began working with America’s Wounded Warriors in 2003 and has worked in many roles for both the United States Navy and the VA, beginning with the Caregiver Support Program in 2011.

David Lindeman, Director Health, Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), UC Berkeley, and Director, Center for Technology and Aging (CTA)

David Lindeman, PhD, is Director Health, Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), UC Berkeley, and Director, Center for Technology and Aging (CTA). He has worked in the fields of health care and long-term care for nearly 40 years as a health services researcher and gerontologist, conducting research related to health care technology, assistive technologies, chronic disease management, healthy aging, disabilities, dementia, community-based and residential services, health care workforce, and family caregiving. Dr. Lindeman’s current focus is working with researchers, entrepreneurs and investors on the incubation, start-up, evaluation, and scaling of technology-enabled solutions that address critical challenges for older adults and family caregivers through mobile/cloud, sensors/IoT, telehealth, robotics, assistive technologies, and data analytics (artificial intelligence/machine learning). He serves as an advisor to foundations, government agencies, businesses, and venture firms, and is working on global initiatives, including programs in China, Japan, Singapore, and Denmark. Dr. Lindeman previously served as the founding Director of the Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging; Associate Professor of Health Policy at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, Rush University Medical Center; and Co-Director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center.

Scott Peifer, Principal at changeagents

Scott Peifer’s focus is in strategic planning for organizations to enact change and innovation to improve the lives of older adults and their families. He formerly led Alliance Development for Aging2.0, a global network an innovation accelerator for aging and senior care. Scott is on the boards of the Family Caregiver Alliance and the American Society on Aging. Prior to joining Aging2.0 he established AgeTech West and served as Associated Director of the Leading Age Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST). Scott previously served as Pennsylvania Policy Director of Aging.

John Schall, CEO, Caregiver Action Network

John Schall is the CEO of the Caregiver Action Network, the nation’s leading non-profit association providing education and resources to family caregivers throughout the United Sates. He is a public policy and communications professional with noted expertise in a wide range of policy fields, including health care, labor, education, taxation, and budget policy. He brings more than 30 years of bipartisan experience in senior positions in the U.S. Government, including serving as a White House domestic policy advisor to President George H.W. Bush, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor, and chief budget advisor to former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.

Sherwin Sheik, President & CEO, CareLinx

Sherwin Sheik founded CareLinx after witnessing his family’s struggles with finding and managing care for his sister who has MS and his uncle who had ALS. CareLinx is a nationwide professional caregiver marketplace, empowering families to easily find, hire manage and pay caregivers who match their specific needs and budgets online. Sherwin was previously Director Equity Derivatives: Healthcare Specialist for Knight Capital Group, Hedge Funder Trader: Healthcare Analyst for Bellman Walter Capital , Equity Derivative Trader: Healthcare for Merrill Lynch and in Corporate and R&D Finance for Amgen.

Kai Stinchcombe, Co-Founder & CEO, True Link

Kai Stinchcombe is co-founder and CEO of True Link, a financial protection service to help seniors live happily and independently longer. With fraud, financial entrapment, and predatory marketing to seniors on the rise, True Link enables older adults to spend their money safely, using a caregiver-managed debit card with on and off switches to block unwanted charges. Before True Link, he was the co-founder and CTO of Aktana, a sales management software company, and then the head of analytics at LendUp, a socially responsible small-dollar lender.

Louis Tenenbaum, Founder, Aging in Place Institute

Louis Tenenbaum the founder of Aging in Place Institute, is a leading authority on aging in place – the idea that our homes are the most desirable and economical place for housing and care. A remodeling project to help a young paraplegic be independent at home led to the refocusing of his remodeling company on aging in place. This led to his studying aging, housing and care systems, transportation and long-term care and health costs. His white paper, Aging in Place 2.0: Rethinking Solutions to the Home Care Challenge, published by the Met Life Mature Marketing Institute, is the result of this cross-disciplinary experience.

Advisors

Sally Abrahms

Sally Abrahms specializes in aging and baby boomers for consumer and corporate clients. She is an expert on caregiving, aging in place, and housing issues. Her stories have appeared in Newsweek, TIME, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The AARP Bulletin and AARP the Magazine. She has written for the huffingtonpost.com, forbes.com, PBS’s nextavenue.org and for two years wrote a weekly AARP blog for family caregivers. Check out her website at www.sallyabrahms.com and follow her on twitter.

Mary Furlong, President & CEO, Mary Furlong & Associates

Mary Furlong, Ed.D, is the president & CEO of MFA, and a leading authority on the baby boom generation as it moves toward and beyond age 50. Through her three companies she has raised over 130 million in venture financing and corporate sponsorships for companies with products and services to serve the needs of the boomer/senior marketplace. In March 2011, Mary received an award as one of the top 100 Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and is also the author of “Turning Silver into Gold: How to Profit in the New Boomer Marketplace”.

Laurie Orlov, Founder, Aging in Place Technology Watch

Laurie Orlov is the founder of Aging in Place Technology Watch, a market research firm that provides thought leadership, analysis, and guidance about technologies and related services that enable boomers and seniors to remain longer in their home of choice. Laurie spent more than 30 years in the technology industry, including 24 years in IT and nine years as a leading industry analyst at Forrester Research. She has spoken regularly at industry conferences and symposia been featured in numerous publications. Her segmentation of this emerging technology market and trends commentary has been presented in the Journal of Geriatric Care Management. She has a graduate certification in Geriatric Care Management from the University of Florida and a BA in Music from the University of Rochester.

Grace Whiting, President & CEO, National Alliance for Caregiving

Grace Whiting, J.D., is the President & CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), a non-profit coalition dedicated to conducting research and developing national programs for family caregivers and the professionals who serve them. She previously held the roles of Chief Operating Officer and the Director of Strategic Partnerships. Grace led the launch of the _Caregiving in the U.S. 2015_report with AARP and directed the first national study of rare disease caregiving with Global Genes. In addition to her work at the Alliance, Ms. Whiting has served as the Advocacy and Communications Director at Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer’s Disease (LEAD Coalition) and as the Director of Strategic Initiatives & Communications and as the Special Assistant to the Executive Director at the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation in Washington, D.C.

Grace Andruszkiewicz, Vice President, Programs & Partnerships, Aging2.0

Grace Andruszkiewicz is Vice President of Programs and Partnerships at ​Aging2.0. ​She has built the Chapters network and Global Startup Search competition, and currently oversees Aging2.0’s brand strategy, thought leadership, Alliance and Leaders Circle membership communities and Chapters network. She is also the producer of Aging2.0’s flagship conference – OPTIMIZE. Grace comes from an agency background, where she had a broad range of experience in industries ranging from healthcare to commercial real estate.

Holly Gierisch, Advisor, Community, State & National Affairs, AARP

Holly Gierisch provides strategic advice to enhance AARP’s efforts to help America’s 40 million family caregivers find the help they need when they need it, including providing critically-acclaimed caregiving resources and connections to specialists in health topics. She coordinates and implements leadership initiatives across AARP and with external non-profit, business, and media partners around the country. Holly has experience delivering high-profile, large-scale, public benefit programs through the U.S. Department of Transportation and Deloitte Consulting.