Although a challenging year, Boston Bridge Inc adapted and recruited a variety of speakers to present and engage in relevant topics & discussion! Take a look at our guests below:

October 2021: Home Care Aide Council & Home Care Alliance of MA

We will have representatives from the Home Care Aide Council & Home Care Alliance of MA joining us to discuss the direct care workforce.

They’ll discuss what working in home care is like (home health aide, homemaker, etc.), who works in these positions, and how these services are paid for. They’ll discuss the safety challenges, interdisciplinary challenges, and what the field has learned about protecting this essential workforce and their clients in the last year. We hope you’ll join us for a discussion of these very timely issues.

November 2021: Amy Rosenthal, Health Care for All

Our November speaker wtill be Amy Rosenthal, the Executive Director of Health Care for All (HCFA). HCFA advocates for health justice in MA by working to promote health equity and ensure coverage and access for all. Amy will inform us about their outreach efforts to ensure coverage for those with low literacy or those with limited access. She will also share the issues for which they are presently advocating in the state legislature and what Boston Bridge can do to assist those efforts.

December 15th: Annual December Conversations Meeting

Please join us for our annual December Conversations meeting. This year, we will feature one-on-one networking sessions as well as trivia! Get to know your fellow Boston Bridge attendees, compete for a trivia prize, and celebrate the season with us!

January 2022: Aarabi Balasubramanian

Our speaker this month will be Aarabi Balasubramanian, Founder & CEO of EmTech Care Labs, an early stage tech startup based in Cambridge. She is currently developing Care-Wallet, a digital long-term care management solution for home-based family caregiving.

Aarabi is also a strategy executive with extensive business, innovation & operations leadership experience across healthcare, financial services and technology industries. She is very passionate about the evolutionary application of technology for societal progress, in particular, access to better healthcare, financial wellness and aging well. Aarabi will provide an overview of the state of innovation & technology in the aging marketspace and also share her own entrepreneurial experiences including how her team is addressing long-term care needs and challenges.

For more details – https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarabib/

February 2022: Dr. Elissa Sherman, LeadingAge

Our speaker this month will be Elissa Sherman, PhD, President of LeadingAge Massachusetts. LeadingAge Massachusetts represents the full continuum of mission-driven, not-for-profit providers of health care, housing, and services for older persons in Massachusetts.

Dr. Sherman has worked in aging policy for over 30 years, and will provide a review of the aging services landscape, including the impact of the pandemic on nursing homes, CCRCs, and assisted living facilities. She’ll tell us what lies ahead for these sectors, including challenges and opportunities.

April 2022: Alice Bonner, PhD, RN, FAAN

We will be joined by Alice Bonner, PhD, RN, FAAN,Former Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and current Adjunct Faculty and Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing CAPABLE Program, and Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).

Dr. Bonner’s talk is entitled Age-Friendly Health Systems, Communities, and a Time for Leadership:

 Many different professional organizations, health systems, community-based organizations and government agencies are working to become Age-Friendly. Unfortunately, these efforts are not always aligned or integrated. This presentation will give an overview of some of the current state and national initiatives and will talk about how each of us may play a leadership role – from wherever we are.

May 2022: MassTech/MeHi Caregiving Initiative Presentation & Panel

MassTech/MeHI’s Caregiving Initiative: The Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition is an innovative team of leading employers, advocates, and government partners committed to recognizing, supporting, and building creative solutions that allow family caregivers to continue to thrive in the workplace while also caring for family at home.  Their mission is to partner with, encourage, and challenge Massachusetts employers wherever they are in their progress of supporting employee caregivers by:

• Illuminating the needs of employee caregivers and their economic impact;
• Identifying, sharing, and leveraging best practices inclusive of all employer sizes, locations and types of workforce;
• Championing employee caregiver policies; and
• Enabling culture change for caregivers across all sectors of the economy.

Speakers:

• Ben Linville-Engler, Chief Investment Strategist and Program Executive at MassTech
• Laurance Stuntz, SVP of Customer Success at Xealth & Co-Founder of Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition through Massachusetts eHealth Initiative
• Alexandra Drane, CEO & Co-founder of ARCHANGELS

June 2022: Philippe Saad, AIA, LEED AP

We are excited to welcome Philippe Saad, AIA, LEED AP. He is currently a principal at DiMella Shaffer, an architecture, planning, and design firm based in Boston. In 2021, Philippe was named Design Champion by Environments for Aging for his long term commitment and advocacy for inclusive senior living environments. His belief that architecture is a tool for equity and social change led him to co-found Project Q Communities and LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc., two non-profit organizations focused on facilitating the development of “welcoming, safe, and affordable housing for low income LGBTQ seniors”. The Pryde, Boston’s first LGBTQ-friendly senior housing, is the result of that endeavor and he is delighted to share the journey to success with us!