My 25+ years expertise as an educator, speaker, researcher, consultant, and professional nurse has been driven by a deep-seated passion to improve the quality of care provided to our elders by supporting the people in the field through education, coaching, mentoring, and advancement of evidence based practice. That passion landed me in my current role of leadership development and consultation for senior care organizations, focusing primarily on the areas of leadership, falls prevention, dementia care, sleep research, and organizational development. What brought about this passion? I always wanted to be nurse but it really wasn’t my plan to be in long-term care. Upon graduating from nursing school, however, the only jobs available happened to be in nursing homes. While working in that first nursing home, something started happening to me – the residents and the staff started grabbing hold of my heart, becoming like a part of my family, and I saw that I was really making a difference in their lives. Fast forward several decades, I have been blessed to complete my doctorate in nursing leadership, manage diverse teams, lead multiple organizations, consult, speak to leaders across the country, share my journey with them, and support their roles in the aging services community – all while building a more hopeful future for elders, their families, and caregivers. Along the way, I’ve been honored to be identified as a subject matter expert in leadership development. My doctoral project birthed what has come to be known as SurTHRIVELeadership, an evidenced based program focused on developing resilient leaders within long term care. Since 2016, I have been able to share SurTHRIVELeadership with thousands of long term and acute care providers. Email me at linda@lindashell.com.