Having just cleared the four-month mark in his role as interim executive director of Friends Care Community, Sean Riley told the News this week that he’s settling into the fabric of Yellow Springs.

“It’s felt great,” he said. “I love what I do, and going to help a community that needs time and space in order to do a proper search is rewarding professionally — and selfishly, I get to explore a community by hiking, by dining, by walking around.”

Riley stepped into the interim executive director role Jan. 8, following the retirement of longtime Executive Director Mike Montgomery. His arrival comes during a transitional moment for Friends Care, amid ongoing conversations about how the 46-year-old nonprofit long-term care center will continue serving the community.

Riley came to Friends Care through AQORD, a faith-based health and human services organization formed through a merger between the former Friends Services Alliance and Mennonite Health Services. In addition to helping oversee day-to-day operations, Riley said he’s working with board members, staff and residents on strategic planning discussions centered on what services and programs Friends Care should prioritize in the years ahead.

At the same time, he’s also helping the board with its search to fill the role of executive director in the long-term; it’s his second time in such a transitional role, having previously worked via AQORD with a similarly sized nonprofit elder-care community south of Iowa City.

Originally from Canton, Ohio, and having lived for nearly 30 years in Lakewood, Ohio, Riley said he’s spent four decades in post-acute care, older adult housing and aging services, including in some larger, corporate systems.

“This is better,” he said of nonprofit work. “We work just as hard. It’s a kinder, gentler, more appreciative environment.”

Riley added that Friends Care’s roots in Yellow Springs and the Quaker community are part of what drew him to the role; in particular, he pointed to the organization’s nascent years in the 1980s, when a lack of good information and, for many, prejudice created stigma and fear around those living with AIDS; in 1987, Friends Care became the first nursing home in Ohio to admit people with AIDS.

“That’s pretty courageous, and it speaks to the community as a whole,” he said. “There’s such good history here. There’s such a good team here.”

That team, along with the institution as a whole, is experiencing some of its own transitions: Clinical Admissions Director Melissa Herald is retiring after 19 years with Friends Care and more than three decades working in nursing homes.

“Friends Care had always been the place I wanted to come to,” Herald said. “I’d tried before to get in years ago, and it was always full.”

When an opening finally appeared, she started on night shift in a PRN position before steadily moving through the organization into management. The clinical admissions director role is outward-facing and focused on communication with families and incoming residents, but Herald said the “clinical” part of the position held true during her time.

“I still worked the floor when needed, and would do wound care and different things,” she said, adding that she also oversaw the facility’s rehabilitation center.

As Herald departs, Julie Clements, a floor nurse who has worked at Friends Care since 2018, will succeed her. Clements said her years providing direct resident care have prepared her for the relationship-building aspect of the role.

“I feel like working the floor has just made me more comfortable in that communication aspect,” Clements said.

Clements added that she’s spent four weeks training alongside Herald during a six-week transition period, and is optimistic about the new leadership role.

“I feel very fortunate that they’ve trusted me with this position, and I’m excited to see what’s to come,” she said.

Also retiring, Herald said, is her chiweenie dog — part chihuahua, part dachshund — Stella, who has accompanied her to work every day for the last six years, and become a familiar companion to residents and staff.

“The residents are all telling me I have to bring her to visit,” Herald said.

‘What comes next’

Amid those staffing changes, Riley said Friends Care is acutely aware of the challenges that plague long-term care centers, many of which the News has reported on in recent months, including rising labor costs and stagnant Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement models.

Riley noted that, in recent state news, LeadingAge Ohio and the Ohio Health Care Association successfully sued the Ohio Department of Medicaid over nursing home reimbursement calculations, with the Ohio Supreme Court last year ordering the state to recalculate payments of about $1 billion, though the state hasn’t yet made any moves in that direction.

As the News reported in February, about 800 elder care facilities have closed nationwide since 2020 due to funding shortfalls; about half of the facilities that remain open are either limiting admissions or have wait lists.

Friends Care also currently has wait lists for its independent living and assisted living units. Riley said that, since he’s joined the staff, the Friends Care board has continued to discuss potential service expansions first identified in a 2023 community survey: additional independent and assisted living offerings, as well as community-based care — services Riley said he feels confident are “inevitable.”

“But whether it’s inevitable in six months or six years, we don’t know yet,” he said.

And, he added, the Friends Care board and staff are intentionally taking their time in making some decisions about how, and when, expansions will be made to adapt to the changing landscape of long-term care.

“We have to slow down in order to speed up,” he said. “We have to get our team on the same page. We have to get our board on the same page. We have to have our campus residents participate in this conversation. And of course the village, because this is the village’s asset.”

To that end, he said, he’s not sure yet how long his tenure in the interim position will last; that depends on how long he’s needed to help move the organization into its next phase.

“I’m here as not just a transition between one long-term leader and another, but also at the beginning of — I like to say, and perhaps I heard it from the board first — ‘what comes next,’” Riley said. “[I’m bringing] a fresh perspective, right? There are no sacred cows. I don’t know who’s who and what’s what, so I get to go in and make observations.”

Grounding the operational discussions, he said, is the deeper goal of rebuilding relationships between Friends Care and the wider Yellow Springs community.

“We want the citizens of Yellow Springs to be our friends,” Riley said. “And there’s no pun here — friends of Friends Care — because you want to support your friends, and in order to become friends, you need to get to know each other.”

Aiding Riley in the effort for Friends to make friends is new staff addition Hypatia McLellan, who was recently hired as Friends Care’s marketing and development coordinator. At press time, McLellan — a longtime local resident — is in her second week at Friends Care, but she said she’s not new to the residential community, as she was introduced to the campus on field trips as an Antioch School student, and she visited her grandparents when they received rehabilitation care within Friends Care’s walls.

“So it just felt like this was a perfect fit for me,” she said.

The focus of her role, she said, is on helping reconnect Friends Care with the wider village community after the years in which COVID-era precautions limited engagement between the organization and the rest of the community.

“We want more ways to collaborate with the village at large and have events here,” she said. “I think people see [Friends Care] as an institution, but really, it’s a community. There’s some really active people here who have things to say and stories to tell.”

Riley agreed, saying the pandemic years forced facilities like Friends Care to “build a wall” around residents in order to keep them safe, and that some of the habits and community connections interrupted during that period still haven’t returned.

“We’re re-establishing those as we can,” he said, and pointed to two upcoming events: Friends Care will host its fourth annual “Cookout with Friends” this Saturday, May 16, 4–7 p.m.; and “Friends Care Community Night” with the Dayton Dragons baseball team on Thursday, June 25; see the “Local Events” column on page 2 for more information on both events.

Part of the effort to rebuild relationships, Riley said, involves collaborating with other local nonprofits, including the YS Senior Center — “Hypatia’s got some great ideas and has already reached out to our comrade, [YS Senior Center Executive Director] Caroline Mullin,” he said. Another part is creating and encouraging more opportunities for Friends Care residents and members of the wider community to interact.

“We’ve learned a lot about loneliness and the stress [it puts] on your body — how do we address that?” Riley said. “How do we engage more, not less, so that everyone can feel like they’re not alone and part of something? Come hang out with us; we have a beautiful campus. We have all kinds of resident engagement going on, and volunteers are always welcome.”

He added: “Friends Care is not an extension of the community — it’s an expansion of the community. ... Whatever is done for Friends Care Community is done for Yellow Springs.”

For more information on Friends Care Community, and how to volunteer, go to http://www.friendshealthcare.org