BROOKDALE’S BAIER SAYS ADVERSITY HAS ONLY MADE COMPANY STRONGER
BY PATRICK CONNOLE
senior living operator the opportunity to share her thoughts on how the adversity of the COVID-19 pan- demic has made the organization stronger. But for Baier to speak about adversity goes back much
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further than the pandemic years, and actually helped form her character from her junior high school years for- ward when her mother suffered a near-fatal car accident. “We had a really small family. We didn’t have much
money, and so I became a caregiver before I even got to high school. And I understood just how important that was, how hard it was, but also how fulfilling it was,” she said. Luckily, her mother recovered, but not long after Baier’s
grandfather lost his vision, eventually leading Baier to move in with her grandparents, leading to another caregiving role. “You know, the thing is, I probably had a closer re-
lationship with both my mom and my grandparents because I was a caregiver,” she said. “I got to bring my grandfather joy in a way that I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t had the opportunity to help take care of him.” She added that this giving of one’s self to help anoth-
er really taught her just how much you get back from the people that you’re helping. “I can still remember my grandfather. After he left
his sight, we would go for a walk, and I would be his eyes, but he would say, ‘Cindy, can you smell the rain? It’s going to rain.’ And I'm like, okay, it’s going to rain. So, I learned so much from him by taking care of him, and I just always cherished that time, even though it was difficult.”
rgentum’s Women in Leadership Zoom series featured Brookdale Senior Living President and Chief Executive Office Cindy Baier, giving the leader of the nation’s largest
Bringing It Back Home The two episodes of early-life caregiving created a precur- sor of things to come. “Only when I got the opportunity to return to senior
living and return to Brookdale, did I truly find my calling. And the fact that I really wanted to take care of people and having the opportunity to do that at a company like Brookdale, has been the privilege of my life.” The thought learned early on that what doesn’t kill you
makes you stronger prepared her for being a senior living trailblazer, and of course helped put in perspective the trials and tribulations that the pandemic brought many years later. “At the end of the day, I think that being able to live
through adversity, to overcome it, to focus on what matters most. I think a lot of those lessons that really helped me lead Brookdale through the pandemic, I learned before I got into high school,” Baier said. “I think that’s really the event that sort of defined me, my mom’s car accident. I think it made me who I am, and it really gave me the passion for service, but also the knowledge that sometimes you just have to do what has to be done.”
A Profession Finding a Way In the end, this strength and resolve is what Brookdale used to manage through the pandemic by doing things as a team that were never thought possible. “Look at how much we accomplished. Look at the efforts
we took to help protect the residents in our communities and the associates we serve,” she said, saying other Wom- en in Leadership members also did the same with their organizations.
“I think this industry is incredible,” Baier said, pointing
30 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023
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