Age is only a number, right? The Up & Coming Leader of the Year Award recognizes an individual (30 years of age or under...but we won’t check your ID) who has an extraordinary commitment to leadership and service to the long-term care profession.
Celebrating the new generation of leaders!

Andrea Ross is the administrator at Meeker Manor, a nursing facility located in Litchfield. Nominated by Dan Strittmater, VP of Operations, here is what Dan had to say about this Up & Coming Leader of the Year award recipient:

(Note: Andrea was nominated for the Rising Star award; however, the Recognition Task Force was so impressed with her, they decided to choose her as an Up & Coming Leader of the Year award recipient.) 

Andrea Ross represents the future administrator that many of her colleagues are growing into—she has just arrived early.

She is the administrator most likely to elicit the response “I don’t believe she’s under 30” as she has held seven administrator positions in her brief career—including two with Monarch (at the same time at one point). Andrea is calm under pressure, dedicated and loyal to the residents, staff and Monarch team, and fun to just hang out with. She handles herself as a leader with the maturity of a veteran—that is her hallmark. This is a lifestyle for her, and she wears it well. She is almost as good at being an administrator as she is at Whirlyball.

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Drive, integrity, and consistency are the characteristics that best describe Andrea. She is strategic, optimizes her efforts as a leader and yet is very laid back and patient when it comes to working with others and building trust. She would do things like voluntarily cook Christmas Eve dinner at the facility when short staffed—and then ask other department heads to pick up other days they could cook. Andrea creates permanent positive change, like recruiting the Director of Nursing for example who was initially a Monarch Float DON on loan who had to drive 90 minutes one way. After working with Andrea for a few months at Delano, the temporary DON decided the drive was worth being part of a great team led by a strong administrator.

Realizing Andrea’s leadership capacity, we put her in a position to make an even greater impact on Monarch by making her the administrator of Meeker Manor in Litchfield, in addition to Delano. Meeker Manor is a wonderful nursing facility roughly twice as large as Delano and 45 minutes west. Meeker had also encountered significant issues with stability including spotty financial performance and challenging survey history (three IJs in 7 months). Meeker, like Delano, had turned over several administrators and DONs and was always teetering on the verge of a bleak survey.

Andrea was able to steady both Delano and Meeker and support the DON at each facility in order to move the nursing and other departments forward. Again, at Meeker Manor, the Float DON with years of experience, liked Andrea so much that she decided to stay on permanently if Andrea took that role. Again, a victory in stabilizing the DON and Nursing Leadership position. Her Delano DON understood when Andrea permanently moved to Meeker, that Andrea was meant for greater challenges.

Finding a veteran level administrator at any age is rare. Being able to hire and quickly promote someone because they have unused capacity is a remarkable set of circumstances and luck. To find someone who is happy to take on a small building with its need for hands on support daily and who also has higher level experience and the ability to manage experienced department heads that RAVE about her leadership is rare. This requires a strong ability to self-reflect and a significant level of self-confidence; finding both of these qualities feels like incredible luck.