CIHF will host innovative thought leaders in healthcare, health policy, hospitality, wellness, and architectural design. The symposium will open with a welcome reception on the evening of Thursday, May 11. Our full-day symposium will start on Friday, May 12, to explore how decision makers and designers can respond to changing needs in mental health, work life balance, wellness, safety by design, affordable senior living, and other related areas. Together industry experts, academic scholars, leaders, and students will explore current challenges and possible evidence-based solutions with an interdisciplinary perspective.

Following the symposium, the third day, Saturday, May 13, will feature a more intimate hands-on thought design workshop led by Troy Savage. Designers will join healthcare and senior living leaders to collaborate in an interactive day of re-imagining the design of assisted living facilities in response to changing needs.

More information about registration will be forthcoming.

"I am doing what I am supposed to be doing." Mardelle Shepley speaks about her work in design and senior housing on HerStories, a podcast led by, Severine Petras, CEO and Co-Founder of Priority Life Care and new CIHF Advisory Board member, about senior housing.

Mardelle’s achievement marks a historical moment for the college, as she is the first woman to win this prestigious award!

The ACHA Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor that the College can bestow on an architect and recognizes their significant body of work and distinguished contributions to the healthcare architectural community. 

Prior to entering operations in Senior Housing, Sevy’s investment banking career spanned a decade of lending and structuring debt solutions for Senior Housing & Healthcare. She began her career in Public Finance at Natcity Investments and moved to Chicago as an SVP for 5/3 Securities. Later at Merrill Lynch Capital she focused solely on balance sheet lending in Senior Housing. In 2009, she and her family changed their career directions as they saw a larger need in the affordable and publicly funded sector, as the growing demands in senior housing lacked private pay funds.

With her banking experience, she focused on identifying viable properties, producing lenders and investor pro forms & budgets that provided turn-around plans, including assistance in securing & structuring debt for the properties in areas that support alternatives to private-pay assisted living.

Priority Life Care currently focuses on 3rd party management partnerships and provides all services available to our seniors in Independent, Assisted Living and Memory Care communities. Their focus historically has been on buildings that require significant turnaround that includes licensing, rehab, additions of specialty care units and census growth. These 12+ years of operational expertise has since lent to operations of new developments, receivership appointments by financial institutions and operations of high-end private pay market rate communities further expanding PLC’s focus of supporting Independence of Seniors throughout the country.



As a family owned & operated business, she, her family, and management team have worked to create a family-centric model that permeates to the building level. Culture, career advancement & evolving training platforms are part of the cornerstone for co-workers who join the PLC team.

As CEO, Sevy is also charged with leading the company in pursuit of its purpose to support independence. She strives to empower and inspire her management team as well as Community level employees to be mindful of the importance of their roles serving their residents in their homes daily.

Education: BA, Sociology, University of Akron

MPA, Public Finance, University of Akron

Honors: PhD in Humane Letters, Tiffin University

Initaitives: Women in Leadership, Argentum Education Committee

Co-founder, Senior Housing Women’s Initiative

Advisory Board Member, Joe & Bella

Public Policy Committee Member, American Seniors Housing Association

Medicaid Advisory Board Member, Indiana Assisted Living Association

Host, Senior Housing Herstories Podcast

Mr. van Grinsven is an entrepreneurial CEO offering progressive experience in operations leadership. Skilled at identifying and implementing process improvements to drive efficiency, productivity, and maximizing market penetration. Servant leader with proven success, managing cross-functional teams in both the hospitality and healthcare industries. Proud member of teams that have earned an unprecedented two Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in 1999, and the Henry Ford Health System in 2012. During his tenure at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Gerard led the organization to be ranked fourth out of the 42 national hospital systems, tracked in the YouGov BrandIndex “Best Brand” survey. Mr. van Grinsven is one of the world’s most accomplished and recognized executives in customer service, delivering exceptional value by redefining world-class service standards. He is a highly regarded speaker, communicator and writer on the topics of driving growth and profitability through world-class service, the future of health care and creating a foundational patient experience in an era of value-based purchasing. His pioneering work and exceptional results in both luxury hotels and health care have forced competitors to emulate or be left behind.

Gerard has served as part of the global leadership team of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, where he opened 26 luxury hotels in Asia, the Middle East, South America and the United States. He served in a leadership capacity at The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok Hotel, one of the leading hotels in the world.

Gerard then served as a senior executive with the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, where he was President and CEO of the award-winning, 192-bed Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital. With no prior health care experience, he was hired three years prior to the $350 million hospital’s planned grand opening with complete oversight of design, construction, recruitment, staffing, on-boarding, program development and operational planning. After a successful tenure at the Henry Ford Health System, Mr. van Grinsven served as President and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) from 2013 to 2015, a national network of five intensive cancer care hospitals. During his tenure, CTCA was the most profitable healthcare organization in the United States, consistently delivering superior outcomes in quality, patient satisfaction and stakeholder engagement.

In 2015, Mr. van Grinsven founded GHG - The van Grinsven Hospitality Group. GHG has partnered with top-tier healthcare providers to create a new hospitality model that synthesizes and operationalizes health and wellness, focused on safety, quality, compassionate care and a culture of highly emotional engaged stakeholders.

In 2022, Mr. van Grinsven joined Waterstone Properties as Chief Operating Officer. Like other consumer organizations, Gerard believes we need to treat people like valued and respected consumers, not by disease or payment, but by patient and consumer needs and their preferred engagement. GHG enables healthcare providers to deliver a one-of-a-kind patient experience, grounded in the principles of hospitality and a strong emotional engaged workforce.