Call it a double honor for Keith Kasin, executive director of Plymouth Village.

The Redlands, Calif., CCRC not only played host to the ABHOW Annual Meeting in February, but it can now boast that the person who helped put it all together is ABHOW’s Executive Director of the Year.

“It is unusual that the Executive Director of the Year happens to be hosting the meeting,” said Jeff Glaze, ABHOW’s senior vice president and chief operations manager. “It was very nice to be able to recognize Keith on his home turf so that his staff and residents could share in his recognition. It goes to the executive director, but it’s a team award. It can’t be won without the support of his team on campus.”

The Executive Director of the Year is determined each year from the nominations of other executive directors throughout ABHOW as well as staff in the ABHOW home office.

Criteria for winners include exemplary performance standards, extraordinary performance beyond established goals, special contributions to ABHOW co-workers and leadership, and mentoring of colleagues.

In their nominations, Kasin’s peers lauded his creativity and celebration of diversity, as well as his ability to communicate with residents and staff. Annual meeting attendees witnessed his organizational skills.

“One of the things that really worked in Keith’s favor is his mentoring of Mildred Makamure, the administrator at Fern Lodge and Casa de la Vista,” Glaze said. Kasin served as her preceptor in the administrator training program and helped her prepare to sit for her nursing home administrator license.

“He’s giving back to Mildred what he was given previously,” Glaze said, noting that Kasin was originally hired as facilities manager in 1999. Through mentoring, he was able to earn his nursing home administrator license and be considered for the executive director post, which he assumed in 2004.

“He’s a shining example of the opportunity one has within ABHOW to start in one role and ultimately move up to the executive director position,” Glaze said.
 
Plymouth Village is a community of the American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW). ABHOW is a trusted nonprofit provider of quality retirement housing and health care services (www.abhow.com). As an expression of its Judeo-Christian mission, ABHOW seeks to enhance the well-being and security of seniors through the provision of housing, health care, and supportive services. For more information on Plymouth Village please visit our website at www.plymouthvillage.org.


This article appeared in the March 2010 issue of ABHOW Words.