Future Leader: Toni Fimowicz, National Director of Organizational Development, Villa Healthcare

The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health and hospice care. To see this year’s future leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.

Toni Fimowicz, national director of organizational development at Villa Healthcare, has been named a 2021 Future Leader by Skilled Nursing News.

To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40 years old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action and an advocate for seniors and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.

Fimowicz sat down with Skilled Nursing News to talk about her start in the industry and lessons learned to take beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

SNN: What drew you to the skilled nursing industry?

Toni: Growing up, my mom was in health care and one of my sisters took a job in senior living when she was in college, and now 20 years later she’s a [registered nurse]. I saw the benefits of it and the merits of it, I just really never recognized that there was a place for me in it, because I actually do not have a clinical bone in my body. I just never thought that I could help someone in that way.

Then about five years ago, I was looking for a job and was invited to look at a position in resident experience, so a customer service role, where I work now. The job description spoke to kindness, laid it out as not only a job expectation but also an established company ideal. That’s when it clicked that, you know, maybe health care really is more than a clinical capability, that I have something to offer, and so I took a chance and changed industries and I have never looked back.

What industry were you in prior to health care?

Hospitality — I worked in hotels. I kind of think that health care is almost like a specialized version of hospitality. There are definitely strong parallels that I didn’t expect at first, but you know, it’s definitely applicable. Everybody in this industry is providing a service, ultimately, and we’re here, caring for people, creating an environment.

What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?

I learned pretty early on that long-term care is not just about your clinical expertise or your clinical certification. It’s for people who have a passion about caring for other people. And so specifically at Villa, I’ve learned how to take that person-centric approach to caring for people, which goes beyond the clinical diagnosis which, you know, again pulls in that hospitality parallel.

If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of skilled nursing, what would it be?

I think for the future of the industry, we can build off of the spirit of collaboration, and really allow skilled nursing communities to see each other as allies, and intentionally learn from each other and build each other up.

I think we can learn from those outside of the industry as well. Really taking lessons from outside the industry can help us increase the diversity of personnel, the diversity of thought, the diversity of experiences. And I think this will all contribute significantly to our ability to grow in the future and just keep on progressing as an industry.

What do you foresee as being different about the nursing home industry looking ahead to 2022?

We saw a new generation of leaders, almost like a new caliber of talent come to the rescue. This leadership, it was threaded with a sense of innovation, and that was witnessed across the industry; that is going to continue to impact us in the near and distant future, for sure.

In a word, how would you describe the future of skilled nursing?

The word that comes to mind is strong. When I think about how Villa team members rallied to take care of residents and staff alike throughout this entire pandemic, and they’re still doing it to this day, I just feel proud. I think it’s a shared experience that creates the foundation for an even stronger future.


To learn more about the Future Leaders program, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.