Your Hosts
Jeff Jerebker BS, MS
Founder/CEO & Long-Term Care Innovator
Jeff is a nationally recognized leader in long-term care and Founder/CEO of Piñon Management, which he led from 1979 to 2012. Under his direction, Piñon introduced Colorado’s first psycho/social model of care in 1984, preceding the national person-centered care movement by twelve years.
Throughout his career, Jeff reshaped nursing homes into transparent, resident-directed neighborhoods connected directly to their surrounding communities. Under his direction, Piñon Management championed autonomous, self-directed, multidisciplinary care teams, regularly welcoming neighbors into care homes and taking residents on fully staffed excursions ranging from local community gatherings to the Aspen Music Festival and Las Vegas trips.
Jeff holds a B.S. in Accounting and an M.S. in Sociology. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Eden Alternative, as Treasurer of the Pioneer Network, and as Vice President of the Colorado Health Care Association. His contributions to the field have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Vesta Bowden Award for outstanding service to long-term care, the Distinguished Pioneer in Aging Award from the Colorado Gerontological Society, and the Distinguished Veteran Advocate Award.
Gail Meehan BS, MPH, LNHA
Gerontologist & Healthcare Advocate
Gail brings decades of leadership and expertise in the areas of public health, gerontology, and elder care advocacy. She currently serves as Principal of AgeWise Advisors and is the Founder and Chair of Senior Health Advocates Colorado.
Gail’s career spans executive leadership roles across government agencies, hospitals, nursing homes, and prestigious academic medical centers. Her experience includes work with the Veterans Administration Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) and the Harvard Division on Aging, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, and New York Presbyterian Healthcare System nursing facilities. Throughout her career, she has designed, launched, and managed innovative social, clinical, and residential care programs that elevate quality of life for older adults.
Gail earned a B.S. from the University of Vermont and a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) from the Boston University School of Medicine. She completed a Geriatric Fellowship focused on mental health and aging at the University of Massachusetts. She also received funding to research alternatives to institutional care in Denmark at the World Health Organization, Global Program for the Care of the Aged, and at the Motala Hospital, Sweden. A dedicated advocate, she served on the Live Oak Advisory Committee and the Colorado Strategic Action Committee on Aging.
Old Man Moses
Scribe
How I Became a Journalist
Stop the Press
During my senior year at Hamilton College in upstate New York, I worked the 8:00 to midnight shift after my fellow editors had succumbed for the day. Their duty was done; mine was just beginning. The date was March 31, 1968. The time was 9:00 pm. Minutes later, the first headline blazed across the wire as LBJ announced his decision to not seek or accept the nomination for presidency. “Stop the press!” I shouted as I nearly leaped into the printing area while doing my best to hide my glee.
Easy Rider
After graduating, I spent the summer of 1968 riding 8,000 miles on my newly acquired (and longingly coveted) BMW R60 motorcycle, camping out nightly inside my sky-blue tent as I zigzagged westward with no particular destination (trying, I suppose, to mimic Easy Rider) and ending up in San Francisco. Short on funds (a situation becoming thematic), I moved into a residence hotel on Sacramento Street offering shared rooms for singles (mostly women) and where three other guys and I shared four bunk beds in the basement of the hotel while waiting on the residents during their daily dinners in exchange for rent.
San Francisco from the Rooftop
With little money left and no desire to participate in the escalating horrors of Vietnam, I signed up to become a VISTA Volunteer (aka Volunteers in Service to America). My initial assignment was to report to Denver where I had no desire to go. Adding to this, I had fallen in love with a woman named Charla living on the fourth floor of our residential skyscraper, giving us scant opportunity to become better acquainted.
One evening after serving dinner to the residents, I grabbed Charla’s hand as we headed for the elevator. Arriving at the top floor, we quickly found the unlocked door that I had identified earlier, and behind it a stairway headed skyward. Eyes ablaze, we stepped onto the flat-top roof, looking around in every direction. Awestruck, we gazed upon spectacular views of the San Francisco skyline that we could never have seen or imagined from below
The following morning, with help from Charla and a fellow basement dweller, I grabbed my bunk bed mattress, sky blue tent, gas lantern, and other nighttime urban necessities. We headed for the roof – blissed out by the beauty of the earth below and the endless sky above.
Fearing discovery, we went about daily business, going back and forth between our paradise in the skies with our lives hidden below. How long might this last, we mused. Forever was not in the cards. Ten days later a woman in a neighboring hotel called our manager to report the presence of a tent on top of his roof. Our gig was up. Game over.
Discovered. Not jailed. Chastened. Not evicted. Happily, we received a standing ovation the next time we arrived to serve dinner to the residents.
VISTA In New Orleans
VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) was calling. The good news? They were sending me to New Orleans. I leapt at the opportunity. Leaving San Francisco in the winter of 1969 on my faithful R60, I fought through a wintry storm, averaging a hundred miles a day, to join my fellow Volunteers in a week-long training session designed to “acclimate” ourselves to living in poverty. A few days later I moved into a shotgun house in a poor Black neighborhood called Gert Town. Soon I was getting my daily nutrition from one-dollar plates of beans and rice, spaghetti, and cans of soda pop, while the owner Miz Margaret belted out the Blues. We had arrived.
I already had a plan. I quickly put together a plan to raise capital to develop a locally staffed newspaper targeting poverty-stricken Black neighborhoods throughout New Orleans. Midway through the spring of 1969, my plan was taking shape. By midsummer, we published the initial issue of The Carrollton Advocate. We had an office, volunteers, and a distribution network. We had high hopes! And, we had a few wealthy friends – “funders” – willing to keep us afloat as we worked to turn our unlikely dream into a reality. On occasion, we thanked them by stopping by The House of the Rising Sun in the French Quarter – a New Orleans institution dating back to the 1860s a front for distributing under-the-counter marijuana to our uptown friends and others. (The French Quarter itself dates to 1718.)
The newspaper was a success, at least I thought so. Happily, so did our well-healed liberal sponsors who kept us afloat as we began to generate community support.
Police brutality was the big issue in those days. We publicized our phone number into Victory Over New Orleans Forces of Brutality (or VONOFOB). We soon started getting calls from potential victims. I would hop on the R60, go to the scene, and take photos. Later we would interview alleged victims of police misbehavior and publish their stories.
A year or so later, the newspaper was approaching self-sufficiency. My two-year VISTA commitment was coming to an end. I had decided to pursue a law degree, and fellow Vista Volunteer AJ and I had agreed to get married. We did. I was accepted at the University of Colorado Law School in Denver. We said goodbyes to New Orleans, married in New Rochelle NY, and headed for Denver.
Before leaving New Orleans, we turned over our beloved The Carrollton Advocate to a rising politician. Sadly, our newspaper died two months later.
Senior Edition
Off to Denver
With no reliable income source to rely upon, I took a daytime job at a Denver Parks and Recreation Senior Citizens Center, playing Bingo and Checkers and performing skits for the amusement of our daily attendees.
I attended DU Law School to stay solvent while AJ worked during the day at the Denver Public Library. I resented having to take my law classes at night. My fellow night students were hoping to join law firms. The activists, attending day classes, were still planning to change the world.
On a whim, I offered to take over the center’s monthly newsletter that listed little more than the daily schedule. I agreed. I “perked” it up a bit, adding short news notes, a joke or two, and whatever might occur to me.
What occurred to me was this: The Parks and Recreation operated ten senior centers throughout the Denver area. Why not a single newsletter covering the entire Denver metro area? They liked the idea, gave me the go-ahead, and in early 1973, I created the first edition of the Senior Edition.
Two years later, I dropped out of law school, quit my job with the Parks department, secured a $10,000 federal grant, found an investor (a nursing home owner), hired a small staff, and went into business.
I went to the annual national conference of the Gray Panthers in Chicago that year and provided extensive coverage of Maggie Kuhn and her followers.
I published the first Old Man Moses column in the November 1975 Senior Edition. It was titled: I Met Some Beautiful People in Chicago. I couldn’t stop. I continued publishing Old Man Moses monthly for the next 15 years.
This is how I became a journalist.
Contributing Writers
David stang
Personal Defender of the Right to Grow Old Respectfully!
David Stang’s life has been defined by a lifelong commitment to human dignity, advocacy, and social justice across global and local communities.
In the 1960s, David served as a Maryknoll priest in Africa, where he learned three tribal languages and started farming co-ops in Tanzania and Kenya.
His journey began with extensive foreign missionary training under dedicated international educators, absorbing diverse cultural perspectives that instilled a deep appreciation for universal human rights. He focused on empowering local communities by fostering education, self-sufficiency, and personal independence.
David eventually left the priesthood, after attending graduate school in California, where he earned a master’s degree in behavioral science. He found a job in Colorado as a Nursing Home Administrator, married and had four children.
As a Nursing Home Administrator, David advocated for the freedom and dignity of older adults. He initiated nursing home programs that promoted active living and community engagement, directly challenging societal notions about aging while ensuring residents’ voices were met with compassion and respect.
When tragedy struck his family, David spent a decade navigating the Brazilian Amazon courts to passionately defend his late sister, Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old American nun and environmental activist. Sister Dorothy was murdered for her courageous fight for the poor to claim their rights to land, as well as for the vital
preservation of the Amazonian Forest, a resource critical to our planet’s health and biodiversity. David fought tirelessly to honor her legacy and continues her courageous campaign for the land rights of rural communities and the vital preservation of the Amazonian Forest.
Today, David remains a steadfast champion for older adults. Through ongoing advocacy, he raises awareness about the essential contributions of the elderly, asserting everyone’s right to age with respect and striving toward a world where aging is embraced with dignity.
Bill Brummet
“Designing Purpose and Community Into Supportive Living”
Bill Brummett brings over 30 years and 200 projects of experience focusing on innovative, user-centered design and programming for seniors. His work spans the entire continuum of care and includes work in Colorado, California, Oregon, Utah, Missouri, and Maine.
Grounded in an advanced architectural background, Bill holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning—where he served as a Fellow at the Institute on Aging and Environment—and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts.
An accomplished author and researcher, Bill has published four books, including the award-winning The Essence of Home: Design Solutions for Assisted Living Housing and Creating Environments of Support: A Handbook for Dementia-Responsive Design (co-authored with Sarah Campernel). He has led over 20 industry research projects and frequently presents at regional and national conferences.
Bill has served on non-profit Boards of Directors, including the Colorado LeadingAge Board and the Colorado Alzheimer’s Association Board. His blog, Concerto Consulting: Designing Purpose and Community Into Supportive Living, draws on his extensive research to explore how community-based housing can help elders live well and thrive longer.
Evy Cugelman
Educator, consultant, and activist in gerontology
Evy Cugelman brings extensive expertise in gerontology, person-centered care, dementia, and complementary therapies to her work as an educator, author, and advocate.
Evy served as an Innovation Specialist for Piñon Management & Vivage Senior Living, providing education and consulting across the field. She holds educator certifications in leading culture-change models, including the Eden Alternative (Eden Associate Training, Dementia Beyond Drugs, and Leadership Training), The Green House Project, the Second Wind Virtual Dementia Tour, The Validation Method, and Therapeutic Touch.
Earlier in her career, Evy served as Long Term Care Manager for the Victorian Order of Nurses in Ontario, Canada, overseeing three adult day programs and an Alzheimer’s respite program. As Education Coordinator for the Simcoe County Alzheimer Association, she taught all aspects of dementia and caregiving throughout Canada.
A committed co-creator of transformative educational programs, Evy co-authored the Eden Alternative Empowered Teams program—a 29-module curriculum designed to cultivate self-directed work teams—as well as a Complementary Therapies Curriculum for long-term care. Evy also co-convened The Live Oak Project, a national initiative dedicated to reimagining, redesigning, and transforming long-term supports and services, and served as a part-time Community Builder for The Eden Alternative home office. She is currently writing a book on aging well, spirituality, and healing principles.
Marysue Moses
Dementia Educator and Consultant
Marysue Moses is a dementia educator, consultant, and former memory care coordinator who helps caregivers and professionals create more meaningful, engaging experiences for people living with dementia.
The youngest of five siblings, Marysue comes from a Scrabble family. She loves words, especially those of Shakespeare. When she was a devoted “theatre kid” playing Gertrude in Hamlet at a New Jersey high school, she had no clue that the creative skills she was developing as an actress would help her in her mid-life change of career—and lead her to writing a book.
Marysue adored working directly with people living with dementia when she served as an Activities Coordinator and Memory Care Coordinator for twelve years. After earning a Master’s in Gerontology, Marysue became the Dementia Program Coordinator for Ebenezer Management Services, providing training and guidance on dementia care best practices at close to 40 sites. Now semi-retired (how else could she ever write the book that was rattling around in her brain?), she still serves Ebenezer as a Dementia Educator.
Marysue has presented on dementia topics at conferences in the Twin Cities, Duluth, San Diego, Atlanta, and Paris. She enjoys speaking, training, and consulting opportunities.
Order Looking Past Dementia via Marysue’s website: www.lookpastdementia.com (click on BOOK)