April 3, 2023

Meet the Award-Winning Chef Cooking at Brookdale Dowlen Oaks

About Cindy Baier

President & Chief Executive Officer

Lucinda (“Cindy”) Baier is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Brookdale Senior Living, the nation's premier operator of senior living communities. As of year-end 2020, the $3.5 billion company operates nearly 700 senior living communities and has the ability to serve approximately 60,000 residents through its independent living, assisted living, Alzheimer’s and other dementia care, and continuing care retirement communities and through its comprehensive network of services. The company's 40,000+ employees are taking care of America's seniors and, in 2020, Fortune magazine ranked Brookdale as one of the top 200 largest publicly listed employers in the country. Ms. Baier became Brookdale's President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors on February 28, 2018. As CEO, she initiated and is leading the company's operational turnaround strategy. Her accomplishments can be seen over an array of areas, including people, portfolio and operations. Retention rates of the company's top community leaders are strong. She helped focus the company's efforts on increasing diversity, resulting in the Board and executive leadership team approaching gender parity. Since becoming CEO, Brookdale has increased people of color in leadership roles on the executive leadership team. Ms. Baier led Brookdale's efforts to negotiate and restructure leases with its largest three REIT partners and to unlock significant value through the sale of assets, including Brookdale's interest in the unconsolidated entry CCRC ventures and the sale of the majority of its home health, hospice and outpatient therapy business. Within the second year after introducing the "winning locally" strategy, the company's Net Promoter Score® increased 20%. In her third year as CEO, J.D. Power recognized the company as #1 in customer satisfaction in assisted living/memory care communities. Ms. Baier has served for more than a decade as a board member of public and private companies and organizations. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Argentum and the Nashville Health Care Council, where she serves as Vice Chair, is a member of the NYSE Board Advisory Council, which identifies and connects diverse board candidates to NYSE-listed companies seeking new directors, and is on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Audit and Compliance Committee and the Board Quality and Safety Committee. Ms. Baier has been recognized by a number of professional organizations, including being named one of The CEO Forum Group’s 2021 Top 10 CEOs Transforming Healthcare in America; she is a recipient of the Corporate Citizenship 2020 Award from the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board; elected to McKnight's 2020 "Women of Distinction" in the Hall of Honor category; featured in the 2020 “In Charge” list by Nashville Medical news; named in WomenInc.'s 2019 Most Influential Corporate Directors list; recognized in the Nashville Business Journal's 2020 Health Care Leaders awards and for the second consecutive year was named to the Nashville Business Journal’s "Power 100" list, the "Most Admired CEO" list and the "In Charge" list by the Nashville Post. Prior to becoming CEO of Brookdale, Ms. Baier served as the company's Chief Financial Officer from December 2015. In addition to experience as a seasoned chief financial officer in several companies, she has had multi-billion dollar operations responsibility, been the chief executive officer for a publicly traded retailer, and served as an executive officer of a Fortune 30 company. Ms. Baier is a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of Illinois State University, with Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Accounting.

brookdale dowlen oaks chef pharella houston

If you asked the average person what it takes to be a chef, they might simply say it takes good taste or knowing your way around a whisk. But for Brookdale Dowlen Oaks Chef Pharella Houston, it’s much more than that. “You have to have the passion for it,” says Houston, “And you also have to have the compassion for it. I think those two things go together perfectly when you’re preparing food.”

Houston is a recent honoree of the National Black Chef’s Association, accepting her award on the heels of 26 years of culinary excellence in the senior living industry. She credits her love for cooking and for helping seniors with a close relationship with her food-loving grandmother.

“At first it was just giving her utensils, and then it was, ‘I’m going to teach you how to do hot water cornbread,’” says Houston. “I grew up living with elderly people, so it was always a passion for me to be around them, to get with them and talk about the foods they liked and didn’t like.”

It’s exactly this passion for food, for people, and getting to know their culinary preferences that sets Houston apart. Upon nomination, Houston says, she was lauded as a “prime example of what a chef should be” for her professionalism and for her commitment to resident satisfaction.

“I do take the time to go out and meet with [residents],” explains Houston. Even beyond meeting people when they first move in to the community, she says, “I always go to the dining room and talk to them and find out, ‘Hey, how was the meal?’”

But Houston’s conversations with residents aren’t solely limited to food preferences and dietary accommodations. They talk about life; they laugh.

“It’s an exciting group because they have so many jokes to tell you,” says Houston. “They tell their stories, they make me laugh…and my main focus is on pleasing them as far as their diets are concerned.”

And based upon her residents’ reactions, they certainly are pleased. Houston says her residents have a number of favorite dishes of hers that they request. Most commonly requested in the Beaumont, Texas, Brookdale community are comfort food favorites like fried chicken and fried fish, and one more seasonal specialty dish.

“The gumbo they ask for often – even in the summer,” laughs Houston. When asked for the secret to her gumbo, she had this advice to offer. “The secret to my gumbo is the roux—if you’ve got a good roux, you’ve got a good gumbo.”

But when it comes to pleasing her residents, the secret to their satisfaction isn’t just in the roux. It’s in the thoughtfulness and the love she infuses into each dish.

“They do have moments where they aren’t able to tell you what they like and don’t like,” explains Houston. “Sometimes the residents forget their allergies and I have to remind them… [so] it’s about sitting down and communicating with them and having that 1:1 relationship with them.”

In a sense, Houston isn’t just a chef—she’s a customer satisfaction specialist, a problem solver, a confidante and a friend.

“It’s about pleasing them and making them happy, because I do understand that they have given up a lifestyle they have had for many years. They’ve given up their home, they’ve given up their kitchen – so why not make that transition as happy as we can for them?”

Chef Houston’s work is as much of an art as it is a culinary science. When asked her favorite part about preparing food, the award-winning chef who aims to please couldn’t choose one – and instead named two: one, “Making the food beautiful—because everyone eats with their eyes,” and two, “When they taste it, come to the kitchen door, and ask for the chef.”