Promising Young Professional Moves Up at Parker



When things work really well a college student forges good connections, locates a company he admires, makes a name for himself there, and launches a very promising career.
 
Such an ideal scenario has unfolded for Alex Torres and Parker Home is delighted to be a big part of the story.
 
In the spring of 2012 Alex, then a public health major at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, took the Long-Term Care Administration class at Rutgers taught by Parker Home President and CEO Roberto Muñiz. Impressed with Mr. Muñiz’s perspective, Alex interviewed him for a paper in another class, Public Health and Aging, and took a tour of Parker at River Road and Parker at Stonegate. Alex found that he deeply admired Parker’s culture and its attitude of how to manage senior living residences.
 
Alex sought and secured a public health internship at Parker in spring 2013 with the help of Lisa Slater, Parker’s Director of Education. In that role Alex researched behavior management programs for people with dementia, visiting four licensed programs in New Jersey and then presenting his findings to the senior leadership team at Parker. His presentation was received with a round of applause by the assembled leaders and his recommendations formed the basis for plans for a small home residence at the new long-term living community Parker was then building (and recently opened) in Monroe.
 
Alex graduated Rutgers in spring 2013 and decided to seek certification as a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator (LNHA). While undergoing this serious course of study, which included an unpaid administrator in training internship, Alex maintained his ties with Parker by taking a paid position as a dining assistant. He took the LNHA exam in the fall of 2014 and passed on his first try.
 
Eager to build his credentials and exposure to the field, Alex started a master’s program in public administration at Rutgers Newark in spring 2014. Meanwhile, he told Parker’s Chief Talent Officer Chip Ross of his interest in finding a new role at Parker. Chip knew that a temporary Talent Specialist position had just been developed, to help Parker’s leadership design new leadership training programs and a software platform to support these programs, and thought that Alex would be well suited to the post. Alex interviewed for the position and was asked to fill the role. One of the fruits of his work was the successful design and rollout of the Cornerstone software program in early January 2015. Cornerstone helps guide Parker’s senior leaders in setting annual professional development goals and selecting training courses to meet those goals.
 
Alex’s stellar work in different areas earned him a great deal of admiration among Parker’s highest leaders, resulting in his promotion in late January 2015 to Laundry Supervisor for the Parker residences at Landing Lane, River Road, and Stonegate. In this role Alex will provide essential support and leadership to an area considered crucial to Parker’s reputation for high quality customer service and resident care.
 
Parker is delighted to see Alex’s rise in the ranks of its leaders and is quite certain that this young man has a very bright future ahead of him in the health care field.

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