2022 National Mature Media Awards Judges

We would like to thank our 2022 judges for their time and expertise in reviewing this year’s entries. Please note: Judges were not permitted to review any entries submitted by their organizations.

Interested in serving as a judge for the 2023 competition? Please complete our judging application form or contact Pat Henze, executive director, of the National Mature Media Awards program: phenze@seniorawards.com or 800-828-8225.

Eileen Alkabes is highly experienced in a wide range of industries including senior living, non-profit organizations, arts & culture, education, real estate technology, and luxury retail. She works closely with clients to achieve their goals through creative storytelling, traditional media relations, strategic campaign planning and community engagement. Throughout the years, Alkabes has had the great opportunity to learn from and work alongside some of the most highly respected industry leaders in the country.

Brie Burnham, Creative Marketing Manager, Council on Aging of Central Oregon

Jeff Doggett, Creative Director, Doggett Advertising

Charlotte Doyle, RN is a graduate of Trocaire College and Southern Illinois University Carbondale with degrees in Nursing and Healthcare Management respectively. She has completed post graduate work in workforce management at SIUC. As a Registered Nurse, Ms. Doyle focused on working with children and adults with special needs prior to relocating to the Chicago area. Since 1992, her emphasis has been on long term care, serving as a Clinical Care Coordinator, Clinical Analyst, and most recently, Director of Clinical Operations for a nation-wide Continuing Care Retirement Community. Now retired, Ms. Doyle continues to focus on needs of seniors by serving on the Senior Council Board of Libertyville, Illinois.

Janis Ehlers heads The Ehlers Group, an award-winning marketing and communications company specializing in senior living communities. She holds an MBA in real estate marketing from Nova Southeastern University and a BS in Journalism and Public Relations from the University of Florida. Her strength is spearheading innovative strategic marketing and communications efforts for the company’s clients and offering services ranging from community marketing assessments to social media, podcasting, mystery shopping, public relations, event planning, direct mail, branding and positioning.

Wendy Foster is Vice President of IVY Marketing Group. An award-winning company founded in 1990, IVY Marketing is a full-service public relation, marketing, crisis communications, and advertising agency specializing in the senior housing industry. She has been with IVY Marketing for 12 years, and is a PRSA certified content marketing manager.

Denise Graab is a marketing communications professional with more than 25 years experience. She joined Caring in September 2010, and is one of the original experts who developed and now manages Caring’s high-integrity consumer reviews program. In 2012, Denise launched and has since directed the annual Caring Stars service excellence award, which is based on ratings and reviews of senior living communities and senior care agencies. Prior to joining Caring, she curated thousands of school reviews for an education website, and has personally published more than 100 reviews of products, services, and businesses.

David Hodge, Chief Creative Officer, Antsey Hodge

Kerri Kristoff, Senior Project Manager, corecubed.

Kathy Laurenhue, M.A, C.H.P., is the author of the award-winning Wiser Now Wednesday, of dozens of webinars and slide shows, five books, hundreds of trivia quizzes, word games, and more, always with a lighthearted bent. She has an international audience of all ages, and her constant goal is to help people make new connections in their brains by learning (often quirky) new things, and to make new connections with one another by sharing those things. She is above all a cheerful person aiming to put others in good humor as an antidote to the world's chaos. Check out her primary website at www.WiserNow.com and email her at Kathy@WiserNow.com.

Demi Mallios, Marketing Manager, HumanGood.

Wes Meltzer is the Director of Marketing and Communications for Westminster Communities of Florida, the state's largest not-for-profit provider of senior housing and services. Leading the internal creative team of artists and social media managers, he is responsible for lead generation, lead cultivation, public relations and social media on behalf of the organization. Meltzer has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and lives in the Orlando area.

Lauren Messmer has more than 20 years of experience in strategic marketing management in the senior living space. As the President of Solutions Advisors Group, she specializes in marketing planning and strategy for new developments, and repositioning and expansion of retirement communities. She also conducts assessments of existing communities' marketing and sales efforts to provide recommendations regarding opportunities for improvement and increased return on investment.

Jason Persinger, Chief Marketing Officer, Caring.com.

Karen Reasoner, Creative Director, Porter One Design.

Loren A. Roberts is an award-winning art director that has spent the past decade with Life Plan Communities across the US developing brands that speak in a clear, exciting, dignified voice to the senior sector. Roberts believes strongly in collaboration, empowering and amplifying marginalized voices, and beauty as a force for positive change the world. He is the art director of the award-winning quarterly "The Planetary Report" and since 1993 has won accolades for his virtual and in-person event production, documentary film producing and editing, and creative solutions to large-scale brand transitions. One of his specialties is exploring -- from a "big-picture" perspective -- how technology can enhance the marketing landscape for his clients.
Stuart Rosenthal has been publisher and editor of the Beacon newspapers since he and his wife, Judy (the CEO), established the company in 1989. The award-winning monthlies serve the 50+ populations of Greater Washington, D.C., Greater Baltimore and Howard County, Md. More than 150,000 printed copies of these editions are distributed free of charge each month. All may also be read online at theBeaconNewspapers.com.

Sharla Seidel, Senior Project Manager/Multimedia Writer, corecubed.

Rob Siedenburg has been a soldier, a park ranger, a dairy farmer, a welding instructor, a mechanic, and a world traveler. After retiring from both the Army and a career in publishing 11 years ago, he walked across the state of Illinois, and resumed a career as a college professor of advanced academic writing at the University of Illinois. He is author of the Glossary of Publishing Terms. Rob is copyeditor for the Prime Life Times, a NAMPA newspaper published in Champaign, Illinois, by the Great News Media Group.

Susan Sizemore, Director of Communications, FiftyForward.

Amy Selle is the Vice President of corecubed. She acts as a strategic marketing partner to corecubed clients, helping them achieve results in an increasingly dynamic marketplace. She believes that in a competitive market where all businesses have services to sell, it is a company's brand and the ways it communicates with its constituents that set it apart from the pack. Amy serves annually as a judge for the National Mature Media Awards.

Bonnie Sisson is the Community Relations and Development Coordinator for AgeSpan, a 47-year non-profit leader in the field of elder care. AgeSpan provides in-home services and community programs that meet the diverse and changing lives of older adults, persons with disabilities, families, veterans, and caregivers and supports an individual's choice to remain as safe and independent as possible at home.

Rabbi Dr. Chaim Joseph Wender, F.LBC, is the retired Rabbinical Care Coordinator at the Hospice of Palm Beach County (now Trustbridge Health). Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, he earned his undergraduate degree in Theology with a Jewish Studies Concentration from Georgetown University (Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude). His Master's degree is in Rabbinics and Hellenistics (Scheur Foundation Fellow) from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his rabbinic ordination is from the Leo Baeck College in London, England. Rabbi Dr. Wender earned his Doctor of MInistry degree (specializing in Judaism, Pastoral Care and Gerontology) from the Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. Rabbi Dr. Wender served for 29 years as a Reform congregational rabbi, and was awarded the title of Fellow of Leo Baeck College (F.LBC) in recognition of 25 years in the rabbinate in 2004. He served as the Rabbinical Care Coordinator for Hospice of Palm Beach County, from 2008 until his retirement in May of 2017.