Affordable Senior Living

Heather Kolakowski is a lecturer in food and beverage management at Cornell’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration and Associate Director of the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures. She teaches several food and beverage courses, including “Restaurant Management” and “Nonprofit Social Enterprise and Food Justice.” Ms. Kolakowski is also the faculty advisor for Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC), the student-run hospitality showcase conference that allows students the opportunity to put theory into practice each spring while taking on leadership responsibilities. She is the recipient of the 2017 Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship for her dedication to service learning.

Jay Woolford has over 35 years of executive management experience in senior housing, working with affordable senior housing, life plan communities, assisted living/independent living, and other senior housing options. His focus has been on strategic planning, organizational growth, and new product and service line development. Mr. Woolford has run nonprofit organizations, serving as CEO of Sustainable Housing for Ageless Generations (SHAG), which operates and/or supports 39 affordable senior communities, and worked in real estate development. In 2021, SHAG affiliated with another senior living nonprofit, Transforming Age, and created a new subsidiary, CIRC. He is now focused on new real estate development initiatives for CIRC, primarily affordable and mid-market senior living. Mr. Woolford attended Middlebury College and holds a B.Arch. degree from Cornell University. He has served on numerous industry and nonprofit boards.

Mitch Brown is Principal Consultant for Senior Housing Consulting. With more than 25 years of experience in all facets of senior housing, he now provides strategic guidance to investors, developers, and operators of active adult and full-service senior living communities. Prior to forming his own consulting firm Mr. Brown served as Senior Managing Director for Greystar’s Active Adult platform and was the Chief Development Officer for Kisco Senior Living, a full-service senior living owner and operator. He served as the chair of the ULI Senior Housing Council for several years and has been an active member of the American Seniors Housing Association for over 20 years. Mr. Brown holds a B.A. from The Evergreen State College and earned his M.A. from UCLA’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Prior to entering operations in senior housing, Severine Petras’ investment banking career spanned a decade of lending and structuring debt solutions for senior housing and healthcare. She began her career in public finance at Natcity Investments and moved to Chicago as an SVP for 5/3 Securities. Later, at Merrill Lynch Capital, Ms. Petras focused solely on balance sheet lending in senior housing.
In 2009, Ms. Petras and her family changed career directions when they saw a larger need in the affordable and publicly funded sector, as the growing demands in senior housing lacked private pay funds. With her banking experience, Ms. Petras focused on identifying viable properties, producing lenders and investor pro formas and budgets that provided turnaround plans, including assistance in securing and structuring debt for the properties in areas that support alternatives to private-pay assisted living.
Priority Life Care currently focuses on third-party management partnerships and provides all services available to its seniors in independent living, assisted living, and memory care communities. As CEO, Ms. Petras is also charged with leading the company in pursuit of its purpose to support independence. She strives to empower and inspire her management team as well as community-level employees to be mindful of the importance of their roles serving their residents in their homes daily.