With Eye on Growth, KARE Names PointClickCare Leader as Chief Strategy Officer

Senior living marketing veteran Cheryl Crooks is making the jump from PointClickCare to join senior living staffing startup KARE as chief strategy officer.

Crooks is joining KARE after eight years at PointClickCare, where she last worked as a regional vice president leading the company’s senior care market development team. She has spent the last 18 years in senior care overall, and started her career as a hospice educator.

KARE, which launched in 2019, is a senior living and care staffing app that connects caregivers, nurses, CNAs and hospitality staff with open shifts at communities of their choosing. The service exists in part as an alternative to agency staffing.

Crooks comes aboard as chief strategy officer as KARE is in “hyper-growth mode,” according to Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder Bridget Kaselak. As part of her new role, Crooks will help manage the company’s expansion into new parts of the country.

“She’ll be able to hit the ground running as we are growing in two different geographies,” Kaselak told Senior Housing News. “She’s got a really great grasp on regulations and she will be able to help us navigate as we come upon expanding to some trickier states.”

KARE CEO Charles Turner has shared “mutual admiration” with Crooks over the years, according to a press release on her hiring. The company brought her on board in light of her ability to cultivate networks of senior living providers.

“It’s good to add to our team,” Kaselak added. “If you understand the industry, then you do well in creating a network.”

Kaselak has since the company’s inception had her eye on the “the future of where we needed to go, and who would help us get there.” Crooks’ hiring fits into that vision.

“She was definitely one of those people that we knew had a very strategic eye, a lot of experience in the space,” she said. “It became a matter of having the right people in our network and being able to partner with them when the time was right.”

While certain labor headwinds within the senior living industry may be improving, Kaselak said one core problem still remains: the industry’s labor pool is still too shallow.

“I still think we have a shortage and there just aren’t enough people to fill positions,” Kaselak said. “We need to fully understand what drives these workers and what motivates them — it’s a big needle to move.”

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