Our Trust­ed Leadership

Kevin McGee

President and CEO

Pres­i­dent and CEO Kevin McGee’s rela­tion­ship to Smith Senior Liv­ing dates to his col­lege days, when his grand­moth­er moved into Smith Vil­lage, for­mer­ly known as the Wash­ing­ton and Jane Smith Home. ​“Even as an active senior,” he says, ​“she under­stood the cen­tral role that being part of a vibrant com­mu­ni­ty plays for old­er peo­ple. Reflect­ing on my vis­its to her leads me to believe that my grandmother’s pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence point­ed me towards a career in gerontology.”

His own ear­ly-in-life expe­ri­ences inform Kevin’s resolve to pre­serve Smith Senior Living’s excep­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion for qual­i­ty care and life-enhanc­ing pro­grams. ​“Dur­ing our recent, ambi­tious growth we have stead­fast­ly remem­bered every­thing we do is about improv­ing lives of indi­vid­u­als in a mean­ing­ful way.”

An Illi­nois licensed nurs­ing home admin­is­tra­tor, McGee earned a M.B.A. in health­care admin­is­tra­tion and grad­u­at­ed with hon­ors from Saint Xavier Uni­ver­si­ty and magna cum laude with a master’s degree in geron­tol­ogy from East­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty, where he also holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

Raymond J. Marneris

Chief Financial Officer

“There is a lot of knowl­edge in these walls and I am glad the res­i­dents share their life expe­ri­ences as well as their dreams with us,” says Ray­mond J. Marner­is, Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer. ​“I am very aware we work in their home every day, and I am grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to do some­thing mean­ing­ful for them and their families.”

When he first came to Smith Senior Liv­ing, he remem­bers being struck by the love and car­ing that the staff and Res­i­dents share with each oth­er. Because Ray believes account­ing is a ser­vice depart­ment with­in any orga­ni­za­tion, he knows it is his team’s job to pro­vide the infor­ma­tion that man­agers need to per­form their duties effi­cient­ly and effec­tive­ly. ​“That way, both Res­i­dents and staff have the tools that pro­vide the resources they need to enjoy a rich and ful­fill­ing life.”

Marti Jatis

Executive Director, Smith Village

Mar­ti has a sol­id Smith back­ground, hav­ing served 14 years as the direc­tor of food ser­vice oper­a­tions for both Smith Vil­lage and our sis­ter cam­pus, Smith Cross­ing, in Orland Park. In addi­tion, Mar­ti is a licensed nurs­ing home admin­is­tra­tor.​“My goal is to make res­i­dents feel this is their home and they do have a say in things. It’s impor­tant that I and mem­bers of my entire team are care­ful to remem­ber we’re in their home and to keep every­one safe and comfortable.”

Amanda Mauceri

Director of Residential Operations, Smith Crossing

With more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in senior liv­ing, most with Smith com­mu­ni­ties, Aman­da inspires her staff to employ a per­­son-cen­tered approach.​“I believe in cul­ti­vat­ing a sense of com­mu­ni­ty, encour­ag­ing res­i­dents to take joy in life as they make new mem­o­ries. It goes along with liv­ing life to the fullest.”

Joyce Kindt

Human Resources Director

Joyce brings more than a decade of HR expe­ri­ence, includ­ing senior liv­ing com­mu­ni­ties, to Smith Senior Liv­ing. She endeav­ors to enrich the lives of both employ­ees and res­i­dents because, ​“Hap­py, con­fi­dent employ­ees equal hap­py, well-cared for res­i­dents.” She claims to learn some­thing new every day from engag­ing with res­i­dents, say­ing ​“I always walk away enriched.”

James Schmitt

Chief Information Officer

To Chief Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer James Schmitt the best part of his job is ​“con­nect­ing Res­i­dents with tech­nol­o­gy.” But that is only part of it. He is respon­si­ble for the imple­men­ta­tion and main­te­nance of all tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions through­out the Smith com­mu­ni­ties. His depart­ment also pro­vides sup­port and train­ing of emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies for admin­is­tra­tive staff and res­i­dents alike. Cur­rent­ly, he is lead­ing the inte­gra­tion of Smith’s elec­tron­ic med­ical record solu­tion that will be shared with oth­er health­care providers to stream­line the trans­fer of Res­i­dents’ patient health infor­ma­tion to keep Smith com­mu­ni­ties at the van­guard of ser­vice to Residents.

Yahaira Ramirez RN

Corporate Director of Clinical Operations

Cor­po­rate Direc­tor of Clin­i­cal Oper­a­tions Yahaira Ramirez RN says, ​“I feel priv­i­leged to know Res­i­dents. They’re such intrigu­ing peo­ple and I am proud to be their advo­cate.” As a nurse and Smith Village’s direc­tor of nurs­ing for near­ly 10 years before becom­ing Smith Senior Living’s direc­tor of clin­i­cal oper­a­tions, Yahaira has her own ideas about what make Smith com­mu­ni­ties spe­cial. ​“We pro­vide care for Res­i­dents as they tran­si­tion through lev­els of liv­ing. We’re the one con­stant in a chang­ing world for them and their families.”

In her new posi­tion, she leads 200 CNAs, LPNs and RNs car­ing for Smith Cross­ing and Smith Vil­lage Res­i­dents. She is proud to say, ​“we pro­vide very good qual­i­ty care because our health­care pro­fes­sion­als make sure they are aware of each Resident’s needs and they are skilled to pro­vide the care they give.” For fam­i­lies, ​“it’s com­fort­ing to know we are doing a good job.” And for employ­ees, ​“it’s very ben­e­fi­cial to watch them grow. Some CNAs return to school to become LPNs or RNs.”

Respond­ing to the chal­lenge of work­ing with nurs­es on two cam­pus­es rather than walk­ing the floor of only one, she says, ​“I believe in build­ing rela­tion­ships with my col­leagues, to have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the needs and aspi­ra­tions of both staff and res­i­dents.” She adds, ​“I am hon­ored to be entrust­ed with con­tin­u­al­ly eval­u­at­ing both cam­pus­es to make sure we’re con­sis­tent­ly meet­ing and exceed­ing top qual­i­ty standards.”