Stephanie Harris, CEO and Principal, established Turnaround Solutions in 2005 while a student at St. Louis University School of Law and Arrow Senior Living in 2009.
Since then, Stephanie has quadrupled Arrow Senior Living’s footprint in the growing senior housing industry. In 2019 the company was nationally ranked as the 66th largest senior housing operator in the United States by Senior Housing Executive magazine. Arrow Senior Living currently manages more than $300 million in real estate assets with an additional $125 million under construction. The company also has more than 1,000 employees and operates 22 senior living communities with a combined capacity of approximately 2,000 residents in Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Florida. Additional communities are currently under development.
As a senior living industry trainer and CEO, Stephanie is a strong advocate for proactive sales techniques that include taking as much time as necessary to help prospective residents understand the value of moving to a senior living community. This approach also helps senior living communities be more effective in increasing length of stays by converting leads at an earlier point in the prospect’s health decline. She believes this proactive approach is much more effective than the current industry approach of generating leads from need-driven sources and trying to capture as much market share as possible, which leads to impatience with sales and prospect apprehension.
Prior to a career in senior housing, Stephanie spent several years with numerous congressional and statewide campaigns and worked on Capitol Hill as a policy advisor.
She earned a Juris Doctorate with an emphasis in Health Law from Saint Louis University School of Law, earning honors in Client Counseling and Employee Compensation and Benefits Planning. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from American University with honors in political science.
Thought Leadership
Stephanie is recognized as a thought leader in the senior housing industry for developing sales and management methods that transform low-performing, low-occupancy communities into 100 percent occupied in a matter of months. She is the author of “Turning Leads into Move-Ins,” a digital training guide for senior housing sales, as well as an active member of several industry-related organizations, a frequent speaker at conferences, and a mentor to senior living professionals.
Stephanie has not only remained ahead of the game in focusing on serving the middle-market senior living industry sector, but she is also dedicated to providing creative thinking and innovation combined with inspirational core values to ensure the highest level of resident satisfaction in independent living, assisted living, and memory care communities.
She has built a strong sales culture across the entire Arrow Senior Living organization based on encouragement and open recognition of individual achievements.
Under Stephanie’s leadership, Arrow Senior Living has also become an industry pioneer – using new and innovative technology to enhance quality assurance and provide a safer, more secure and healthier environment for older adults living in its communities. The technology is used for and includes:
- Detecting and sending an automatic alert when a resident falls in his or her apartment. As a result, the resident doesn’t have to try to move to call for help, which can cause more extensive injuries
- Predictive analytics for vital signs ranging from respiratory issues to chest pain
- Detecting subtle changes in a resident’s mobility so proactive intervention, such as providing therapy, can be offered to help avert a crisis
- Digital tableside dining program that helps residents adhere to dietary guidelines prescribed by their personal physician
In addition to proactively prolonging residents’ good health, the technology makes it possible for staff to respond faster when a resident needs help. As a result, residents enjoy a better quality of life and Arrow Senior Living communities are able to operate more cost-effectively and deliver more value to residents and their families.
From her commitment to delivering maximum value for the under-developed middle-market segment to her focus on incorporating cutting-edge tools, such as predictive analytics technologies, Stephanie Harris is an innovator and leader. She understands the industry can’t just keep raising rents.
Her vision for the future of the senior living industry encompasses everything from addressing the shortage of quality healthcare workers to shifting strategies to focus on helping prospective residents who might choose to remain in their homes to understand and appreciate the value of moving into a senior living community before experiencing a critical decline in their health and abilities. The future depends on how the industry as a whole is operating and what it’s doing to increase length of stay.
As Stephanie stated earlier this year in an interview with the St. Louis Business Journal, “What I really enjoy about our company is that we are a magnet for technology because we’re a little quirky and a little counter-culture. Our whole purpose is to make senior living cool.”
Community Service & Recognition
Stephanie’s volunteer community service involvement is focused on seniors and veterans. She has served on the Young Ambassador’s Committee and played an active role in major fundraising events for the Alzheimer’s Association. In addition, she is a frequent speaker on financial assistance and benefits available to aging veterans and supports Adopt-a-Family and Veterans programs across five states where Arrow Senior Living operates. Stephanie recently was honored as one of 19 women across the country for the inaugural class of the “Women of Distinction Hall of Honor” by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and as a “Top 40 Under 40” professional by the St. Louis Business Journal.
