- Home
- About Us
- Better Care
- Our Book
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Before Your Mother Enters The Nursing Home
- Chapter 2: The First Day
- Chapter 3: Your Mother's Room and Her Property
- Chapter 4: Making the Most of Visits
- Chapter 5: What Should Happen in the First Weeks
- Chapter 6: Planning Your Mother's Care
- Chapter 7: The Care Plan Conference
- Chapter 8: Working With a Hospice
- Chapter 9: Activities
- Chapter 10: Paying For Nursing Home Care
- Chapter 11: If the Nursing Home Wants to Discharge Your Mother
- Chapter 12: Dealing With Problems Yourself
- Chapter 13: Getting Help With Problems
- Fact Sheets
- Minimum Staffing
- Our Book
- Family Councils
- What is a Family Council?
- Why are Family Councils Important?
- Benefits of a Family Council
- What Do Family Councils Do?
- The Rights of Family Councils
- How to Start a Family Council
- Why Smart Nursing Homes Want Family Councils
- Tips to Nursing Home Staff for Starting a Family Council
- Where Can I Find a Family Council?
- Resources for Your Family Council
- Looking for a Nursing Home
- Getting Help
- Advocacy
- Support Us
- Contact Us
Board of Directors
Ann Fisher
ANN HILTON FISHER, J.D. has been the Executive Director of the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago since 1997. She and her staff represent low-income individuals with AIDS and HIV on a wide range of legal issues and provide frequent training for providers, case managers, and consumers. Prior to joining the AIDS Legal Council, Ann was an attorney in the Disability Rights Project of the Legal Assistance Foundation. In that position, she represented nursing home residents on resident’s rights issues and filed a class action suit to compel Illinois and Chicago to strengthen their nursing home ombudsman programs. She has been on the ICBC Board of Directors since 1989.
Nancy Flowers
Nancy Flowers is the Social Work Manager for Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care, where she manages a staff of 11 full-time and nine part-time Masters prepared social workers. Ms. Flowers is a licensed clinical social worker who received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Indiana University. She has thirty three years of clinical and management experience working with older adults in hospital, home health care, hospice, assisted living, long-term care and municipal settings.
Ms. Flowers recently completed her term on the Board of Directors and Leadership Council of NCCNHR: The National Consumer Voice for Quality Care. Prior to joining Rainbow Hospice, she spent 12 years as the Nursing Home resident ombudsman for the City of Evanston, being named the 2004 Long Term Care Ombudsman of the Year by the Illinois Department on Aging. She is past president of the Illinois Association of Long-Term Care Ombudsmen. Ms. Flowers served as the Chair of the Illinois Department on Aging’s Long Term Care Council and was a member of the Illinois Department on Aging’s Elder Self-Neglect Steering Committee. In 2005 Ms. Flowers served as one of the Governor’s delegates to the White House Conference on Aging. She has been a field instructor for local graduate Social Work Programs for over 30 years and co-facilitates graduate social work field placements at RHPC.
Steven Fox
Dr Steven Fox is the medical director of Wellspring Personal Care. For the past 30 years the primary focus of Dr. Fox’s clinical practice, teaching and research has been the care and treatment of elderly and disabled persons.
Dr Fox's expertise in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care began with his Master’s Degree research conducted in 1977. Since 1989, he has conducted forensic examinations and provided expert testimony in criminal and civil elder abuse and financial exploitation trials. He is a recognized court-appointed expert in guardianship, undue influence, and probate proceedings. Dr. Fox has taught and published on the topics assessment of decisional capacity, guardianship, reality testing, personality disorder, nursing home care and litigation.
Louise Hildebrand
Louise Hildebrand is Senior Vice President and Regional Trust Manager at U.S. Bank. She is also a licensed attorney.
Josh Mitzen
Josh Mitzen grew up in Evanston, Illinois and graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1990. He graduated from The John Marshall Law School in 1995. Josh worked at Metropolitan Family Services for 5 years in the Adult Protective Services division, investigating allegations of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation. He received their social services worker of the year award in 2001.
Josh formed his own businesses, Advocacy Services and Advocacy Guardianship Services, in 2003. Advocacy Services provides expert assessments, information, assistance and care management services regarding issues pertaining to Seniors and to adults who have a mental illness. Advocacy Guardianship Services serves as legal guardian for disabled adults. Josh assists individuals and families to make placement and care decisions, and works closely with residents living in all types of long-term care facilities in Northeastern Illinois.
Jay Terry
Jay Terry has over 30 years experience in local government advocacy for long term care residents, and regulation of long term care facilities. From 1989 to 2008 Jay served as Director of Health and Human Services for the City of Evanston, Illinois. His responsibilities included oversight of Evanston’s Long Term Care Ombudsman program, a program consistently recognized as the best in Illinois. During that period Evanston was one of the few communities in Illinois with its own local regulatory long term care ordinance. As Director of HHS, Jay was responsible for enforcement of the local ordinance.
Prior to his service in Evanston, Jay worked for over 11 years for the City of Chicago’s Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens and Handicapped, later the Department on Aging and Disability. While serving as Assistant Commissioner of that department, Jay and his staff created Chicago’s first protective services for older and disabled adults, both long term care ombudsman services, and elder abuse investigations.
Jay currently works as a consultant in the field of organization transition management, serving as interim executive leadership for not for profit organizations.
Lurletha Holder Ward
Lurletha Ward first began working with nursing home residents because of her personal dissatisfaction with the care her sister and other people living in her nursing home were receiving. She was inspired to advocate on behalf of nursing home residents and educate her community about the rights of residents.
Ms. Ward has served as President and Vice President of a Family Council in Chicago. She serves as a Volunteer Ombudsman, visiting nursing home facilities to insure that the concerns of residents are being met. Her objective is to educate, advocate and inform the community about the rights of nursing home residents and nursing home related issues. Ms. Ward became a board member of ICBC because she wanted to work with an organization that had a mission that was aligned with hers. She has given oral and written testimonies to the state legislature on how to improve the lives of and care given to nursing home residents.