Coleen Barkmeier

Coleen Bark­meier deft­ly bal­ances her respon­si­bil­i­ties as cor­po­rate sec­re­tary for the Board of Trustees and exec­u­tive admin­is­tra­tive assis­tant to CEO Kevin McGee. ​“This is the per­fect job for me. I can com­bine my love of work­ing on behalf of seniors and my skills in the hos­pi­tal­i­ty indus­try.” Her expe­ri­ence in both began ear­ly in life. ​“My grand­fa­ther lived with us when I was young. And when I was in third grade, I remem­ber vis­it­ing the Wash­ing­ton and Jane Smith Home (now Smith Vil­lage) with my Brown­ie Troop.”

In her teens, Bark­meier had intern­ships at Chicago’s Depart­ment on Aging and a col­lege-lev­el pro­gram at Dis­ney World, which she put to use plan­ning activ­i­ties at a South Side nurs­ing home and lat­er coor­di­nat­ing wed­dings and cor­po­rate events.

After rais­ing four chil­dren and return­ing to the work­force, Bark­meier was attract­ed to Smith Senior Liv­ing because, ​“I have always had a spe­cial place in my heart for seniors and every day I am in awe of the time my co-work­ers give to their jobs.”