SACRAMENTO, Calif. — LeadingAge California, a Sacramento-based chapter of the national seniors housing advocacy group, has selected Molly Forrest as its new chair. Her two-year term begins July 1.
Forrest is the CEO and president of the Los Angeles Jewish Home, a nonprofit healthcare system focused on seniors.
In the next two years, LeadingAge projects an 80 percent increase in the demand for aging-related healthcare. “This is a challenge facing all Californians of every age,” says Forrest. “Our system for providing senior care is inefficient and fragmented, and everyone pays for that. LeadingAge is playing an instrumental role in helping us think through how we as a society can finance the care our seniors deserve.”
Forrest has served on the LeadingAge board since 2009, most recently as vice chair. She has spent over 22 years overseeing Jewish Home, which serves more than 4,000 seniors annually.
A graduate of Oregon State University, Forrest is an advocate for equity and excellence in senior care. She frequently advises figures across the public, private and nonprofit sectors and is a guest speaker on geriatric issues for leading healthcare, eldercare and nonprofit organizations.
In addition, Forrest is active in a variety of community organizations, serving as past chair of the Association of Jewish Aging Services (AJAS), the California State University Northridge (CSUN) Professional Health Care Administration Committee, the CAL-PACE Board of Directors, and on the LeadingAge CA Strategic Planning Committee. She is a recipient of the Jewish Communal Professionals of Southern California Allan J. Kassin Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement, San Fernando Valley Business Journal Health Care Leadership Award, Jewish Free Loan Association Ben & Anne Werber Communal Service Award, and an Honorary Doctorate from American Jewish University.