By Jeff Ostroth
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
“I knew early on that I wanted to work with older adults,” says Marymae Henley, whose career has spanned more than 20 years.As a Tufts college student home for the summer in New Jersey, she took a course at Kean College “just by chance” under the late Dr. Robert Famighetti, a leading academic in the field of aging.
“It was a great class,” she says. “I came home one night and said, ‘Wow, okay.’ The light bulb literally blew, and so I proceeded on at Tufts, did research in rehabilitation medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center, and also took a year at Rutgers doing what I could in aging.”
From there Marymae attended the University of Southern California, where she received a Masters in Psychology with a focus onclinical aging.
Where did you work before joining Erickson?
“After grad school I worked at the YMCA in downtown Los Angeles leading and designing programs. Some of them were really exciting. I led a group on skid row and other programs as well.
“From there I worked in a hospital’s Center for Aging Research and Evaluation, where I designed a club-like program for people in the early stages of dementia. It was one of the first if not the first of its kind in the country. Then I moved back east and did start-up programs for an adult daycare company. Before coming to Cedar Crest, I worked a number of years with the Saint Barnabas Health Care System.”
Tell us about your work here and the Resident Life Department.
“I oversee eight areas that run the whole gamut:
Our residents’ first interaction with Resident Life happens before they move in, when they meet with one of our Resident Service Coordinators. It’s an opportunity for the team to get to know them, gather some basic information, and answer their questions about community life. Our Resident Service Coordinators continue to work with them as they become acclimated to their new community and with anything else that occurs in their life.