By Jan Landon
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Brent Hall need only look out his office window to see Tallgrass Creek taking shape. He watches as the construction site evolves into a community.

It is the perfect view for Hall, the director of resident life at Tallgrass Creek. And despite no one living on-site just yet, Hall is hard at work meeting and working with future residents and planning activities.

“Resident life is the engine that drives the Erickson mission,” he says.

Inspired by a statement
It was the Erickson mission statement that inspired him to apply for his new position in Overland Park. “At Erickson Retirement Communities we share our gifts to create a community that celebrates life,” it states.

Hall looked at his gifts and knew they would be a perfect fit for the job. He offers a wide grin and a firm handshake, and he is a self-described people person.

His job responsibilities include oversight of social work, wellness, pastoral ministries, community television, volunteer programs, community resources, and home health/home support.

Small-town son
The son of a truck driver, Hall grew up in Boone, Iowa, a town of about 12,000 people in the center of the state. Each summer he worked with his father, and through that he learned a strong work ethic, Hall says.

He still considers himself a small-town guy.

“I’m more of a rural flavor,” he says.

Hall earned a degree from Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, Mo., and earned an advanced degree from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill. He worked in pastoral ministry  for 20 years. In 2005, he was hired as the  pastoral ministries, gift planning, and volunteer programs manager and was quickly promoted to assistant executive director at Sedgebrook, an Erickson community in Lincolnshire, Ill., just 20 miles outside of Chicago.