By Jacqueline Kimball
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
From her DNA to her resumé to her outlook, Executive Director Becky Converse seems tailor-made for Erickson’s retirement community in Northwest Columbus.
Introduced to Hickory Chase’s future residents at groundbreaking ceremonies on April 10, she’s now in her welcome center office. “When people drop in to say hello and see how things are coming along, I’m right here to build relationships with them,” she says. “I’m really excited about that.”
Converse claims her genes shaped her career. “My dad is a retired Lutheran pastor and my mom is a retired R.N.,” she says, “so my service orientation … for folks is built in my DNA. That’s how I was raised, and that’s how I live my life.”
She came from Michigan to Ohio to attend Capital University, earned bachelor’s degrees in art therapy and psychology, and put down roots in Columbus.
She worked first at Patterson Health Center, an inner city nursing home in a renovated mansion, where, she says, “I wasn’t content to have one position; I had to have several.” During her five-year stint, she was activities director; did social services, admissions, and art therapy; and also earned her L.S.W (Licensed Social Worker) designation and her nursing home administrator’s license.
While she was administrator at Lutheran Village of Columbus, she became a state-tested nursing assistant (S.T.N.A.). “My philosophy is I won’t ask anybody to do anything I’m not willing to do myself,” Converse says. Most recently, she spent 12 years as executive director and health care administrator at Forum at Knightsbridge.