We have focused on workforce development at SCHAS in the last year, particularly valuing educating our leadership. We have eight Directors operating offices throughout East Tennessee in Oak Ridge, Maryville, LaFollette, Tazewell, Dandridge, Morristown, Sweetwater, and the main office in Knoxville. As a leadership team, along with the COO and CEO, we attended conferences, seminars, and workshops throughout the year to learn and grow in an aligned foundation of leadership principles.
Most recently, SCHAS Leadership attended the 2026 East Tennessee Service Leaders Foundation Conference in partnership with Maryville College and the community engagement program. What an incredible gathering of service-minded leaders! The conversations, ideas, and connections shared throughout the conference have the potential to create lasting impact in our organizations and communities.
The conference started with the Honorable Stephanie M. Jones delivering her keynote speech. In this engaging keynote, Judge Jones introduced a practical framework for aligning mission, leadership, and execution to multiply impact. We explored how the most effective organizations operate—by building trust, listening well, executing strategically, and staying grounded in the real needs of the communities they serve.
Past events were just as beneficial such as the Tennessee Nonprofit Network Nonprofit Storytelling Summit where we attended sessions on “Leadership at Every Level: Your Story. Your Impact”, “Transforming data into impact”, and “Turning stories into action.” The Tennessee Association for Home Care (TAHC) Spring Conference had a keynote address about “NeuroCoaching: The Science Behind World-Class Leaders”, along with sessions on engaged management, team building, and marketing strategies.
Together, we discovered tools for transformative leadership built on trust, vulnerability, belonging, and values. We learned about the benefits of a growth mindset versus fixed and how the roots of values and beliefs determine behaviors and actions.
At the LeadingAge Tennessee conference, we delved into leadership excellence and using the framework for emotional intelligence. We identified how we can continuously build on the components of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills to be strong leaders in caregiving, impact safely aging in place, and a solution for long-term care.
In Boston, the LeadingAge Global Conference brought together the culmination of the latest research, concepts, and frameworks in aging and in-home care services; building on our foundation of tools and knowledge, further strengthening our mission and vision of SCHAS.
We will continue to develop our leadership and caregivers, truly having the best in the industry!