Circle Leader Bios
Fueled by an understanding of the challenges of caregiving, our Circle Leaders listen carefully, keep it ‘real’, suggest out-of-the-box solutions and encourage participants to engage and share with one another. Many are experienced practitioners and thought leaders who care deeply and who are not afraid to challenge the status quo.
Listen. Learn. Guide. Act.
Susan Rowe
Susan Rowe was a caregiver for her mother and has been leading programs at Daughterhood since its inception in 2015. She has a background in Information Technology and leading church congregations in worship. Susan serves on the front lines of Daughterhood’s service to its community, bringing a strong sense of empathy and a belief in building an authentic community of, “friends helping friends”. Susan is also an award-winning songwriter and has composed the music for Daughterhood The Podcast and the quarterly Daughterhood Policy Podcast.
Elizabeth Miller
Elizabeth Miller, Certified Caregiving Consultant, created the Happy Healthy Caregiver site, podcast, and community because she craved a supportive community like this when her caregiver responsibilities took on a whole new level after her dad passed away in 2014, and she had no choice but to move her chronically ill mom to Georgia. She was stressed, overwhelmed, and often felt suffocated by her never-ending to-do lists. The Happy Healthy Caregiver mission is to help caregivers worldwide become happier and healthier while caring for others. We can do hard things but don’t need to do them alone.
Jodi Hempel
Jodi Hempel is the founder and CEO of Success by Design. She is an entrepreneur, trainer, coach, and writer committed to helping women live a life they love. When Jodi was 19 years old, her mother suffered a massive stroke. Jodi instantly went from being an irresponsible college kid to her mom’s caregiver., a role she held for 20 years.That experience led her to co-authoring the book “Life: The Next Phase. Navigating the Issues of Caring for Your Aging Parents or Loved Ones” and creating the“Walking the Path with Your Aging Loved One” online training course. She has lived in Tucson for 9 years. She loves to travel to explore new places in the world.
Rosanne Corcoran
Rosanne Corcoran’s journey into caregiving began with a dementia diagnosis of her fiercely independent mother, opening the door to a twelve year journey in sandwich caregiving. After experiencing first-hand the stress and isolation caregiving brings along with the lack of meaningful resources for caregivers, Rosanne created Daughterhood the Podcast: For Caregivers. As host of the podcast, Rosanne brings her authentic voice to each conversation and discusses challenges caregivers face with experts in all fields. She has been a Daughterhood Circle Leader since 2019 and has been featured in CNN Health, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Barron’s, Next Avenue and others. She was also named one of the Next Avenue’s 2024 Advocates for Aging.
Kiki Reef
Kiki Reef has been involved with Daughterhood as a Circle Leader since November of 2016. She’s an experienced family caregiver, having cared for both her father who had Parkinson’s Disease and spinal cord issues (over a 10 year period) and her mother who had cancer (over a 1 year period). She has a background in corporate event planning and is a small business owner of a marketing consultancy with her husband. They currently live as digital nomads, but were previously based in the Los Angeles area. Kiki is an avid reader, dog lover, and has a sugar “issue”.
Nicole Smith
Nicole Smith is an author, speaker, and eldercare advocate. Nicole became immersed in the dementia dynamic when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2021. She released her first book, Diagnosis Dementia: Your Guide for Eldercare Planning and Crisis Management, in October 2023. Nicole is a distance caregiver for three aging parents and is the parent of five children. She prioritizes self-care to manage her space in the sandwich generation. Nicole shares thoughts on memory related memoirs, research, and resources on Instagram @dementiabookreview. Her book is available through her website www.njsmithbooks.com
Jessie Hillock
Jessie Hillock has worked professionally serving the dementia population for the past 10 years in independent living, assisted living, memory care, long-term care, and home health. She has provided over a thousand cognitive assessments over the course of her career and is all too familiar with the lack of support families receive when facing cognitive decline challenges. Through these experiences, Jessie was driven to create her private practice, The Memory Compass, to provide individualized support services for families navigating a dementia diagnosis, picking up where our healthcare system drops off. Jessie was raised by her grandparents and her own village of support. She is a mother of one young son conceived via IVF, wife to an amazing cancer survivor, and dog mom to a rescue pittie.
Jean Ross
Jean Ross is a nurse who has spent 20 years working in various roles on the frontlines of healthcare. Jean knows care is only getting more difficult for families, healthcare practitioners, and community-based organizations to coordinate together. She is the co-founder of Primary Record, an application built to replace the three-ring binder and file folders families rely on today to share their health story. Jean is the mother to three sons, a wife to an emergency room physician, and the eldest daughter to two amazing, stubborn parents.
Jerri McElroy
A full-time in-home family-caregiver creatively engaging communities and connecting individuals to purposeful and impactful CARE, through shared experiences and resources! Jerri has been a family-caregiver to her dad since 2017, and a caregiver (mom) to her six children since 1997. (every mom is a caregiver, btw) Within her own caregiving journey, she has often stumbled across information that was vital to the quality of care she was providing to her father. As she began to share with other caregivers, it was obvious that more guidance and support was needed. Jerri is a Care Advocate, and is a member of several caregiver support networks across the globe. She is also a 2021-2022 Care Fellow of Caring Across Generations and a licensed and ordained minister of the Christian gospel.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Jerri has been a resident of DeKalb County, Georgia for 30+ years. She is a proud mom of six children and four grands. Her favorite color is lime green, and she enjoys line dancing, bowling, riding bikes, and double-dutch.