About IHCA·ICAL > IHCA·ICAL Staff

As Executive Director, Steve Ackerson is responsible to the IHCA Board of Directors for overseeing all aspects of operations and long-term strategic vision for the IHCA and ICAL, Extended Care Services of Iowa (ECSI) and Iowa Health PAC. Steve maintains a proactive role in legislative relations, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement and is the Association’s liaison to the American Health Care Association.

As Deputy Director, Dr. Cindy Baddeloo (pronounced bad-low) assists the Executive Director with all apsects of managing the Association. She is responsible to the ICAL Board of Directors and is the spokesperson for assisted living, home care, hospice, and HCBS. She serves on various state and national public policy committees representing the association membership and is the liaison to the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) and the National Association of Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).

As Director of Membership Services, Marcia Hewitt manages IHCA·ICAL’s accounting and budgeting procedures, including Iowa Health PAC, Iowa Health Care Foundation and Extended Care Services of Iowa. In addition, Marcia maintains the American Health Care Association membership website, oversees membership recruiting and retention, and coordinates the IHCA’s annual Trade Show.

As Director of Regulatory and Government Affairs, Kelly Verwers Meyers, JD, is our members’ key resource for information on Iowa’s long term care and home care rules and regulations, the Iowa Code. Representing IHCA and ICAL on Capital Hill, Kelly monitors proposed rules and advances the Association’s position on proposed legislation by attending hearings and submitting comments. She works closely with the IHCA Medicare Committee, and the Nursing Facility Survey Results and Life Safety Task Force sub-committees.

As Director of Communications, Claire Seely works with the IHCA·ICAL Public Relations committee to meet the communications needs of our members. Her responsibilities include responding to media inquiries, editing the IHCA member publications and website, and producing all promotional materials, including those for our award and scholarship programs and the annual nursing home and assisted living week celebrations.

As Director of Education and Convention, Dave Tomlin is responsible for the planning and execution of all educational seminars, conferences and the IHCA·ICAL annual convention. Each year he coordinates over 50 IHCA·ICAL education sessions serving over 5000 attendees. He works directly with the Education and Convention committee to identify education topics and resource library content for our members. In addition, Dave maintains continuing education providerships through the boards that oversee discipline requirements for nursing home, assisted living facility, home health, and residential care facility professionals. 

Mary Jane Venteicher, RN, BA, LNHA, ALMC works closely with the IHCA and ICAL Quality committees. She is responsible for issues related to quality improvement, advancing excellence, clinical practice issues in all long term and home care, Care Watch, LTC Trend Tracker. She staffs both the IHCA and ICAL quality committees, the Iowa Nurses for Long Term Care. She is our trainer for QAPI, Interact, and other clinical areas.

Wende, as the IHCA Office Manager provides technical office support; serving as primary staff support to Executive and Deputy Director, working on special projects, assisting with website and database maintenance, and managing a wide variety of administrative tasks for legislative forums and fundraising. She also provides support for the association's accounting and budgeting systems.

Georgene Olson , Executive Secretary, provides support to the Director of Education and Convention by coordinating the Education and Convention committee, Iowa Nurses of Long Term Care, and Iowa Council of Activity Professionals meetings. She also oversees the education registration process, dissemination of course promotion and supplemental handouts, and tabulation of speaker evaluations. Georgene manages member CEU records and processes material sales and resource library orders. She is primarily responsible for answering and routing telephone calls, taking messages and handling requests when appropriate. 

Under the direction of the Director of Communications and Director of Convention and Education, the Communications Assistant assists in preparing member and press materials for our annual awards and scholarship programs, National Assisted Living Week, annual state convention and website content. Other duties include assisting with the planning of legislative forums and fundraisers and writing, designing and formatting brochures, newsletters and other member materials.