Congratulations to the 2025 Consumer Voice Leadership Award Winners! These individuals have demonstrated exceptional commitment to improving the lives of long-term care consumers. Awards were presented during our Annual Conference, in Arlington, Virginia.
Established in 2002 as a lifetime achievement award to honor a person whose life work exemplifies leadership in the field of long-term care reform, the award is also a tribute to Elma Holder, Consumer Voice’s founder and friend. Elma’s personal commitment, integrity, and vision shaped the organization and quality of care and life in long-term care.
WILLIAM LAMB, MSW, MPA, Lifelong Advocate
William (Bill) Lamb has dedicated his life to advocating for aging policy and reforming long-term care at both the state and national levels. With more than forty years of public service experience, he spent thirty years at the NC Department of Health and Human Services, where he retired as Chief of Planning for the Division of Aging. Following this, he worked as Associate Director for Public Service at the UNC Institute on Aging until 2013.
Bill remains actively involved in shaping policy affecting older adults. He currently chairs the Public Policy Committee for Friends of Residents in Long Term Care, a citizen action group in North Carolina focused on improving long-term care. He also represents Wake County in the NC Senior Tarheel Legislature, serves on the leadership team for North Carolina’s Master Plan on Aging, and leads North Carolina’s Governor’s Advisory Committee on Aging. Bill has played a significant role at the national level through his involvement with the National Consumer Voice, serving on both the Governing Board and the National Leadership Council.
Bill earned his Bachelor of Arts from Wake Forest University, a Master of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master of Public Administration from North Carolina State University. He is known for bringing clarity, compassion, and a systems-oriented perspective to his work. Whether addressing legislators or community volunteers, Bill motivates others through his deep expertise and authentic commitment to improving the lives of older adults.
The Special Lifetime Award honors a person who has dedicated their life to championing the dignity, rights, and well-being of nursing home residents and honors tireless advocacy, impactful policy reform, and relentless determination to reform long-term care.
TOBY EDELMAN, Ed.M., JD, Senior Policy Attorney, Center for Medicare Advocacy
Toby S. Edelman has been representing older people in long-term care facilities since 1977. As a Senior Policy Attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy since January 2000, Toby provides training, research, policy analysis, consultation, and litigation support relating to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Toby has testified before Congress and served on federal task forces, technical expert panels, and working groups on nursing home issues. Since September 1999, she has written a monthly newsletter on nursing home enforcement issues. Under two grants from the Commonwealth Fund, she evaluated the federal nursing home survey and enforcement system and its impact on state activities and provided technical assistance to states on effective enforcement practices. In cooperation with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, she completed a Commonwealth Fund project to evaluate seven states’ deficiency citations for misuse of antipsychotic drugs. Most recently, she organized a webinar on the history of the Nursing Home Reform Law, from the deregulatory action of the administration in January 1981 to the enactment of the Reform Law in December 1987.
Toby was the lead attorney for a statewide class of nursing facility residents who successfully challenged the state of California’s refusal to implement the federal Nursing Home Reform Law (Valdivia v. California Department of Health Services, Civ. No. S-90-1226 EJG (E.D. Calif. 1993). She has written amicus briefs on key nursing home issues, most recently in Connor v. Maryland Department of Health, Civ. No.: MJM-24-1423 (D. Md. Apr. 2025) (residents’ challenge to their state’s failure to conduct adequate oversight of nursing homes as violating federal disability laws), State of Kansas v. Becerra, Case No. 1:24-cv-110-LTS-KEM (N.D. Iowa, 2024) (nursing home industry’s challenge to final nurse staffing rule), and Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County v. Talevski, 143 S. Ct. 1444 (2023) (right of residents in publicly-owned nursing facilities to file lawsuits under 42 U.S.C. §1983 for violations of rights guaranteed by Nursing Home Reform Law). Toby received a B.A. from Barnard College (1968), an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1969), and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center (1974). She is a member of the Washington, DC Bar.
Cernoria McGowan Johnson (1909-1990) set up the national program of Nursing Home Ombudsmen in 1974. The award in her honor is presented to someone whose work has had national impact or is a model for national excellence and who exemplifies accomplishment in his or her chosen field.
CHERYL HENNEN, Minnesota State Long-Term Care Ombudsman
Cheryl Hennen is the State Ombudsman for the Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care. She has been employed as an Ombudsman since January 2004. She has also served as a Certified Ombudsman Volunteer, Regional Ombudsman, Policy Specialist, and Deputy Ombudsman. Ms. Hennen is responsible for the ongoing management and administration of the MN Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care, established in Federal and State law, a program of the MN Board on Aging. Ms. Hennen joined the State of MN in 2001, working in the Disability Services Division. Her primary responsibilities involved policy development and implementation of long-term care waiver programs, specifically serving individuals eligible for Medicaid receiving home and community waiver services. Before state government service, Ms. Hennen worked in county government social services. Ms. Hennen graduated from Metropolitan State University’s Human Services Administration and studied Negotiation-Mediation at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
The Consumer Voice Public Service Award recognizes and honors an individual or organization whose work has profoundly expanded coverage and public understanding of long-term care issues.
JAN SCHAKOWSKY, U.S. Representative
Jan Schakowsky was elected to represent Illinois’ 9th Congressional District in 1998, after serving for eight years in the Illinois State Assembly. Schakowsky serves in the House Democratic Leadership as a Chief Deputy Whip. She is a member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where she serves as the Ranking Member on the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee. Schakowsky is the co-chair and co-founder of the House Democratic Task Force on Aging and Families and was a leader in passing the Affordable Care Act, which provided health care to millions of Americans. She has also helped pass legislation to protect seniors and increase safety standards and testing for infant and toddler products. Jan lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband and their energetic rescue dog, Eleanor.
LLOYD DOGGETT, U.S. Representative Congressman
Lloyd Doggett represents his hometown of Austin, Texas, in the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves on the powerful Ways & Means Committee, the oldest committee of the United States Congress, and is the Ranking Member of its Health Subcommittee. Rep. Doggett is also a member of the House Budget Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation. As the top Democrat on the Ways & Means Health Subcommittee, Rep. Doggett works to put consumers first, lower Big Pharma monopoly prices, rein in fraud, waste, and abuse, and reverse Republican sabotage of our health care system. He has authored legislation to expand Medicare benefits to include coverage for dental, vision, and hearing services, allow Medicare to use its purchasing power to lower drug costs for seniors and taxpayers through negotiation, reduce wasteful taxpayer overpayments to Medicare Advantage private insurers, provide coverage to uninsured Americans in the Medicaid coverage gap, extend Medicare solvency, and more.
The Howard Hinds Award was established in 2005 in memory of the late Howard Hinds, a Tennessee District Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Howard was a true champion for residents and for the ombudsman program as well as a passionate advocate on national issues. The award honors an individual who has effectively advocated for long-term care consumers on the local level.
ELIZABETH SPEIDEL, Director of Community Engagement for the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman
Building community and connections, holding space, and supporting people advocate for justice in their lives are practices that Eliz holds dear. Fortunately, as Director of Community Engagement for the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman, she gets to do these things regularly.
Plus, she gets the added bonus of working with beautiful, thoughtful, intelligent, and caring people, who happen to live in nursing homes throughout New Jersey. Together, residents, Eliz, the CEP, and the whole LTCO office work to transform long-term care facilities into places where people can continue to live full lives that have meaning to them.
The Janet Wells Public Policy Leadership Award recognizes an individual who has provided exemplary leadership in the public policy field in advancing quality of care and quality of life for residents receiving long-term care services.
EILON CASPI, BSW, MA, PhD, Gerontologist, Dementia Behavior Specialist, and Elder Mistreatment Researcher
Eilon Caspi, BSW, MA, PhD, is a gerontologist, dementia behavior specialist, and an elder mistreatment researcher. He has worked in the aging field his entire adult life, starting 31 years ago as a nurse aide in a nursing home where his grandfather lived. Since then, he has worked as a social worker, educator, author, consultant, dementia behavior specialist, applied researcher, and data-driven elder care advocate in long-term care homes. Throughout the past 18 years, he led several research studies aimed at improving, understanding and the prevention of various forms of elder mistreatment in nursing homes and assisted living residences (e.g. injurious and deadly neglect, fatal resident-to-resident incidents, abuse, seriousness of substantiated mistreatment complaints, residents’ fear of retaliation, Ombudsmen strategies for addressing residents’ fear of retaliation, staff fear of retaliation, financial exploitation, theft of opioid pain medications, and social media abuse). Trained in qualitative research methods, his studies primarily focus on shedding light on elders’ lived experience of mistreatment in their own words. He enjoys translating applied research (his and others) into care practices and policy changes. He is the author of an award-winning book on the prevention of resident-to-resident incidents in dementia in long-term care homes (Health Professions Press) and a children’s book on Alzheimer’s disease titled What I’ve Learned About Grandma’s Memory. He is a founding member and former board member of Elder Voice Advocates, Minnesota. He is the owner and director of Dementia Behavior Consulting LLC.
He lives in West Hartford, Connecticut with his wife, two girls, and their border collie mix. In his free time, he enjoys hand carving wood including giant pencils, baseball bats, brain hemispheres, and educational signs such as Elder Voice, SEE ME Not My Dementia, Justice for Elders, Elders’ Lives Matter, and Heroes Work Here.
This award was established in 2000 after the death of Janet Tulloch, a nursing home resident, author, committed advocate and long-time member of the Consumer Voice’s Board of Directors. It honors a citizen advocate, family caregiver or long-term care consumer (e.g., resident of a nursing home or assisted living facility or an individual receiving home and community-based services) who has worked directly with and for consumers to improve the lives of long-term care consumers.
JEANETTE SULLIVAN MARTINEZ, Resident Advocate
Jeanette Sullivan-Martinez is President of the Statewide Coalition of Presidents of Residents Councils of the State of Connecticut Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program and served as President from 2014 to 2021 and 2023 to present, representing nursing home residents at State meetings.
She has been President of the Residents’ Council of Pendleton Health and Rehabilitation Center since 2010. She is a member of the Steering Committee for Moving Forward and a Resident Executive Committee Member for Consumer Voice, both national organizations focusing on the quality of long-term and nursing home care. Jeanette Sullivan-Martinez is a voice for nursing home residents and nursing home reform at state and federal legislative hearings, and in interviews in local and national newspapers, and on television programs, including National Public Radio. She has been a resident of Pendleton Health and Rehabilitation Center since 2008 and is the proud mother of three and a grandmother.
Congratulations to the award recipients, and thank you for your advocacy!
