Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.
From a two-story home for the aged at the start of the 20th century to a state-of-the-art sprawling campus offering a comprehensive range of services for seniors, United Hebrew of New Rochelle has become an award-winning example of what residents and patients want at every stage of aging.
Rita Mabli has been responsible for much of that transformation. Mabli joined in 1976 as director of personnel, later becoming chief operations officer in the late 1980s. By 1994, she was CEO, and in 2007 she assumed the additional title of president.
Over the years, she has spearheaded efforts to add assisted living, memory care, affordable housing, short-term rehabilitation and home-care services on the campus.
Amid the pandemic, Mabli worked 90 days straight with her staff and arrived at 5 a.m. to thank them, managing the campus’ closure to visitors and converting space into a COVID-19 treatment and recovery unit. At the same time, she piped music into the hallways to lift morale, delivered ice cream and hosted staff lunches.
Universally recognized for its quality and lauded for worker retention, perhaps no other sign signifies the level of care at United Hebrew than the fact that Mabli’s own mother lived there from 1980 to 1991. Although her mother influenced her business ethic of being firm but kind, it was the loving care her father received before he died when she was 12 that inspired her career.
Mabli ultimately vowed to create a similar culture of kindness and caring, and she has.
The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 7 at a dinner and awards ceremony in Chicago. The program’s Platinum sponsor was MatrixCare. Omnicare was a Silver sponsor, and additional sponsors included Pinnacle Quality Insight, HealthDirect and Sentrics.
