Amanda Mauceri

Director of Residential Operations

With more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in senior liv­ing, most with Smith com­mu­ni­ties, Aman­da inspires her staff to employ a per­son-cen­tered approach. ​“I believe in cul­ti­vat­ing a sense of com­mu­ni­ty, encour­ag­ing res­i­dents to take joy in life as they make new mem­o­ries. It goes along with liv­ing life to the fullest.”

Mike Wilmsen

Sales Counselor

Mike knows what’s impor­tant to res­i­dents. Over a decade ago, he gained those insights as a serv­er at Smith Vil­lage dur­ing sum­mer breaks from col­lege. Mike rejoined the Smith fam­i­ly as a Smith Cross­ing sales coun­selor. ​“I build rela­tion­ships with seniors and their fam­i­lies, to make their move to Smith Cross­ing as easy as pos­si­ble,” he says.

Kara Candelas

Sales Coordinator

Kara brings a sense of hos­pi­tal­i­ty to every encounter with prospec­tive res­i­dents. And as they pre­pare to move in, she eas­es the tran­si­tion for them and their fam­i­lies. ​“I like see­ing res­i­dents make friends and take part in activ­i­ties. It’s grat­i­fy­ing to hear them say, ​‘We made the right choice.’”

Amy Majcina

Social Services Director

Amy is part of the team that helps our res­i­dents in Skilled Nurs­ing Care and Reha­bil­i­ta­tion bal­ance inde­pen­dence and safe­ty so they can make the most of every day. She loves get­ting to know them. ​“Each one has a fas­ci­nat­ing his­to­ry, and I enjoy hear­ing about all their adventures.”

Gabriela Kluchki

Resident Services Director

“I like work­ing with res­i­dents and their fam­i­lies,” says Gab­by, ​“so that I can inter­act with so many peo­ple every day.” Fur­ther, she feels, the Inde­pen­dent and Assist­ed Liv­ing res­i­dents are like fam­i­ly to her and she learns from them. Res­i­dents are most heart-warm­ing when they share a cameo of their life sto­ry, Gab­by adds, ​“Because they’ve led such won­der­ful lives.”

Tiffanie West

Lead Life Enrichment Facilitator

Tiffanie likes work­ing with seniors because it brings back mem­o­ries of her grand­par­ents, who are no longer alive. She par­tic­u­lar­ly looks for­ward to enrich­ing res­i­dents’ lives through engag­ing activ­i­ties. And Tiffanie thinks Smith Cross­ing and its sis­ter cam­pus Smith Vil­lage are spe­cial because seniors can go through dif­fer­ent stages of aging and not have to move some­where else.

Annamarie Castle

Life Enrichment Manager

Anna­marie enjoys the close con­nec­tions that res­i­dents and staff have with each oth­er. One habit that inspires her is lean­ing in to their hob­bies and inter­ests. ​“My pri­or­i­ty is set­ting goals for each res­i­dent and watch­ing them achieve what they thought wasn’t pos­si­ble,” says Anna­marie. Part of her dai­ly rou­tine is check­ing on res­i­dents. ​“Even bet­ter,” she says smil­ing, ​“some stroll by my office to check on me.”

Ming-Yeng Tang, M.D.

Medical Director

Dr. Tang cred­its her affec­tion for old­er rel­a­tives as her inspi­ra­tion for devel­op­ing a spe­cial rap­port with old­er adults and an appre­ci­a­tion for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to treat them. As a teenag­er, Dr. Tang expressed to her father, a school prin­ci­pal, her desire to help old­er adults. He encour­aged her to help oth­ers by prac­tic­ing med­i­cine. Today, the Smith Cross­ing res­i­dents who have become her patients have around-the-clock access to Dr. Tang via her mobile phone. She also likes hear­ing from patients’ fam­i­ly mem­bers. ​“They help give me a more com­plete pic­ture,” says Dr. Tang.

Yahaira Ramirez RN

Director of Nursing / Corporate Director of Clinical Operations

Yahaira says,​“I feel priv­i­leged to know res­i­dents. They’re such intrigu­ing peo­ple and I am proud to be their advo­cate.” As a nurse and Smith Senior Living’s Direc­tor of Clin­i­cal Oper­a­tions, she has her own ideas about what make Smith com­mu­ni­ties spe­cial.​“We pro­vide care for res­i­dents as they tran­si­tion through lev­els of liv­ing. We’re the one con­stant in a chang­ing world for them and their families.”

Tenira King

Assistant Director of Nursing

After near­ly a decade with Smith, Teni­ra still pri­or­i­tizes being a resource for those in need, be they res­i­dents or fel­low staff mem­bers. ​“I get a kick out of cross­ing things off my to-do list,” she says. In addi­tion to the Crossing’s more than 20 years of exem­plary ser­vice, she’s hap­py to con­tribute to the care and atten­tion her team pro­vides to all res­i­dents and their families.

Teresa Floyd

Assisted Living Nurse Manager

Tere­sa has worked among geri­atric res­i­dents more than two decades, and she finds Smith Cross­ing ​“a very peace­ful place — res­i­dents, staff and man­age­ment includ­ed. It’s a fam­i­ly-like set­ting.” She’s keen on inter­act­ing with her cowork­ers and talk­ing with the res­i­dents because, ​“I enjoy lis­ten­ing to the jour­ney they’ve been on.”

Jennifer Furlong

Admissions Director

Jen­nifer derives a sense of ful­fill­ment when she’s work­ing with hos­pi­tals, fam­i­lies, future res­i­dents and patients to help peo­ple move into Smith Cross­ing, either for the long-term or for short-term reha­bil­i­ta­tion. She says, ​“I love giv­ing tours. They are a great way for every­one to be sure our com­mu­ni­ty is the right fit for liv­ing here or for a brief rehab stay.”

Jason Ison

Director of Dining Services

“The best parts of Smith Cross­ing are our team, our res­i­dents and our lead­ers, not the bricks,” says Jason. ​“When I walk into here I get a warm feel­ing, it’s like com­ing home.” Pre­vi­ous­ly exec­u­tive chef, he now feels more in touch with res­i­dents because he’s out of the kitchen and get­ting to know them so he can shape their din­ing expe­ri­ences. He adds, ​“They’re some of the most inter­est­ing peo­ple I know.”

Ryan Dencek

Executive Chef

Asked one facet he likes about his job, Ryan says, ​“Pop-up events.” They’re when he gets feed­back on what res­i­dents like — from enjoy­ing a taco sta­tion to join­ing a kitchen class about dark, leafy kale greens trans­formed to smooth­ies, chips or sal­ads. He looks for­ward to each so he can cre­ate new dish­es to expand the res­i­dents’ sense of culi­nary adven­ture and devel­op his crew by build­ing team­work in the kitchen.

Jaime Tribo MS, RD, LD

Dietitian

For Jaime, her role with short-stay rehab patients is reward­ing because, ​“I make sure they are OK, mon­i­tor their weight and dis­cov­er what may become prob­lems before they occur.” She works with Chef Jason on nutri­tion guide­lines. And she is filled with joy when a rehab patient or res­i­dent with a poor appetite final­ly becomes strong by eat­ing what reminds them of home.

Steve Trayes

Environmental Services Director

After gain­ing expe­ri­ence at Tin­ley Park’s Con­ven­tion Cen­ter and train­ing at Joli­et Junior Col­lege, Steve joined Smith Cross­ing in 2016 and today is main­te­nance super­vi­sor, respon­si­ble for 14 staff mem­bers. ​“We keep Smith Cross­ing very clean and func­tion­ing well, and help res­i­dents main­tain their homes with repairs and refresh­ing,” he says. ​“We’re also first respon­ders if there’s a prob­lem,” and he loves get­ting to know the residents.

Kathy Orozco

Housekeeping Manager

Kathy, who began work­ing at Smith Cross­ing soon after it opened in 2004, says one of the best parts of her day is hear­ing res­i­dents’ tales. ​“It’s fas­ci­nat­ing to learn how they raised their kids, for instance with no cell phones or com­put­ers.” And she thinks she received the best com­pli­ment from a vis­i­tor who asked Kathy if she could rec­om­mend a good house­keep­er because res­i­dents rave about her team.

Ebony Williams

Human Resources Specialist

“When I inter­view prospec­tive team mem­bers, I look for ways they show integri­ty, know the right thing to do and put some­one else’s needs first,” says Ebony. She is inspired by a pop­u­lar Smith mantra, ​“We work where they live.” Dur­ing her first vis­it to Smith, Ebony was impressed by the clean­li­ness, illus­trat­ing to her that peo­ple real­ly care about their environment.

Smith Cross­ing Board of Trustees

Through thought­ful, expe­ri­enced over­sight, the Smith Cross­ing Board of Trustees helps ensure the con­tin­u­a­tion of our mis­sion to ben­e­fit res­i­dents and their fam­i­lies, as well as the long-term direc­tion and sta­bil­i­ty of our Life Plan Community.