By Allison Razic
Paige Oakes realized quickly during her time in college that she wanted to pursue a role in Healthcare in some form. During her time at Western, her class took field trips to different healthcare facilities in town. One of them was to an assisted living facility. She instantly knew that was where she wanted to be once she finished school. “I had always had a passion for serving the senior population and it just seemed fitting,” says Oakes. “I ended up doing an internship at a local senior living facility in town to get experience, which is actually where I met my boss, Candie, who was working there at the time.”
She had graduated from Western Kentucky University with a Bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration when she heard about a new assisted living facility coming to Bowling Green, Arcadia Senior Living. She immediately started applying hoping to get a position there. Candie had just accepted the position of Executive Director and hired her as the Activities Director. “I will forever be grateful for her and that she took a chance on me, believed in me and has continued to do so during my time at Arcadia,” says Oakes. Oakes stayed in that position for two years before transitioning to her current role of Director of Community Relations.
Her current role consists of occupancy stabilization, community outreach and marketing; whether that be outside sales calls, social media, building relationships with community partners and much more. Oakes is proud of the reach they have had on social media showing that seniors still know how to have a great time. She says, “I work closely with our Director of Life Engagement, Maitlin Nuckols. We focus a lot on social media trying to show that you can still live life to the fullest even at 80 years old. We made a TikTok page this year and made several videos that went viral, one having over 40 million views and that reached the attention of several news/media outlets such as Fox & Friends, Good Morning America, The New York Post and many more.”
Her favorite part of her position; however, is building relationships with residents and their families. She knows that her job is to aid them in making a huge decision, which in most cases is to leave their home, and she does not take that lightly. She sees people move in to senior living for a variety of reasons, whether it be that their health has declined and they need more assistance with activities of daily living, their home maintenance has became too much on them or they just might need that socialization aspect that senior living provides. No matter what the reason, she loves being able to help make that transition easier on them and their families and being there for them every step of the way.
When Oakes is not working, she enjoys golfing, fishing, spoiling her nieces and spending time with family. She is married to her husband of two years, Colton, who is a veterinarian at Macon Trousdale Veterinarian Clinic in Lafayette, Tennessee. They enjoy giving back to the community as much as they can and serving at their church. She hopes to continue to be someone that helps to make a difference in other people’s lives.