2018 Scholarship Ball

Saturday, May 5, 2018
Holy Family University
25th Annual Scholarship Ball

Honoring Gail Kass
President & CEO, NewCourtland Senior Services

Sheraton Philadelphia Society Hill Hotel
One Dock Street (2nd and Walnut Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19106

About Gail Kass

After a liberal arts education in her hometown of New York, Gail Kass came to Philadelphia in the mid-sixties and had a varied work experience which included credit management, research correspondence, health maintenance organization management, and editing a series of guidebooks to the city.

During these same years, and as part of her community commitment, Ms. Kass was a founding mother and the first chair of the board of the University City New School, a private elementary school in West Philadelphia.

Since 1995 and 1999 respectively, Ms. Kass has been the President and CEO of the Presbyterian Foundation for Philadelphia and its subsidiary, NewCourtland, both not-for-profits, whose business and mission is providing affordable housing and services for low-income seniors in Philadelphia.

Ms. Kass has been with the Presbyterian organization since 1981 when she joined the Presbyterian Medical Center. In her fifteen years at the Medical Center, she was a vice president and then the Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning, where she positioned the medical center for sale to the University of Pennsylvania in 1995.

Under Ms. Kass’ direction, NewCourtland grew to control seven nursing homes which at their peak, served over 1,400 seniors and employed over 2,000 Philadelphia residents. These nursing homes earned a reputation in the city for high-quality resident care and for being the employers of choice for health care workers interested in the long-term care field.

During this time, NewCourtland also developed its nationally awarded Ladder of Opportunity which provides encouragement, counseling, education, and funding to its employees in order that they advance their careers in long-term care services. The highest rung on the Ladder is the Kass Scholarship funded by NewCourtland’s Trustees to honor Ms. Kass’ work. This in-perpetuity funded program provides the financial means for a recipient to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Gerontology Nurse Practitioner program.

In 2011, six of the seven Network nursing homes were sold in order that NewCourtland and its leadership could directly focus on expanding affordable housing and programming which keep seniors in the community. In 2016 NewCourtland unveiled a 15 year initiative for building an additional 1500 units of senior affordable housing in Philadelphia.

In May 2017, NewCourtland announced that it had completed the purchase of the former Liddonfield public housing development in Northeast Philadelphia from the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Plans for the site include new senior housing, a LIFE (Living Independently for Elders) Center and sports fields for students at Holy Family University as well as space to expand in the future.

Today the NewCourtland Network employs 600 and serves more than 5,000 seniors annually through a variety of home-and-community-based services, affordable housing, and skilled nursing care. The growing Network consists of a 180-bed nursing home, three LIFE Centers, two senior centers, multiple affordable senior housing properties. Each facet of NewCourtland’s growth and expansion has been developed under Ms. Kass’ guidance.

Ms. Kass was chosen in 1999 as one of Philadelphia’s Women of Distinction by the Philadelphia Business Journal, and awarded the Meritorious Service Award in 2003 by the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (now called LeadingAge). She served on the Health Care subcommittee of Mayor Street’s transition committee, on the Aging subcommittee for Governor Rendell’s transition, and the long-term care subcommittee of the Medical Assistance Advisory Committee. She served on the health care task force for former Philadelphia mayor, Wilson Goode. She is a past member of The Forum of Executive Women and served on a committee for the Curtis Institute.

She was honored to be one of the seven delegates of Governor Rendell to the 2000 White House Conference on Aging and sat on the Leadership Council of LeadingAge. She was a Trustee, on the Executive Committee, and chairperson of the Audit Committee of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, an Overseer for the School of Nursing for the University of Pennsylvania, and was on the founding board of the Long-Term Quality Alliance.