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Florida's Advocate for Long Term Care Providers and the Elders They Serve

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AHCA Joint Training for Assisted Living Facilities: Meet the Speakers


A.C. Burke has been working with RB Health Partners, Inc. since 2016 and has over 25 years of experience working in public health and healthcare. A.C. worked for the Florida Department of Health for 15 years; 5 of those years she served as the Healthcare-associated Infection Prevention Program Manager. She later was the Director of Infection Prevention for Mayo Clinic Florida. In her current role, she consults with long-term care facilities on infection prevention and control policies, procedures, and practices, and provides training to nursing homes and at conferences, including the 17-hour Nursing Home Infection Prevention Program (NIPP) Nipping Infections in the Bud. 



Terri Cantrell is Florida's Long Term Care Ombudsman, a role in which she was appointed in May 2022 by Gov. Ron DeSantis. She is originally from Cleveland, OH, where she earned her bachelor’s degree from Cleveland State University. She majored in History and Gerontology and spent the early part of her career working with seniors. She spent ten years working for the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce until moving to Atlanta where she worked for the GA Chamber and American Heart Association. Most recently Terri was with the Alzheimer’s Association where she worked closely with families whose loved ones suffered from the disease.  



Taylor Haddock is the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Data Integrity and Applicant Oversight for the Division of Health Care Policy and Oversight with the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency). She directly oversees the Bureaus of Central Services and Health Facility Regulation. Taylor has been with the Agency for20 years and most recently was responsible for the design and implementation of the national award-winning Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse database used by multiple other state agencies. She has worked with national and state government agencies on background screening initiatives and serves as Chairperson for the National Forum for Background Checks.



Donah Heiberg, MSW, works within the Division of Health Care Policy and Oversight at the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). Donah has worked with AHCA since 1995. She has held positions within the Agency working with both training, course development, and quality improvement. Donah has served as AHCA's State Training Administrator, Informal Dispute Resolution Coordinator, Complaint Unit Manager and has held management positions in both the Miami and Tallahassee field offices. Donah is a subject matter expert in several survey areas, including nursing homes, intermediate care facilities for the intellectually disabled, end stage renal dialysis, residential treatment centers for children/adolescents and psychiatric residential treatment facilities. 



Dawn Platt is the National Director of Memory Care Programs for Discovery Senior Living, overseeing Memory Care Programs across over 160 communities in seven operating companies nationwide. An accomplished dementia care practitioner, coach, educator, and senior advocate, she is also the award-winning host of the weekly podcast "The Disappearing Mind." Platt has been instrumental in advancing Memory Care standards, team member training, and quality care initiatives. Her innovative contributions include Modified Memory Care Programs, Occupational Profiling, Skill Set Programs and Neuroplasticity Therapeutic Programming. A member of the National Alzheimer’s Association Dementia Round Table, Platt frequently speaks at national conferences and hosts a virtual Dementia Support Group, continuously striving to improve the lives of those living with dementia and their caregivers.



Kim Smoak has been with the Agency for Health Care Administration since August 1995. She is the Deputy Secretary of the Division of Health Quality Assurance. The Division licenses and/or certifies and regulates 40 different providers, including, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home health agencies. Ms. Smoak is also the State Survey Agency Director for the State of Florida. She holds a Master of Science in Health with the program emphasis in Aging Studies and is also a Qualified Intellectual Disability Professional (QIDP). In 2009 and 2017, she received Survey & Certification Achievement Awards, presented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for her work in Survey and Certification.



Anne Sosiak has worked at the Agency for Health Care Administration for 13 years, starting as a nurse surveyor based in the Delray Beach office. She has survey experience in Assisted Living and Long-Term Care facilities as well as Ambulatory Surgery Centers and Transplant Hospitals. Currently, Anne is a Registered Nurse Consultant with the Survey and Certification Support Branch, Bureau of Field Operations and her responsibilities include quality assurance, surveyor training and surveying for unlicensed Assisted Living activity.