Generations at Applewood has a great staff. When you visit or tour Generations at Applewood, you will have the opportunity to meet members of our leadership and management team. Please make a point to stop in or introduce yourself while you are visiting our community. Our staff loves to meet the families and friends of our residents and guests.
Gina Ruiz
Administrator
Gina Ruiz, Administrator of Generations at Applewood, started out in a financial role at the facility in 2014 and, upon realizing that she had a passion for the industry and wanting to do something more, developed into her current role. According to Gina, “placing a loved one in a nursing home is a daunting task; knowing you can be the expert in the field and guide families through this difficult process was my “aha” moment.”
One of the things that Gina feels sets Applewood apart is the incredible teamwork. She maintains that from the department heads down, everyone intimately gets to know the residents in order to provide one-on-one, patient-centered care.
“Our residents are not just here to pass the time… they have a purpose.”
Jacqueline Clark
Director of Nursing
The Director of Nursing for Generations at Applewood oversees the front-line care of each resident and the work of the staff who administer that care. For Jacqueline Clark, that ranges from budgeting and ordering to assessing the facility’s programs for ways to improve patient care.
It is the right field for a woman who had to choose between two interests: people or machines.
“I asked myself, ‘Do I want to be a nurse, or do I want to work with computers?’” Jacqueline recalled of her early days at Prairie State University. “I started studying computer science, but I just didn’t like it. Nursing became a love for me.”
Jacqueline brings a wide span of experiences to Generations at Applewood: besides her standing as a registered nurse, she is also a licensed nursing home administrator who has served as a chief clinical officer and the director of a hospital nursing unit. That volume of leadership enables her to see the facility-wide “big picture,” but the interest in the individual that pulled her into health care helps her to focus on the unique needs of the individual resident.
“All they want is an answer, ‘This is what we’re doing,’” she said. “And that goes a long way. If somebody can even sense that you care, you’ve touched them.”
