About Us

Jean Garboden

Executive Director

Jean Garboden is the Chief Operations Officer at Ridgeline. She is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of Retirement, Assisted Living, and Alzheimer communities nationwide. Ms. Garboden is a licensed Administrator, a certified Eden Alternative™ associate, and is the Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Authorized Validation Organization (AVO). There are 15 AVO’s worldwide in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan Switzerland, Sweden and the United States. The Ridgeline AVO is one of four in the US. www.vfvalidation.org

Ms. Garboden is an innovator, leading and collaborating with her team in program development for culture change, memory care, employee retention, health and wellness, educational programming, and technological improvement of processes.

With over 20 years of prior operational experience as the Director of Business Services at 2 large tertiary hospitals, her leadership in operational process improvement, customer service, employee development, and budget management brings sound applicable experience to guide and lead our Communities.

About Naomi Feil

Naomi Feil, M.S., A.C.S.W., is the developer of Validation.

She was born in Munich in 1932, and grew up in the Montefiore Home for the Aged in Cleveland Ohio, where her father was the administrator and her mother, the head of the Social Service Department. After graduating with a Masters degree in Social Work from Columbia University in New York, she began working with the elderly. Between 1963 and 1980 Mrs. Feil developed Validation as a response to her dissatisfaction with traditional methods of working with the severely disoriented old-old people who were her clients. In 1982 she published her first book, Validation: The Feil Method, which was revised in 1992. Her second book, The Validation Breakthrough, was published in 1993, and updated and revised in 2002. Feil and her husband have made many films and videos about aging and Validation. Feil is the Executive Director of the Validation Training Institute and a popular speaker in North America and Europe. Since 1989 she has toured Europe 3 times a year offering workshops in Validation to participants in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, France, Belgium, Italy, Great Britain, and Austria. Her books have been translated into French, Dutch, German, Italian, Finnish, Danish, and Swedish.

Amira T. Fahoum

Marketing Executive

Amira T. Fahoum joined Ridgeline Management in 2005 and took on the position of Director of Marketing in January of 2008. She is a licensed assisted living administrator in both California and Oregon; is an Authorized Designee for the Oregon Criminal Records Unit; and a Certified Geriatric Wellness Instructor for cognitive enhancement. Amira is also a Certified Validation Worker and on the journey to become a Certified Validation Teacher.

Amira oversees Ridgeline’s marketing strategy; individual property marketing efforts; and responsible for property revenue generation. She has experience in and plays a primary role in the marketing and strategic planning for new developments and acquisitions.

Amira graduated with a double-major Bachelor of Arts from the University of Washington after taking a year-long sabbatical to teach English in four primary schools in Le Mans, France.

Dr. Chuck McGlade

Advisor

Dr. McGlade is co-founder, owner, and CEO of Ridgeline. He attended Johns Hopkins University (Phi Beta Kappa) and Cornell University Medical College (Alpha Omega Alpha). Radiology residency and Interventional Radiology fellowship were completed at UCLA, where he has also served as Chief Resident. Dr. McGlade was Medical Director for the Department of Radiology at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene Oregon from 1993 - 2003 and remains a partner in Radiology Associates. Being the founder and managing partner of a commercial real estate development company has enhanced his healthcare background and afforded Dr. McGlade a unique perspective on senior care.

At Ridgeline, he has overseen the financial and budgetary process and has strived to position Ridgeline as peerless in the senior housing market. Envisioning an environment that nurtures individual expression and growth, he is a passionate advocate of innovative programming and has helped redesign the architectural elements necessary to complement this paradigm shift.

Dennis Garboden

Ridgeline Management Sponsor

Dennis Garboden is co-founder, owner, and president of Ridgeline Management Company. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science Degree.

Mr. Garboden has worked in senior housing since 1992. He has overseen the growth of Ridgeline Management since its inception in 2002. The growth of Ridgeline has included the acquisition of senior housing properties, as well as the development and construction of assisted living and memory care communities.

Mr. Garboden has assembled a talented team at Ridgeline that shares his vision and enthusiasm for elder living. Ridgeline Management has established name recognition in the senior housing industry as an innovator of exceptional care for residents and as an excellent operator of senior housing communities.