From need to want: Re-imagining aging, wellness, and senior living

What does it really mean to live longer, better? This conversation brings together two distinct yet deeply complementary perspectives on aging: investigative journalism and senior living innovation.

Join Moira Welsh, award-winning reporter and author of Happily Ever Older and The Astonishing Lives of Older Women, and Steph Sanborn, Senior Director of Leading Innovation and Education at Seasons Retirement Communities, for a candid discussion on wellness, isolation, longevity, and the future of senior living.

Drawing from powerful individual narratives, research, and real-world operational experience, the panel will explore why connection is not a “nice to have,” but a foundational driver of health span and quality of life. Topics will include isolation and loneliness, aging and gender, misconceptions about senior living, and how the industry can shift from offering care for declining health to building environments rooted in meaning, preferences, and belonging.

Moderated by Sevy Petras, CEO & Founder of Priority Life Care, this session challenges providers, leaders, and advocates to rethink senior living not as a last resort, but as a place people choose because it helps them live fully.

Learning objectives:

1. Reframe aging and senior living from a narrative of decline and necessity to one of purpose, connection, and well-being.
2. Examine the unique challenges women face as they age, including higher rates of isolation, longevity-related financial vulnerability, caregiving burdens, and how gender shapes health, connection, and well-being in later life.
3. Identify practical ways senior living operators can operationalize wellness, personalization, and meaning to create communities people genuinely want to join.