This column continues a series in which Amy Koch describes the Charles Ford Retirement Communities by introducing members of the facility’s leadership team.
Current census at the Charles Ford Retirement Communities is running along smoothly between 90 and 100 percent occupancy, according to Amy Koch, the Community’s Executive Director, while managing a list of individuals who are waiting for an opening so that they can move in. This fact makes Krista Whipple, the Ford Home leadership team member whose primary responsibility is to promote the Home’s services and encourage senior residency, a timely feature.
While reviewing these positive statistics, Koch explained, “Krista Whipple doesn’t know a stranger,” Speaking in a staff meeting with her leadership team, she said, “Krista has a way of making every individual she meets feel as if they’re the most important person in the world.” Others on the team chimed in their praise of Krista. Remembering that she was hired on her birthday four and a half years ago, they talked as if she was the birthday gift to them, rather than the job being a coincidental gift to Krista.
Yet, it was a bumpy uncharted course that led Krista to the position she holds today. A long time Posey County native, she graduated from Mt. Vernon Senior High School and began training to be a hairstylist at Rogers Hair Design in Evansville. That career path was short lived, however. When asked why, Krista cringed and quickly admitted, “I was just grossed out at touching people’s hair!”
Like so many others in our region, Krista ultimately found her way to the University of Southern Indiana and coursework that would eventually lead to a social services career. Several years of employment in various jobs and time as both an employee and volunteer for Echo Community Health Center in Evansville, helped Krista realize she had a passion for helping the disenfranchised, particularly single women with children, the homeless, those incarcerated, and individuals in their senior years. Positions in home health services and social work matched these interests and ultimately landed her in a nursing home as the social services director.
Today, there are few people in Posey County who are strangers to Krista. Her family background (Her father, John Emhuff, was Assistant Superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Mt. Vernon, and her mother, Beverly, was the Posey County Health Nurse for many years.) and outgoing personality have made it easy for her to cultivate relationships. Above all others, however, there is one person whose name, when mentioned, makes her eyes shine. That person is her adult son, Dylan, whom she describes him as her “Number One Person.” When Krista’s not at work, she relaxes by kicking off her shoes and plugging into her favorite music. She loves live theater and concerts.
Wrapping up her comments, Koch explains, “As Admissions Coordinator at the Ford Home, Krista meets with and encourages seniors and their caregivers during a transitional time in their lives when they are considering a move to assisted living. Krista promotes the services available at the Charles Ford Retirement Communities to these individuals and to medical service providers in our area. To all of these individuals and the communities they serve, Krista Whipple is the “Face of the Ford Home.”
