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about our leadership team

Before the appointment at Oak Hammock, Ahmadi was the Regional Vice President of Operations of Volunteers of America, where he was initially hired in 2004 to lead Gulf Coast Village, a 36-acre non-profit Life Plan/continuing care retirement community that employed 480 associates with an annual budget of $34MM. In 2017, he was promoted to lead the organization’s expanding portfolio in Southwest Florida. That portfolio comprised four different communities: Gulf Coast Village; Senior Choice at Home, a Life Plan Community “at home;” The Preserve in Fort Myers, an assisted living and skilled nursing facility; and The Colonnade of Estero, a Life Plan Community located on 22 acres scheduled to begin construction in 2022.

He has been the Chairmen of the Gulf Coast Village Foundation, as well as a member of the Cape Coral Chief of Police Advisory Committee, a past trustee for the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce, a past trustee for the Cape Coral Community Foundation, co-chair with the Chief Administrator Officer of Cape Coral Hospital for the Cape Coral Adult and Junior Leadership Class. Ahmadi is a 12-year Rotarian, serving as president in 2014-2015.

Ahmadi was named the 2019 Nonprofit Executive of the Year by the Cape Coral Community Foundation and was listed among the Top 5 Bosses in Southwest Florida, as determined by SWFL Gulf Shore Business.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration from the University of Toledo, focusing on health care management, strategic planning and organizational leadership. He and his wife, Sandy, have two children. Their son, Maxwell, attends the University of South Florida, and their daughter, Caroline, attends the University of Florida.

From conception to construction, each project requires significant collaborative planning and oversight, so when projects like Oak Hammock come into fruition, it’s always a proud moment for Andrew.

For Andrew, the senior living industry was the perfect way to merge philanthropy and quantitative analysis. He is motivated by the resident experience and the satisfaction of being able to help someone individually every day. He loves working at Oak Hammock because unlike most accounting positions, he gets a lot of interpersonal interaction. Additionally, with its diverse accounting functions, Andrew finds the bookkeeping at Oak Hammock fascinating as it is a synergy of many different industries.

He is designated as a retirement housing professional, or RHP, with LeadingAge, of which he is a member of the local and national organizations. He is a board member for the local Helping Hands Clinic. He is often a guest lecturer at the University of Florida and is on an informal speaker’s circuit for various trade and industry groups and events, including the Annual Actuarial Conference for A.V. Powell and Associates.

Andrew attended both the University of Florida and the University of North Florida and holds both a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in accountancy. He has over 30 years of senior housing industry experience and has worked for PRAXEIS, LLC., The Haskell Company and Fleet Landing in project management and development, financial planning and strategic planning.

In the future, Andrew is looking forward to continuing to work through strategic master planning, preparing and educating the board for refinancing and helping to continue to grow the financial strength and stability of Oak Hammock. Andrew is eager to continue to manage the pandemic recovery progress and keep his team happy, engaged and productive.

Nickie brings insight into many different business models, client dynamics and industry trends because of her experience with successful marketing operations. Her nine-year directorship experience in residential housing and nearly 10 years working with a senior demographic at UF Health has guided her toward the senior living industry. Nickie has been working at Oak Hammock since March 19, 2018.

A University of Florida graduate with over 20 years of marketing and public relations experience, Nickie has worked for Girls Place, Inc., Emmer Development Corp. and UF Health executing strategic marketing and communications plans. She is accreditation in public relations by the Public Relations Society of America’s Universal Accreditation Board, and has belonged to several professional associations throughout her career, including the Ad Federation of Gainesville, the Gainesville and Alachua County Association of Realtors, the Builders Association of North Central Florida and the American Hospital Association’s Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development. Currently, she is an active member of the Florida Public Relations Association, through which she has served as local chapter president and former six-term board member. She is also a member of LeadingAge Florida and the Sales and Marketing Association for Senior Housing.

Nickie is excited to participate in the potential enhancement and expansion of Oak Hammock’s facilities and to continue to grow the Oak Hammock brand and digital presence across the country. Nickie is always striving to improve strategic communication efforts while maintaining high sales volume. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nickie developed and implemented new crisis management tools and developed and disseminated communications with media, residents, family members and staff.

Kelly attended the University of Florida and obtained her public relations degree before obtaining a master’s degree from Penn State University in human resources and employment relations. She is a true Gator fan, having been born and raised in Gator Country. She dedicated 27 years to Gainesville’s Environmental and Consulting Technology, Inc., where she streamlined their recruiting and onboarding system and managed staff compensation, training, and development programs. 

Kelly has unparalleled expertise in human resource work for environmental corporations, but she feels drawn to senior living and healthcare. She has felt an instant connection with the employees and residents she’s met at Oak Hammock and is enthralled by the unique culture and sense of community. Kelly is an extroverted, uplifting presence to everyone she meets. She is an advocate for the people around her and loves her work. Kelly’s favorite part of her job is getting to know the employees and helping them reach their full potential. She believes the employees are the heart of any company.

With an extensive career in global projects and medical operations, Tony holds insight in medical logistics systems, readiness planning, environmental services, biomedical maintenance, supply chain management, risk management and property management. As the director of logistics at Womack Army Medical Center, Tony supported health care operations for their inpatient facility, six stand-alone outpatient clinics, dental clinics, a veterinary clinic and numerous community services. He oversaw major construction projects and restoration and modernization projects. Amidst a multi-project endeavor and presence expansion, an unforeseen catastrophic event required this logistics director’s immediate attention. After the earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, Tony and his team worked around the clock to get more than $1.8 million in necessary medical supplies delivered to the small, hard-hit country.

When Tony came to work at Oak Hammock, he was intrigued by the senior living concept. Having only worked in fast paced hospital settings, this industry jump has been a pleasant experience. Over the last year, Tony has enjoyed getting to know Oak Hammock’s diverse residents continuously striving to improve their experiences. As a process-oriented person, he loves to fix things and find ways to improve current systems.

Tony Lopiccolo has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Le Moyne College in New York and a master’s in business and health care administration from City University in Washington. He has worked for FirstHealth of the Carolinas, Hammes Company and various Army medical locations, including Heidelberg Army Community Hospital, 44th Medical Command and Womack Army Medical Center overseeing facility management, planning design, construction and supply chain. Tony holds a number of certifications, including the Certified Healthcare Contractor, or CHC, from the American Society of Health Care Engineering and the Incident Command System Certification Level 100 – 800.

He is currently working on the Certified Material and Resource Professional designation from the American Hospital Association. Tony is affiliated with the Association of Health Care Resource and Materials Management, American Society of Health Care Engineering and the National Fire Protection Agency.

Moving forward, Tony is excited to perfect asset accountability and elevate the preventative maintenance program at Oak Hammock, while improving reliability of high-dollar maintenance items. He also wants to improve the Oak Hammock work order system and further use technology to its fullest capability.

A devoted community services director will meet any challenge, Katherine has been working at Oak Hammock for 17 years. When she first started her employment at the soon-to-open retirement community, she hadn’t realized she was meant to work in the senior living industry. However, she immediately fell in love with the Oak Hammock community and has been growing with the company since. Its active and diverse residents have become her second family, and she’s found that she can’t tell where her Oak Hammock life ends, and her personal life begins.

When the campus first opened, the community services department had no formula. Over time, the residents and the staff have created what are her present-day job responsibilities. Together, with her incredible and compassionate team, Katherine strives to meet any request and always keeps the residents at the top of her priority list. She finds humor in everything and loves to have fun. She feels this isn’t “senior living,” it’s just living!

During a time of high anxiety and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic, Katherine stayed positive and present for her residents. With many people experiencing periods of separation and loneliness, she strived to keep her residents engaged. She created a series of silly videos from her home and creatively used technology to help her residents stay connected to friends and family members. Moving forward, she’s excited to get back to hosting gatherings and hugging her residents.

Katherine graduated from Michigan State University, magna cum laude, with two bachelor’s degrees: one in business and managerial economics and one in human resources management and personnel administration. She received her master’s in business administration from Central Michigan University and worked in human resources and budget operations for General Motors before her career began at Oak Hammock. She currently owns her own business and is an active member of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce.

When not creating fun videos or planning events for her residents, Katherine can be found spending time with her family or working in her DIY craft studio. Her business, Pinspiration, was the perfect opportunity for Katherine to marry her creativity and business savviness. This busy local business owner loves being a mom to her three amazing children.

Bob is responsible for everything under the technology umbrella at Oak Hammock from mobile devices to elaborate medical technology. He is instrumental in keeping the 24-hour Health Pavilion systems working properly and is readily available should something go awry. His technical support isn’t only limited to staff; residents seek him out for assistance and advice. Since Bob arrived at Oak Hammock, he has updated much of the server and data center infrastructure to meet the organization’s technological needs and to operate with minimal downtimes.

After working 21 years in higher education, Bob sought a new challenge. Since coming to Oak Hammock, Bob has loved getting to know the dynamic residents and learning about all of their fascinating lives. He flourishes in an environment where there is human interaction and he can see first-hand how his work impacts people’s lives. He believes face-to-face interaction is the best way to solve the problem and maintains the highest working order in his organizations by translating their technological needs.

Looking ahead, Bob aims to improve efficiency within the IT department while looking for new ways to control costs. As part of his plan, he will renegotiate vendor contracts from a position of strength through competitive processes designed to get the features and technology tools our staff and residents require for fair market value.

Bob has an associate’s degree in computer information systems, a bachelor’s in management information systems and a master’s in business and administration, all from the University of Alaska Anchorage. He worked at his alma mater in various roles such as programmer and systems analyst and then as an information systems manager. While still employed with the University and with a small child at home, Bob went back to the books to tackle his master’s degree. During this time, he was promoted to information and communications systems director.

She understands that it’s about the ability to bring the slightest smile to someone’s face. It’s remembering details about someone’s life. It’s finding solutions to complex problems. Being a caregiver is not just a job for Brittany. She follows the simple, familiar motto: where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Brittany has always cared for others, especially her grandparents. Always ensuring she met their needs, she thrived in caring for her loved ones, which led her to an interest in nursing. She took certified nursing assistant, or CNA, courses in her junior and senior years of high school. She spent seven years as a CNA before she determined this would be her first step toward a lifelong career in senior health care.

Brittany’s love for geriatrics made her career decision within nursing an easy one. Long-term care was in her heart. Throughout her career, Brittany has received several certifications, including her practical nursing and assisted living licenses. Her goal with these certifications is to create a positive atmosphere and improve the employees’ environment and the residents’ quality of life.

Brittany’s experience earned her a position in October 2014 at Oak Hammock, where she realized the highest standards among staff and residents and excellence in service that she hadn’t seen elsewhere.

She has gained first-hand knowledge of life plan communities, working in several roles before taking the reigns as the assisted living manager at Oak Hammock. Since her arrive on campus, Brittany has developed exceptional relationships with residents and families, and – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic – she learned the vital importance of communication with loved ones.

Brittany feels listening and being inclusive are essential. Listening to staff, treating employees with respect and being fair are all critical functions of the management function. Brittany says it’s important to always do the right thing, even when no one is watching. Find a way to create relationships with the residents. “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,” is a saying Brittany takes to heart.