Amanda Ransom:
Making an Impact upon a Sometimes Forgotten Population
By Sue McMurray
Not everyone can say they’ve learned things from a 105-year-old or have strolled around the block with a nonagenarian. But Amanda Ransom (’14 HBM), a business office manager specialist at Aegis Living in Seattle, has moments in her day when she gets to do this and discuss what life is truly about with people who have lived through historic times.
Ransom started out in the senior living industry by volunteering at a local nursing home in Pullman while she was studying hospitality business management at Washington State University. Once she graduated, she moved to Seattle to take a job as a concierge to get her foot in the door of the senior living industry. She switched companies to become a recruiter, and, in a short amount of time, became a business office manager.
“My degree in hospitality business management helped me prepare for my current role by giving me the tools to understand business in general and take the hospitality approach in thinking,” she says. Her job at Aegis encompasses human resources, payroll, auditing, onboarding new hires, billing, invoicing, supervising a concierge team and training office managers, as well as managing state regulation requirements.
The rewards of a career in senior living
To Ransom, the definition of senior living means giving seniors a place to live the rest of their days in an environment that gives them dignity, safety, and overall, a sense of community.
In serving people whose faces are lined with wisdom and whose bodies are no longer youthful, Ransom feels she is making a positive impact in the lives of a population that sometimes gets forgotten.
“I love working with the senior population and being around individuals who are like-minded and enjoy taking care of the elderly,” she says. “There are many different career paths to take in the senior living industry. You will learn so much about others and, in turn, learn a lot about yourself in the process. If you have the passion and love for seniors, you should definitely do it.”