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Kenneth Smalling
Chief Strategy Officer | Business & HR Strategy | Public Relations | Mergers & Acquisitions | Leadership Development
Kenneth Smalling is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in strategic leadership and communications.
Currently serving as the Chief Strategy Officer for Leading Home Care, a prominent home care business in Louisiana, he specializes in advising CEOs and senior management teams on reputation management, crisis communications, talent development, and leadership strategies.
With a background that includes serving as the Corporate Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for Fortune 200 company Kimberly-Clark, as well as holding key leadership positions in other notable organizations such as Centex and Electronic Data Systems, Ken has a wealth of experience in shaping brand strategies, enhancing employee engagement, and fostering positive workforce cultures.
He is a graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Public Relations from Abilene Christian University and has a strong educational foundation from Campbell County High School and Chugiak High School.
Ken has held various high-level roles including Global Vice President, Chief Communications Officer, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, and Global Director of Corporate Communications prior to his current position.
Highlights
This pandemic has once again highlighted a known truth: the home is the best setting for providing health care to an increasing numbers of patients.
My company, Leading Health Care of Louisiana, is one of the largest Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) providers in Louisiana. We have almost 1,000 clients in the “susceptible” category. They are elderly, they have developmental disabilities, they suffer from long-term physical ailments. Most are on Medicaid. Yet, we have had only 1 client test positive for Covid-19. We have had less than 10 workers test positive. Coincidence? Not at all. HCBS providers have control over the homes we serve. We monitor and care for our clients one-on-one, unlike nursing homes.
It’s time our lawmakers took serious consideration into providing adequate reimbursement dollars to companies that actually serve our most vulnerable in ways that are positive. We operate on reimbursement rates that have not changed substantially since 2008. Yet, nursing home funding has increased 54 percent in Louisiana during that same time frame. Nursing homes have been the single, largest contributor of political donations in that same time span. Coincidence? Not hardly.
They say “home is where the heart is.” In this case, home is where the care is as well.
