Primary Job Title Chief Operating Officer Primary Organization 
Genesis
Location Hamilton, New York, United States Regions East Coast, Northeastern US Gender Female
LinkedIn View on LinkedIn
Melissa Powell is the COO (Chief Operating Officer) of The Allure Group. A dedicated healthcare professional, hands-on leader, and consummate innovator, Melissa has nearly 20 years of experience coordinating, assessing, and improving senior care in New Jersey and New York City.
As COO of The Allure Group, Melissa represents New York’s largest
for-profit nursing home chain in Brooklyn, directly bettering the lives of 1400 patients currently receiving care in Allure’s 4 and 5 star facilities. Responsible for almost every policy and niche program, both cultural and clinical, Melissa went from the first and only employee in operations to managing teams spanning six homes in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The Allure Group acquires failing facilities and corrects them clinically and financially to improve patient and employee wellbeing. Melissa Powell has been a key driving force for company growth since these early days of acquisition. She retains the hands-on attitude she brought in at the very beginning and is currently spearheading a number of exciting initiatives, including high-tech IoT, telemedicine, and robotics implementations.
Melissa Powell has overseen the development of the clinical and cultural programs that have changed the lives of thousands of New York City seniors. By single-handedly creating Allure’s day-to-day operations and all the programs they entail, she has succeeded in dramatically reducing readmission rates, along with census successes and a history of turning around surveys in homes for the better.
Prior to The Allure Group, Melissa Powell was the second employee to sign on at AristaCare (formerly known as Garden State Healthcare). She joined as Corporate Administrator and worked her way up to Director of Operations and Vice President of Operations by taking broken homes and fixing them clinically and financially. In doing so, Melissa proved she was more than a fixer, but a creator. During her years with AristaCare, Melissa created numerous groundbreaking programs and projects while implementing brand new policies and technologies. Melissa left AristaCare in 2011 having improved profitability and scaled the business up to five smoothly-running homes.
Melissa spent years building her reputation has a devoted healthcare professional in eldercare known for turning around broken facilities, surveys, and programs, even prior to joining AristaCare. At Hamilton Continuing Care Center she oversaw 6 departments, and Victoria House Assisted Living & Health Care Center she worked as Assistant Administrator before being promoted to Administrator in 2005. She turned the building around by reducing annual per-patient day costs, maximizing length of stay for subacute patients, developing numerous resident- and family-based programs to improve patient wellbeing. In addition, she revitalized employee morale and developed new protocols, budgets, and correction plans for the overall health of the facility.
Before that, in 2001, Melissa Powell joined Cranford Health & Extended Care as a Director of Recreation where she quickly was encouraged to make a larger impact as an administrator. On top of her 40 hour work-week, she decided to train another 40 hours in her off-time to become a licensed administrator. The job would change the entire course of her career for the better. Under the Administrator’s tutelage, she revised nursing and facility policies and manuals and created HIPAA policies and tools.
Melissa’s career kicked off at Genesis Eldercare in Westfield, NJ, where her hard work as Recreation Specialist represented the promising beginning of a fruitful career. Responsible for a 60-bed subacute unit, she devised a Quality Assurance monthly assessment, trained new employees on required documentation and programming, and during the director’s absence, managed a therapeutic recreation department of 233 beds. After a year, she joined Staten Island University Hospital as a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist where she oversaw inpatient rehabilitation, recommended and executed individualized treatment plans, and organized reentry activities off and on hospital grounds.
From a young age, Melissa Powell has known she had a future in eldercare. As a child in Staten Island, NY, where she grew up attending Catholic school and spent time in nursing homes with her grandmother, who she visited after school and on weekends. An active member of her nursing home’s community, Melissa’s grandmother involved herself in craft fairs, bingo, and other activities, which inspired in her granddaughter a passion for senior recreation.
The first person in her family to attend college, Melissa Powell took this passion with her to York College of Pennsylvania where she originally studied to become a nurse. In her second year, she decided instead to pursue a major in Recreation and Leisure Administration, with a minor in Gerontology and an emphasis in Therapeutic Rehabilitation. She graduated in 1998.
Melissa Powell has been the recipient of numerous accolades including the Excellence in Business Award, a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, and a Citation of Outstanding Excellence in Providing Service to Local Residents of Brooklyn, and is a member of the National Association of Professional Women.
Melissa currently resides in Hamilton, New Jersey with her husband Matt, daughters Rebecca and Alexia, Daisy the dog, Dorito the cat, and an assortment of other beloved pets. When not hard at work, she can be found traveling, reading, and enjoying all things Disney with her family.
