For more than 15 years, Nancy Pilkington has helped residents across Presbyterian Senior Living’s affordable housing communities access the support, resources, and connections they need to thrive. As Resident Services Director at HMC, Nancy leads a growing team of service coordinators while helping shape programs that strengthen wellness, food access, technology use, and social connection.
What began as an unexpected career move has grown into deeply meaningful work. Along the way, Nancy has also seen firsthand how PSL invests not only in residents, but in the team members who serve them.
Nancy did not originally plan to work with older adults. After returning to school later than many of her classmates, she pursued social work and focused her internships on children and teens. But when it came time to find a job after graduation, she came across an opening for a supportive services coordinator with Presbyterian Senior Living.
At the time, she knew very little about the role or even what the organization fully did. Still, something about the position stayed with her. “I felt so strongly about it,” Nancy said. “I applied for it in three different ways.”
After interviewing and seeing one of PSL’s affordable housing communities firsthand, she knew it was the right place for her. “I walked into what Presbyterian Senior Living had done in this brand new building, and I just knew,” she said. “I just knew that it was something that I could do.”
That “intentional accident,” as she described it, led to a career that has now spanned more than 15 years.
Over the years, Nancy has watched PSL deepen its commitment to affordable housing and resident services in meaningful ways. What was once a much smaller team has expanded significantly, reflecting the organization’s investment in meeting the needs of older adults across the state.
“When I started,” she said, “I think there were five service coordinators at the time.” Today, that number has nearly tripled. “When my team is full, we have 14. It is wonderful.”
For Nancy, that growth reflects more than staffing. It points to a mission-based commitment to making sure older adults in affordable housing communities have access to real support, practical resources, and human connection. She has seen PSL continue to bring new tools, programs, and opportunities to residents over time, helping communities better respond to changing needs.
When asked what she hopes people remember most about her contributions, Nancy’s focus stayed on her team.
“I hope that they always consider me to be supportive, encouraging,” she said. “My goal is always that they can trust me to be available for them.”
She values being someone her team can rely on, especially as they bring new programs and ideas into their communities. Nancy also sees an important part of her role as helping build strong relationships across the team. “They get to share experiences and they get to brainstorm with each other and they get to share what’s working in their communities,” she said. “That’s also part of my role, to build that relationship between them.”
That collaborative spirit is one of the things that has made Nancy’s experience at PSL so meaningful. “I’ve never worked with better people in my life,” she said.
A big part of Nancy’s role is staying curious. She is always looking for new resources, new ideas, and new approaches that could benefit residents.
“I am constantly looking for something new to offer to the team and to the residents,” she said.
That might mean focusing on nutrition and healthy eating over the next several years, helping communities use Wi-Fi and technology in more meaningful ways, or finding better strategies to talk openly about mental health. It also means doing the homework first by reading, researching, learning, and then bringing those ideas back to her team with practical tools for implementation.
That mindset has helped bring a number of meaningful programs to life and reflects the kind of innovation PSL continues to support across its communities.
One of the projects Nancy feels especially proud of is helping improve how resident services are documented and tracked. What once looked different from community to community gradually evolved into a more consistent process, and eventually into an online documentation system that better supports the team’s work.
Reflecting on that process, Nancy shared how much it meant to have PSL’s support. “It’s really wonderful to have the organization say, ‘I hear you and I see you, and I understand what you’re saying about the benefit of this,’” she said.
She also pointed to the growth of practical resident resources over the years. One example is Cupboards of Care, a food pantry program now available in each affordable housing community. The program helps make food support accessible right where residents live, without requiring them to explain their circumstances.
“We don’t ask what those reasons are,” Nancy said. “We just make it available to them.”
For Nancy, that kind of resource reflects PSL’s commitment to affordable living in action: not simply providing housing, but helping residents live with greater dignity, stability, and support.
Nancy also shared her excitement about a newer program called Wits Workout, which focuses on brain health, problem-solving, and social connection. The program includes themed group sessions designed to engage residents intellectually while also bringing them together in meaningful ways.
She and her team received training to begin using the program, and the hope is that over time it will become a resident-led activity within communities. “The service coordinators will introduce it to the residents,” she said, “but our hope then is that it will become a resident-led activity.”
It is one more example of the kind of thoughtful, connection-focused programming Nancy is passionate about building and that PSL is willing to support.
Nancy also appreciates that PSL’s investment extends beyond residents to team members as well. She spoke especially positively about the organization’s growing focus on employee well-being.
One benefit that stood out to her was access to counseling support through Spring Health. Nancy noted how meaningful it is that PSL is paying attention to emotional wellness and making support easier to access for team members.
She was also excited about the addition of pet insurance, calling it “a really cool thing.” For Nancy, those offerings signal that PSL is thinking in real and practical ways about what matters to employees.
That balance of mission and support has helped make PSL a place where Nancy has built not just a job, but a long-term career.
Nancy knows the work can be fast paced and demanding. Administrative tasks, phone calls, reports, and shifting needs can easily fill a day. But she believes there is always a moment worth noticing.
That is the advice she often shares with her team. “At the end of the day, if you take a moment, or a few, and maybe think about it on your drive home, you will always find the moment where you were able to have a positive impact on the people that you’re working with,” she said. “Always.”
Sometimes those moments are simple, but they matter.
That perspective has only grown stronger as Nancy has watched her own parents age and experienced firsthand how personal this work can be. “Every resident is someone’s family,” she said.
What started as an unfamiliar opportunity became the work Nancy was meant to do. Through steady leadership, a collaborative spirit, and a constant desire to improve what is possible for residents, she has helped shape services that have a real and lasting impact.
At Presbyterian Senior Living, Nancy Pilkington continues to lead with thoughtfulness, encouragement, and a deep commitment to helping both residents and team members flourish.
For people considering a career with PSL, her story reflects what makes the organization stand out: meaningful mission-driven work, room to grow, support for new ideas, and benefits that show care for the people doing the work every day.