Loren Shook

President/Chief Executive Officer/Chairman of the Board

Loren Shook was raised to value hard work, responsibility and compassion for others. When he was five years old, Loren’s family moved from his birthplace of Iowa to Seattle, where they lived on the grounds of his aunt and uncle’s psychiatric sanitorium. Throughout his childhood he assisted with his family’s burgeoning poultry farming operation while his parents worked in the hospital.

At the age of fifteen Loren took a job as a “gofer” at the hospital, caring for animals, raking leaves, pulling weeds, cleaning and serving as a companion for patients – a task for which he had a natural skill and affinity. It was during this formative time in his life that Loren experienced firsthand the miraculous things that purpose and dignity could do for the patients’ minds and spirits. From the effect of animal companionship to participation in basic tasks, many of the things he witnessed at the hospital made an impact that would allow him to change the world later in life.

Loren attended University of Washington, taking a full schedule of courses while still working up to 40 hours a week at the hospital. Upon graduating with a business degree, he went to work for Community Psychiatric Centers, the company that had recently bought his aunt and uncle’s hospital. Within six months, Loren’s hard work and natural leadership instincts saw him promoted to an Administrator position at a large CPC hospital where he quickly earned the reputation as the “go to” for CPC facilities needing extensive help with their operations.

Ever the hard worker and go-getter, Loren’s natural drive led him to continue both his education and his career growth. Within a few years he had worked his way up to the top at CPC, where he was President and COO. The firm, which had six mental health hospitals when Loren joined, grew to operate 50 psychiatric hospitals throughout the US, Puerto Rico and England and over 100 renal dialysis units. It also started a sub-acute medical surgical hospital business during his tenure.

Eventually, unhappy after 20 productive years with the behavioral health industry, Loren felt called into another direction and left CPC. With the freedom to choose his next venture and a world of possibilities available to him, one direction truly presented itself as an option for Loren – caring for those with memory-impairing diseases. From his teenage years as a gofer to his time as a President, Loren observed that the needs of those living with Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s and other conditions that robbed individuals of their memory were both misunderstood and underserved.

His inspiration set alight, Loren began putting together the pieces of his next step – a revolution in not just how people with memory impairments are treated, but how the world viewed them. After much planning and discussion about what this next step in memory care would be, Loren and new partners Steve Winner and Jim Smith began planning for a bold new concept in memory care, living the best quality of life through the end of life, and they called it Silverado.

In 1997 Silverado made the leap from concept to reality when Loren, Steve and Jim were handed (more accurately “thrown”) the keys to a failing nursing home in Escondido, California that was in need of extensive TLC.

More than twenty-five years later and with locations in ten states, Silverado has earned a reputation worldwide as an innovator in memory care that has redefined what is possible for people living with dementia. From the celebrated Nexus® at Silverado brain-health program to the compassionate life changing palliative and end-of-life care provided by Silverado Hospice, Loren’s footprint as a care innovator is broad. And as he will gladly tell you, he’s just getting started.

For a more extensive list of Loren’s accomplishments, visit his page on https://www.silverado.com/about-us/our-leadership/loren-shook/.