Building Success Through Service: How a Clinical Dietitian Found Her Calling in Senior Living

In an industry facing unprecedented workforce shortages, budget pressures, and rising resident expectations, senior living communities need more from their partners than ever before. They need strategic advisors who understand operations, anticipate challenges, and help translate data into actionable results.

Amy Luhn, leader of Incite’s Member Success Team, has spent over 18 years in healthcare learning exactly how to be that partner. Her journey from Clinical Dietitian to sales and eventually member success has given her a unique perspective on what it takes to build trust, drive real outcomes, and evolve alongside the communities she serves.

In this conversation, Amy shares her insights on the biggest challenges facing senior living operators today, what true member success looks like, how to get the most value from GPO partnerships, and why servant leadership is the foundation of everything she does.

From Clinical Care to Strategic Partnership

Amy’s career began in hospital corridors as a Clinical Dietitian, where she built a strong clinical foundation in patient care. After several years in acute care, she noticed a pattern. The work that energized her most wasn’t just direct patient care – it was the opportunity to influence the healthcare system on a broader scale through relationships and consultative problem solving.

That realization led her into sales, and eventually into the senior living space, where everything clicked.

“I quickly fell in love with the mission and the people,” Amy says. “There is a genuine sense of purpose in this industry. I’ve been inspired by the caring, compassionate professionals who dedicate themselves to serving older adults. That commitment aligns deeply with my own values, and it’s what has kept me invested and motivated ever since.”

What Keeps the Fire Burning

After nearly two decades in healthcare, what continues to drive Amy isn’t the comfort of routine. It’s quite the opposite.

“The work is deeply meaningful, and it’s always challenging and evolving,” she explains. “At the core, we’re supporting people at some of the most important moments of their lives. In senior living especially, the impact is tangible. The decisions we help make, whether around nutrition, operations, or purchasing, directly affect the quality of care and the daily experience of residents.”

What gets her out of bed each morning is the opportunity to build relationships and help teams succeed. She’s energized by working alongside leaders who genuinely care about their communities, solving problems with them, and helping members achieve outcomes they didn’t think were possible, whether that’s driving savings, improving quality, or creating more efficiency for stretched teams.

“When I can help a member win, strengthen a team, and move the organization forward all in the same day,” Amy says, “that’s what makes this work exciting.”

Redefining Member Success

Ask Amy what member success really means, and you won’t get a textbook definition. To her, it’s ensuring members feel supported, understood, and confident they’re getting measurable value from Incite, not just once, but consistently over time.

“Our Member Success Team is more than just a support team,” she emphasizes. “We are an extension of each member’s organization.”

That distinction matters. Traditional account management can be transactional, responding to questions, resolving issues, managing renewals. Member success is proactive and strategic. Amy’s team doesn’t wait for something to go wrong. They identify opportunities, coach adoption, build strong programs, and bring forward insights that help members improve.

“At the heart of it, member success is built on trust, partnership, and accountability,” Amy says. “When members see us as a true partner, someone who understands their goals and helps them get there, that’s when member success is truly achieved.”

Leading Through Service

Amy is known for her “servant” leadership philosophy, and it shows up in everything she does. For her, it starts with a simple belief: her job is to make other people successful.

With members, that means presence and consistency. “I don’t want our members to feel like they are just another account on a list,” she says. “I want them to feel like they have a true partner.” That translates to listening first, asking thoughtful questions, understanding goals and constraints, and then bringing solutions that are realistic and actionable. It also means being honest when something isn’t working and staying accountable until they reach the right outcome.

With her team, servant leadership means leading with trust, clarity, and care. Amy works hard to create an environment where people feel safe to ask questions, share ideas, and learn through experience. She’s passionate about teaching and coaching because she wants people to develop confidence and ownership in their work.

“At the end of the day, servant leadership is about being a steady force,” Amy reflects. “Someone who shows up with humility, works hard alongside others, and genuinely cares about the people behind the work.”

Navigating Today’s Challenges

Right now, senior living communities are operating in an environment where they’re being asked to do more with less. Amy sees three challenges come up consistently across Incite’s membership.

First, labor constraints and turnover. Many communities are managing lean teams, frequent turnover, and limited time to train. Her team helps by simplifying processes, creating repeatable systems, and coaching best practices that reduce complexity for frontline teams.

Second, budget pressure and rising costs. Even when market inflation stabilizes, communities are still feeling the impact without additional reimbursement to offset it. Amy’s team supports this through contract compliance, cost analysis, identifying lower-cost alternatives that don’t sacrifice quality, and leveraging the collective purchasing power of the GPO.

Third, and perhaps most hidden, is inconsistent purchasing behavior. When teams are short-staffed, purchasing often becomes reactive – based on habit, urgency, or preference. This results in inconsistent spend, reduced contract compliance, and missed savings. “Our team helps members build stronger purchasing strategies,” Amy explains. “The goal is to create a system where the right choice is also the easiest choice.”

When Amy talks about building trust with new members, it comes down to a simple formula: listen, deliver, and follow through.

The Member Success team starts by learning each member’s operation and priorities, so recommendations are tailored to their needs. They set clear expectations from day one, identify early “quick wins” that create tangible value, and Operate as an integrated partner alongside the member’s team, rather than a traditional vendor.

“Most importantly, we earn trust through consistent communication, accountability, and integrity,” Amy says, “whether that means resolving issues quickly, providing transparent updates, or making the right long-term recommendation even when it’s not the easiest answer.”

The Future of Member Success

As senior living continues to face workforce shortages, rising costs, and increasing regulatory complexity, Amy sees the role of Member Success teams evolving from program support to true operational and strategic partnership.

“Members won’t just need access to contracts,” she predicts. “They will need a team that helps them navigate risk, drive adoption, and protect performance in real time.”

Member Success will become even more data-driven and proactive, using purchasing, compliance, and performance trends to identify issues early and guide decision-making. The focus will shift from simply reporting results to helping members understand what the data means, where the biggest opportunities are, and how to execute a strategy that works within their constraints.

Advice for Getting the Most Value

Amy’s advice for senior living operators is straightforward: treat your GPO partnership like any strategic operational partnership. Engage early, stay consistent, and hold each other accountable to results.

“The members who get the most value aren’t the ones who simply have a contract,” she notes. “They are the ones who actively use the tools, lean into the relationship, and build strong purchasing discipline across their organization.”

She emphasizes the importance of program adoption, consistency, and using data as a decision-making tool. “The best strategy in the world won’t produce results if it isn’t executed day-to-day,” Amy points out.

She also reminds operators that a great GPO partnership is a two-way street. “You should expect responsiveness, expertise, and advocacy from your GPO, but the best outcomes happen when the member is also engaged, aligned, and committed.”

Finding Balance

Outside of work, Amy is grounded by what matters most: her family. Based in the Cleveland area, she dedicates her time to her husband and three children, enjoying outdoor activities, cooking, and golf.

“Family keeps me grounded and reminds me every day why I work so hard,” Amy shares. “I’m deeply passionate about what I do, but my family is always my highest priority and protecting that time is something I’m very intentional about.”

For Amy, balance isn’t about doing everything perfectly. “It’s about being fully present in the moment, whether that’s giving my best to my team and our members during the day or being truly with my family when I’m home.”

It’s that same presence, commitment, and genuine care that makes Amy Luhn not just an effective leader, but a trusted partner to the senior living communities she serves.