Senior Star Leadership

Robert Thomas

Principal

In 1976, Bob and his twin brother, Bill, co-founded Gemini Properties, a real estate operating and investment company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company’s focus evolved to senior housing in 1989, with the founding of Senior Star. The company’s living and care options for aging adults include independent living, assisted living, and memory support in several states. A growing company with strong leadership has enabled the brothers to focus their energies on senior-related and civic issues in community and national causes. Bob serves on the Executive Advisory Board of the American Seniors Housing Association.

Fueled by a passion to help end Alzheimer’s disease, Bob is in his 25th year of board service to the Alzheimer’s Association. He is one of three founding members of the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, a sister organization, where he remains the board treasurer. As volunteer lobbyists, he and his wife, Jill routinely travel to Washington, D.C. to promote increased Alzheimer’s research funding and other Alzheimer’s Association priorities.

Bob has served in numerous leadership capacities (President, Campaign Chair or Executive Committee member) for Augsburg University, Family & Children’s Services, LIFE Senior Services, the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, Tulsa Area United Way, and the University of Tulsa and as a board member for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Oklahoma and Tulsa Community Foundation.

Bob and Bill are inductees in the Tulsa Historical Society Hall of Fame, the University of Tulsa’s Business Hall of Fame, and are members of the University’s Distinguished Alumni. They are currently co-chairing the University’s long-range capital campaign.

William Thomas

Principal

As noted above, Bill, with his twin brother Bob co-founded Gemini Properties, a real estate operating and investment company, in 1976. The company’s focus evolved toward senior housing in 1989 with the founding of Senior Star. Today, Senior Star provides independent living, assisted living, and memory support across five Midwestern states with over 1,800 residences.

Bill serves on boards of trustees for the National Alzheimer’s Association, American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA), Philbrook Museum of Art, and the University of Tulsa. Bill earlier served as Board Chair for ASHA, Philbrook Museum of Art, as well as Tulsa Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in the nation during his tenure, and President of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Sooner Chapter. Bill, his brother, Bob, and their wives, Susan and Jill, co-chair the Tulsa 2022 Alzheimer’s Memory Gala, and Bill and Susan co-chaired the 25th Anniversary Alzheimer’s Memory Gala in 2019. Bill and Bob co-chaired the Tulsa Area United Way campaign in 2002 and served as co-chairs of its Board in 2003. They also co-chaired two LIFE Senior Services capital campaigns, providing capital to build three state-of-the-art adult day centers. Bill and Bob also co-chair the Greater Commitment capital campaign of the University of Tulsa.

The Retired Senior Volunteer Program of Tulsa recognized Bill and Bob by granting them their 2001 Leadership Award. The Association of Fundraising Professionals Eastern Oklahoma Chapter honored them respectively in 2000, 2007 & 2016 as Outstanding Volunteer Fundraisers, Outstanding Philanthropists, and Pillar Award recipients for philanthropic leadership benefitting the Tulsa community. The University of Tulsa named them their 2011 Outstanding Entrepreneurs, inducting them into the Collins College of Business Hall of Fame. Bill and Bob are inductees of the Tulsa Historical Society’s Hall of Fame. Most recently, the University of Tulsa named them as 2019 Distinguished Alumni.

Anja Rogers

Chief Executive Officer

Serving Senior Star since 1983, Anja leads marketing, sales, health services, and operations. In 1988, she became the company’s first business partner outside the Thomas family. She plays a key role in bringing the Senior Star vision to life by helping to ensure that company culture, sales processes, and marketing efforts are best in class. Instrumental in assisting in the company’s growth and development initiatives, Anja’s most recent professional achievement involved spearheading the award-winning and innovative design of Wexford Assisted Living and Memory Support by Senior Star in Kansas City.

Anja completed a 10-year term of service for the LIFE Senior Services Board of Directors, acting at times as both Marketing Committee chairperson and Executive Committee member. She routinely presents at national senior housing sales and marketing conferences, most recently for the Assisted Living Federation of America. Anja also serves on the American Seniors Housing Association Chairman’s Circle and lives in Tulsa with her husband, Mark.

Letitia Jackson

Senior Vice President

Letitia’s career with Senior Star began over 24 years ago as a community Executive Director. Her prior professional experience included teaching and nine years as a senior branch manager, marketer, and national trainer for a home care organization. She has held various positions during her tenure at Senior Star, including Director of Health Services, Regional Director of Marketing and Sales, and Vice President of Health Services and Programming. Letitia is a graduate of Purdue University and has been certified as both an assisted living administrator and dementia care trainer. She has helped guide and support the fulfillment of the company’s mission by overseeing and developing programs, services, guidelines and protocols, sales, and associate engagement and development programs.

As a Senior Star Difference Maker, Letitia held several leadership positions in the greater community. These include an advisory council member of the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women, an Oklahoma Assisted Living Association officer, seats and chairs of various Alzheimer’s Association committees, and an eight-year board member of the Oklahoma chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. She was recently vice-chair and chair of the National Alzheimer’s Association Dementia Care Roundtable. Outside of company duties as a Court Appointed Special Advocate, she was the voice of 14 children in the Oklahoma foster care system.

Letitia spearheaded the company’s initial efforts to become CARF Accredited. As a result, Senior Star achieved the highest level of accreditation, which was only open to assisted living communities. Subsequently, Senior Star communities have been consistently awarded the highest level of CARF accreditation for our independent living, assisted living, and memory care communities and have maintained that level of accreditation for 16 years.

Shadoworee Betts

Chief Operations Officer

Shadoworee graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2000 with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. A nurse with over 20 years of experience serving patients (residents) in pediatrics, individuals with developmental disabilities, and seniors for the last 11 years. Shadoworee was formerly the Director of Health Service for Inverness Village, where she served on several advisory boards, including:

• Oral Roberts University, Tulsa Community College, and Tulsa Technology Institute Nurse Advisory Boards
• Planetree Nursing Advisory Committee
• Leading Age Oklahoma Leadership Academy Fellow
• Leading Age National Leadership Academy Inductee

As a member of Senior Star, Shadoworee received the Senior Star Rising Star Award in 2018, was promoted to the Regional Vice President of Clinical Service in 2019, and serves on the National Alzheimer’s Association Dementia Care Roundtable 2020-2021 fiscal year. Outside of these, Shadoworee’s greatest accomplishment is marrying her husband and raising two beautiful kids.

Taylor Hernandez

Chief People Officer

Taylor Hernandez is the Chief People Officer for Senior Star. Since 2009, she has worked in many aspects of the Senior Living industry, from hospitality to associate training, sales, marketing, resident programming, new technologies, visioning, and strategic planning. Her keen insight, intuition, and attention to detail make her a valued mentor and coach to associates across the company.

As a dedicated and driven Senior Star leader, Taylor has overseen a number of successful rollouts for innovative programming and services for both residents and associates. She bolsters the development and experience of all Senior Star associates, implementing a learning management system and launching Middle-Manager leadership training and Onboarding initiatives, all of which strengthen alignment with the company’s culture and promise.

A graduate of Augustana College with a concentration in psychology, she is also a choral musician with performance credits that include Carnegie Hall. Taylor loves to learn, has a passion for teaching and sparking insightful “ah-ha” moments for associates and stakeholders alike, and is driven by her never-ending pursuit of excellence.

Anna Williams

Chief Financial Officer

Anna joined Senior Star in May 2023 as Chief Financial Officer. As CFO of Senior Star, Anna is responsible for all of the company’s financial functions, including financial strategy, accounting, treasury, development and management of budgets, payroll, human resources, growth initiatives, and risk management.

Prior to joining Senior Star, Anna’s career spans over 20 years as a CFO in varying sectors. After starting her career at Arthur Andersen, Anna served in the CFO role from 2000 to 2018 for a publicly traded energy company with domestic and international operations in Colombia, South America, and from 2018 to 2023 for a privately-owned fabrication company. During this time, she had hands-on experience in financial leadership, tax planning, treasury management, commercial insurance, human resources, mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, ensuring regulatory compliance, and streamlining operations. She also established and developed strong relationships with external financial, legal, and regulatory advisors in the United States, Colombia, and the United Kingdom.

Anna holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a Certified Public Accountant. She is a member of the American Senior Housing Association. In her free time, Anna and her husband can be found enjoying their new lease on life as empty-nesters.