Mark Cimino has spent decades fighting and troubleshooting to make senior living accessible to all older adults — regardless of location or financial resources.
There are people who talk about change — and there are people who build it. Mark Cimino is the latter. With a career spanning decades in senior living, Mark has been guided by a deceptively simple belief: every older adult deserves access to quality residential care, no matter where they live or what they can afford.
That belief is why we are proud to celebrate Mark’s recognition as the California Assisted Living Association’s (CALA) Advocate of the Year — a distinction that reflects not just his vision, but the tangible difference that vision has made in the lives of thousands of California seniors. Under Mark’s leadership, CiminoCare has become a leader in third-party payer collaborations — an area of senior care that many operators consider too complex, too uncertain, or simply not worth pursuing. Mark pursued it anyway.
Today, CiminoCare’s partnerships span a wide and growing network of systems designed to broaden access for older adults who might otherwise fall through the cracks: Each of these partnerships represents a bridge — connecting older adults who need services and care with a residential home environment that can actually provide it. That is the CiminoCare difference, and it is Mark’s life’s work made real.
“We have been forging partnerships with health systems that are dedicated to improving quality outcomes — recognizing that a residential home environment is often better for older adults. It is where combining personal care, medication management, and life enrichment should become a person-centered approach, not a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach.”
— Mark Cimino, Founder & Leader, CiminoCare
That distinction — person-centered versus decline-centered — is at the heart of everything Mark champions. Too often, the conversation around aging focuses on what seniors can no longer do. Mark reframes it entirely: what can we build around them so they continue to have options and engage in things that are important.
His advocacy has never been confined to CiminoCare’s walls. Throughout his career, Mark has shown up — in policy conversations, at the table with payers and health systems, and in communities across California — to make the case that access to quality senior living is not a luxury. It should be an option for everyone.
CALA’s recognition of Mark as Advocate of the Year is well deserved. It honors not only his individual leadership, but the broader movement CiminoCare is proud to lead — one that says the quality of your care in later life should not be determined by your geography or your income.
We are proud to be the leader in this movement — and prouder still of the man leading it.
