Jody Gastfriend is a licensed clinical social worker and a national expert in senior care. She is a knowledgeable social entrepreneur at the intersection of health care, technology, public policy, and innovation with a specific focus on how to best support older adults and family caregivers.  

An award-winning author, her book, My Parent’s Keeper: The Guilt, Grief, Guesswork and Unexpected Gifts of Caregiving, has been described as an essential guide to caring for aging and ailing family members.  

At HMA, Jody works on a range of projects focused on the direct care workforce, self-directed care, long-term services and supports, and tech-enabled services and supports for older adults and family caregivers.  

Before joining HMA, Jody served as vice president of senior care at Care.com, the largest online resource for care in the world, where she established a highly successful employer- supported eldercare program considered best-in-class by top-tier corporate clients. The program offered expert caregiver advisory services and access to a national credentialed provider network consisting of a wide range of vetted resources and services.   

Jody’s range of leadership positions include serving as a supervisor at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, director of social services and case management at a community hospital, and chief operating officer of a Medicare-certified visiting nurse association. She launched an expansive eldercare division serving more than 300,000 employees when she served as director of adult care services at a national backup care company. 

Jody has been a featured expert for NBC, Fox News, AARP, Parade magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and Forbes. She published numerous articles on caregiving and aging through Oprah.com, Salon.com, USA Today, Harvard Business Review, and Next Avenue.  

Jody earned her master’s degree in social work from Simmons College School of Social Work, and her bachelor’s degree from Tufts University.