The Essential Guide to
Understanding and Funding Senior Care
About the Co-Authors
Elizabeth Jacobson
Elizabeth Jacobson has been an RN for 23 years, working exclusively with our senior population. Elizabeth knows from personal experience the challenge of having to make quick decisions in the midst of emotional turmoil. In 2016 her mother broke a hip and then suffered a stroke. She was not able to recover and spent the remaining months of her life in a long-term care community. Throughout her career, Elizabeth has assisted many families facing a similar situation and having to make difficult decisions on behalf of their loved ones.
Elizabeth enjoys spending time with her five children and 6 grandchildren. She is involved in River Valley Church and also enjoys quilting, knitting, guitar, and singing. Elizabeth lives in Eagan, Minnesota, a suburb of St. Paul.
Ben Rao
Ben Rao is an author, serial entrepreneur, business coach, philanthropist and senior care advocate who lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri (outside Kansas City, MO).
Ben experienced first-hand the emotional and financial struggle that families face when he was unexpectedly confronted with the reality of transitioning his own father into senior care. He was challenged by the lack of direction and resources available for a process that nearly all of us will eventually need to go through. That experience inspired Ben to use his personal and professional experience in the long-term care industry to help families transition their loved ones into senior care.
Ben enjoys traveling, biking, hiking, and outdoor adventures – he tries to visit at least two national parks every year. He lives with his wife, Rhonda, and their two children, Maddy and Charlie, in a renovated historic building that was once the Lee’s Summit Hospital and the Dayton Hotel in Downtown Lee’s Summit. He also developed Lee’s Summit’s first entrepreneurial incubator and shared office space in a formerly vacant post office. Ben works there alongside his trusty sidekick, Charlie dog, a border collie who has gone to the office with him every day for the last 10 years.