Future Leader: Kimberly Varley, Senior Vice President Of Human Resources, The Aspenwood Company

Kimberly Varley, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at The Aspenwood Company, has been named to the Future Leaders Class of 2026 by Senior Housing News.

To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40 years of age or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for older adults and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.

Varley sat down with Senior Housing News to share what drew her to the senior living industry, the biggest leadership lessons she has learned, her thoughts on the future of senior living, and much more. To learn more about the Future Leaders Awards program, visit https://futureleaders.wtwhmedia.com/.

SHN: What drew you to the senior living industry?

Varley: I’ve always known, from pretty early on, that I have a heart to serve and a real desire to make a difference in people’s lives. That path first took me to the Conrad Hilton College at the University of Houston, where I studied Hotel and Restaurant Management, and I spent the next ten years working in hotels and resorts. I loved that world and I’m grateful for everything it taught me, but somewhere along the way I started to feel like something was missing. I wanted to know that the work I did each day was making a bigger impact on people’s lives, not just their stay.

Then The Aspenwood Company reached out to me, and I just knew. This was it. It gave me the chance to step into a career that felt so much more meaningful, and to bring my hospitality and HR background into a space where it could really matter. Now I get to help shape the culture of our communities every day, by making sure we hire team members who genuinely care, who protect what makes our culture special, and who hold themselves to the highest standard in how they show up for our residents. It’s the kind of work that fills you up, and I’m grateful every day that I found my way here.

SHN: How would you describe your leadership style, and how has it changed over time?

Varley: I don’t think my leadership style has necessarily changed over the years, so much as it’s been refined. At my core, I’ve always been a person of high integrity, someone who leads with care and empathy, and who genuinely wants to help people get where they’re trying to go. What has changed is how that’s grown and taken shape. I’ve been fortunate throughout my career to work under some truly amazing women in leadership, and I learned so much just watching how they carried themselves, how they made people feel, and how they led with both strength and heart. Every one of them left a fingerprint on who I am as a leader today.

That growth has really come alive through every team member interaction and every partnership with fellow leaders working toward a shared goal. My hospitality roots taught me early on that leadership is really just service, showing up for people, anticipating their needs, and making them feel valued. I’ve carried that into every part of my career since, and it’s become the foundation of how I lead now, a people first, servant leadership approach that puts the growth and wellbeing of my team at the center of everything I do.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop learning and growing, and honestly, that’s the part I love most. I feel if you are continuing to learn and grow, you are refining what you already know by enhancing those lessons, applying real-world wisdom through each experience, and carrying it into your next response, action, or innovative program or process. Some of my greatest joy doesn’t come from my own success, it comes from watching the team members around me grow into leaders themselves and step into their own potential. Getting to play even a small part in that journey is what makes this work so meaningful to me.

SHN: What is the biggest leadership lesson you’ve learned while serving the senior living industry?

Varley: The biggest leadership lesson I’ve learned sitting on the home office side of this industry is that even though I’m not the one providing hands-on care to our residents, everything I do still reaches them. Every hire we make, every culture initiative we roll out, every team member I support or develop, all of it eventually shows up in a resident’s day. It taught me that HR in senior living isn’t administrative work sitting behind a desk removed from the mission. It’s mission critical work. If I do my job well, I’m not just supporting an organization, I’m protecting the quality of life for every resident our team members care for.

That lesson has shaped how I show up every single day. It’s why I care so deeply about who we bring onto our teams, because the right hire isn’t just filling a role, they’re becoming part of someone’s daily life and someone’s home. It’s why culture isn’t a buzzword to me, it’s the thing that determines whether a caregiver feels supported enough to bring their best self into a resident’s room every day. And it’s why I take it so personally when a team member feels seen, valued, and equipped to do their job well, because I know that feeling doesn’t stay contained to them. It ripples all the way down to the residents they serve.

Working from the home office, I don’t always get to see that ripple effect firsthand, but I’ve learned to trust that it’s there. My biggest leadership lesson has been understanding that my impact isn’t measured by the residents I meet, it’s measured by the thousands of moments of care that happen because I helped build a team, a culture, and a company that made those moments possible.

SHN: In one word, how would you describe the senior living industry and why?

Varley: Purposeful. 

SHN: What do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges currently facing the senior living industry?

Varley: From an HR perspective, I’d say our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity are actually two sides of the same coin. One of the real challenges facing our industry right now is a workforce pipeline problem. There simply aren’t enough people entering the field, and a big part of that comes down to misperception. So many young people don’t fully understand what senior living actually is, or they’ve formed an idea of it that doesn’t reflect the reality of the work, the relationships, or the impact.

That challenge is exactly where I see our biggest opportunity. We’ve worked hard as an organization to get in front of students early, in high schools and colleges, to bring awareness and education around senior living and what we actually do every day. We want to reach students before they’ve settled into a career path, while there’s still room to shape and influence their future. When we bring students in to tour our communities, they’re honestly blown away. They see the quality of what we provide, the level of service, the relationships between our team members and residents, and it completely changes how they see the industry. For a lot of them, it plants a seed they didn’t even know was there.

So while the challenge is real, closing the gap between what people think this industry is and what it actually is, I believe it’s also our greatest opportunity. Every student who walks through our doors and leaves with a different perspective is a potential future team member, and maybe even a future leader in this field. If we can keep showing up early and telling our story honestly, I think we have real potential to change the trajectory of this workforce for years to come.

SHN: If you had a crystal ball, what do you think will impact the senior living industry over the next 5-10 years?

Varley: If I had a crystal ball, I think one of the biggest things shaping our industry over the next five to ten years is what people are calling the “silver tsunami.”

As Baby Boomers age into senior living in much larger numbers, we’re going to see demand for care surge, but the workforce simply isn’t growing fast enough to keep up. That gap is going to be one of the defining HR challenges of the next decade.

That’s exactly why I believe the organizations that thrive will be the ones who started building their pipeline early, the way we have through our high school and college partnerships. If we want to close that workforce gap, we can’t wait for people to find us later in life, we have to reach them early, help them see what this industry really is, and give them a clear path into it.

SHN: In your opinion, what qualities must all Future Leaders possess?

Varley: Humility.

The best Future Leaders know they don’t have all the answers yet, and they stay teachable, curious, and open to learning from the people around them, including the people they lead.

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