New Pacific Retirement Ceo Takes Cues From 40-year Career In Senior Living Operations

Sloan Bentley is bringing a more than 40-year career in senior living operations to her new role leading Pacific Retirement Services as president and CEO.

Bentley previously worked as president and CEO of Lutheran Life Communities, which filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy about a year ago. Bentley has served in leadership positions at multiple mission-driven national organizations. She also co-founded Seniority Inc., a firm which provided management, sales and marketing services to senior living operators, as a wholly owned subsidiary of American Baptist Homes of the West. Before that, she also previously led Lifespace Communities for a period of about five years and helped grow the organization into among the largest non-profit senior living operators in that time.

She is slated to start working at Pacific Retirement Services once Lutheran Life Communities’ financial restructuring is completed. She succeeds Dennis Gradillas, who had led the organization since 2025.

Medford, Oregon-based PRS has 37 communities, including the SHN Design Award-winning Mirabella at ASU community on Arizona State University’s Tempe, Arizona, campus. In 2026, the organization is adding new cottages at its Cascade Manor community in Eugene, Oregon, and completing an expansion at its Madison, Wisconsin community to capture demand at communities with already high occupancy rates. PRS has also focused on expanding its value-based offerings with new partnerships with primary physicians, referral groups and healthcare providers.

In her new role as CEO, she seeks to help the organization improve its culture and further its mission, both for existing employees and workers the operator may hire tomorrow. For now, she is analyzing the organization, its mission, communities and processes to better lead it.

Bentley plans to draw on her experience as top leader of Lutheran Life Communities with regard to staffing at PRS. In that role, she sought to hire people who wish to learn “something not taught in a textbook.”

“For each person that I have done that for, I have told them, ‘I’m passing the baton. It’s now your turn to find somebody to do this for,’” Bentley said. “I think it’s our job to mentor individuals and bring up the ranks behind us, because it’s critical that we have the quality of leadership in our industry.”

In her first six months as CEO, Bentey plans to visit the senior living operator’s 37 communities and meet workers and residents to help steer the direction of the organization’s next five years.

Looking ahead, Bentley said the not-for-profit side of the senior housing sector needs to secure its “piece of the pie” through smart technology use and an emphasis on hospitality. Compliance with rules and regulations, a changing landscape for payments, technology and staff training are top areas of focus.

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