Rachel Monger, Rising Star


Editor’s Note: The McKnight’s Long-Term Care NewsDaily Update and McKnight’s Senior Living Daily Briefing e-newsletters are profiling each of the McKnight’s 2019 Women of Distinction in July. For more coverage, visit the McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Senior Living websites and read the July print edition of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and August print edition of McKnight’s Senior Living.

Rachel Monger has made her career by fighting to better the lives of seniors. After receiving her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Kansas Law School, she started her own practice focused on elder law, senior care and nursing home litigation. 

After six years of practice at a law firm, she landed at LeadingAge Kansas in 2012 as the director of government affairs. Three years later, she was promoted to vice president of government affairs.

Rachel Monger receiving Rising Star award
Rachel Monger with McKnight’s Senior Living Editor Lois Bowers. Photo: Social Snacks

Her successes with the association include lobbying Kansas legislators to reinstate a cut and rebase Medicaid funding for nursing homes to $44 million for the 2019 state fiscal year. She also sounded the alarm in ending Kansas’ Medicaid eligibility backlog, despite state agencies reporting that it was under control. She helped create a pilot to aid in fixing it and continues to pressure the state to fix the system. She also sits on the state Adult Protective Services Committee, which recently passed legislation that increased penalties for financial abuse of older adults.

In her spare time, Monger has partnered with a group of seniors to educate their peers on how to plan for long-term care and the steps to choose appropriately. She also coordinated the first Gubernatorial Forum during the most recent election focused entirely on aging issues. Additionally, she volunteers her time as a reader for the Kansas Audio Reader Network. 

McKnight’s Women of Distinction is a joint program of McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program’s exclusive Platinum sponsor is PointClickCare.