Scott Code has seen firsthand how digital technology can help support long-term care providers and keep seniors engaged.
Tapped in November 2022 as vice president of LeadingAge’s Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), his work ranges from bringing together industry thought leaders through the CAST Commission to advocating for digital equity.
He also has deep roots on the receiving side of tech services. As program director at Selfhelp Community Services, he helped develop a virtual program that drew homebound seniors into a health-centered, community-building environment. Code fondly remembers Milton, who went from days watching TV to a structured life with healthy habits and new friends, enabled by a touchscreen computer and virtual chats. Adele, an artist in her early 100s, became her group’s beloved mother figure.
The experience was eye-opening. Inspired, Code pursued an MBA, which helped bring him to CAST. Such an organization “doesn’t exist anywhere else in aging services in terms of their focus and their mission of helping older senior living providers adopt and implement technology strategically,” he says.
Code is known as a lifelong learner and a great listener open to new ideas and approaches — a necessity in the tech world, notes LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan.
“That sort of intel and perspective is enormously helpful in making sure that what we’re doing in the area of technology is absolutely relevant to our members,” she says.
Code’s interest in senior life traces back to his childhood in rural Williston, ND. He and his sister were raised by their father William, a physician, and mother Madelene, a fitness instructor. Their paternal grandfather, Edwin, lived with them, and Scott roomed with him for two years.
With ample free time, Ed was driven to find added purpose and meaning later in life, Code recalls. “I appreciated that, and carried it into my professional life,” he says.
Now, Code has come back to his roots. Years of studying and working in Bozeman, MT, San Diego, New York City and Washington, DC, left him craving the outdoors lifestyle. Accordingly, he and his family moved to Crozet, VA, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in 2021.
An avid outdoorsman who loves mountain biking, hiking, skiing and fishing, the 43-year-old is up each day at 4:30 a.m. for a gym workout. He returns home in time to help his wife, Anjali, 40, a communications and business development professional, take care of their energetic kids, Keerin, 7, and Reece, 5, before starting remote work.
“You can get a lot done when you’re up early,” he says.
At CAST, Code is now witnessing what his grad school professors predicted in the early aughts — that digital technology would play a major role in aging services. He’s excited to help providers wade through their tech options and integrate them into their business models in timely and strategic ways.
“I like working with them to make that connection. …There are a lot of opportunities in senior living and senior care to rethink what a senior living community is — enabled by technology.”
Resume
2002 Earns BA in psychology from Montana State
2004 Interns at Elder Law & Advocacy, San Diego
2005 Receives MS in gerontology from San Diego State
2006 Joins Selfhelp Community Services Inc. in NYC, as technology specialist
2008-2010 Named Selfhelp administrator, aging services technology
2010-2014 Becomes Selfhelp program director, client-centered technology
2011 Earns MBA from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, specializing in marketing
2012-present Serves as adjunct professor, City University of New York, School of Professional Studies
2014 Joins LeadingAge CAST
2022 Named CAST VP
From the September 2023 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
