Aimee Middleton was a young girl growing up in Omaha, NE, when she watched her Grandma McMahon make a decision she would not soon forget. Faced with boarding a plane to Hawaii for a business trip or staying to watch her newest grandchild be born, her grandmother chose to stay.
The lesson stuck.
“You can be a businesswoman and a family woman at the same time,” Middleton reflected.
Those who know her say Middleton, vice president of operations for the Good Samaritan Society, has mastered the art of balancing professional drive with devotion to family.
The 46-year-old mother of two grown children, Emma and Todd Jr., has spent much of her free time until recently traveling to and cheering them on at soccer games and cross-country events.
Now, she and her husband Todd, retired after selling his landscaping business, are empty-nesters living in South Dakota. They still make frequent visits back to their Nebraska property to host and entertain family and friends, a large group that will soon grow by one more. Middleton is about become GiGi to the couple’s first grandchild.
Her grandmother, Barbara McMahon, 87, has long been an inspiration. One of Middleton’s earliest memories was begging her for a three-piece, pink-and-black patterned business suit for Easter. Little Aimee was 10.
After raising six children, McMahon worked in Omaha for the Kelly Services staffing agency, eventually managing a branch for another staffing company. Middleton, too, wanted to stay home to raise her children as long as possible. She fell in love with sales while helping run the family’s Double T Lawn and Landscape business.
Years later, she lists “woo” as one of her top StrengthsFinder traits on her resume. It’s meant to convey an exceptional talent for winning people over.
“She has an amazing amount of drive, and couples that with an incredible work ethic, and a humility of learning from mistakes and being willing to learn and grow from those,” says Jalene Carpenter, president and CEO of the Nebraska Health Care Association. “A lot of people who are driven don’t take that moment to step back.”
Middleton leaned on that while in recruiting roles, which also took her into nursing homes and introduced her to the administrator position. Today, she’s particularly content in her current position at the Good Samaritan Society.
She’s often found in meetings with state and national elected officials, trying to woo their support for the sector. But she most enjoys supporting her internal team of seven executive directors who oversee more than 200 locations.
“My job is a leader of leaders,” she said, noting that traveling to visit her team is her favorite part of the job. “Man, does it fill my bucket to visit a facility.”
Once she’s arrived, she can usually be found at a grill with a cooler of steaks and mashed potatoes, serving her team.
“She’s been able to take that electric personality and literally transform our culture,” said Good Sam President and CEO Nate Schema. “It’s the ‘woo’ in her. Aimee is woo.”
Middleton’s Resume
1998-2005 Manages Double T Lawn and Landscape in Omaha
2002 Earns business administration degree from the University of Nebraska
2005-2009 Manages staffing and hiring agency branches
2009-2011 Recruits nurses for continuing education program and earns master’s in healthcare administration from Clarkson College
2011-2012 Directs Tabitha Health home care, client development
2011-2021 Serves on Nebraska Health Care Association board
2011-2022 Various terms teaching healthcare administration, gerontology at three colleges
2012 Hired as administrator for Vetter Health Services
2017 – present Moves to Good Samaritan as administrator; becomes executive director of operations for Nebraska and Kansas in 2019; named vice president of operations in 2022
