Jennifer Rabalais
Professional Background
Jennifer has spent the last 19 years working with older adults, as well as chronically and acutely ill populations in community based settings. She joined the Institute on Disability in 2010 as a Project Director for DirectConnect, a 3 year workforce development grant aimed at recruiting, training and the retention of direct care workers in NH. Since then she has worked on a variety of other projects around aging and disabilities, including projects to advance healthy aging in NH and creating greater balance between utilization of institutional and community based long term services and supports in NH. Prior to joining the IOD, she worked for seven years as Director of Patient Services for the ALS Association – Orange County Chapter. In this role Jennifer was responsible for program design, implementation and evaluation as well as general oversight of all programs. Previous to that, she provided program supervision and case management for 5 years in a Medicaid waiver program designed to post pone and/or prevent nursing home placement of at risk seniors in Los Angeles County, California. Jennifer has also worked on a research project that evaluated the efficacy of a Cognitive Behavioral group treatment approach to depression.