Joy Silver

Joy Silver Senior Advisor Joy Silver, (MA, RCFE) SilverSenior Living, is an LGBT Aging Issues Consultant. She recently served as Community Operations Director for Merrill Gardens, an Assisted Living and Memory Care Company, headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Until January 2015, she served as Chief Strategy Officer for Choices Women’s Medical Center, Inc., a NYS Article 28 Women’s Healthcare Center, Jamaica, New York, providing services to a largely Medicaid population.

Ms. Silver served as President/CEO, and was the founding principal and visionary for RainbowVision Properties, Inc., Santa Fe, NM, an LGBT developer, owner-operator of senior living communities providing active adult, independent, assisted and first level memory care services.   She and her team secured financing through debt/equity, developed, designed, built and operated RainbowVision Santa Fe, the world’s first LGBT senior living community providing hospitality-style services including units of affordable housing. Ms. Silver’s mission-driven vision for seniors led her to create the non-profit “Emerald City Foundation” which granted funds for financial emergencies supporting New Mexican local LGBT people over the age of 62.

Additionally, she serves as a second term board member for Griot Circle, Inc., a Brooklyn, New York grassroots organization addressing the needs of LGBT Seniors of Color, as its board development chair. She also served as a member of the Core Group for the L-Fund, Palm Springs, CA, serving Lesbians in Financial Crisis in the Coachella Valley, currently serves PALS (Planning Ahead for LGBT Seniors) Palm Springs, on its Steering Committee, and as Wellness Committee Chair for the Steinway Society of Riverside County.

Ms. Silver served as two-term board member for both LAIN (Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network) of the American Society for Aging, and the LGBT Historical Society, San Francisco, California.  She was a spokesperson for Equality California and Equality New Mexico and led its LGBT Healthcare Committee. She was an LGBT advisor for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's 2008 presidential campaign, received a letter of commendation from the Mayor of Santa Fe, David Coss, and received the prestigious 2009 Wells-Fargo National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Gay Business Owner of the Year Award. That same year, she received Go Magazine’s Top Ten Lesbian Entrepreneurs of the Year and the New Mexico’s LGBT Vision of Hope Award.

Joy Silver is a noted speaker and multi-media personality on issues of Diversity and Healthcare in Senior Living, as well as Affordable, Sustainable Housing and Community Building.  She spoke on the first LGBT HUD panel held December 2011 in Washington DC, and presented for the 2013 American Planning Association in April entitled “Addressing the Needs of LGBT Seniors.”  Her interview for Only Seniors, a Cable TV Program “Even Fabulous Gets Old” was shared by the Widener University sociology chair for sexual studies. She also was an invited participant at the White House 2015 LGBT Elder Housing Summit.   Ms. Silver received the 2016 Jewish Women’s Caucus Award for the American Women In Psychology Association, Pittsburgh, PA for scholarship.