Geraldine Gorman, RN, PhD FAAN

Geraldine Gorman, RN, PhD FAAN has been a faculty member in the College of Nursing at the University of Illinois Chicago since 2002. She has also practiced as a hospice nurse for the past 25 years.

Prior to entering nursing, she earned a Master’s degree in English from Loyola University. While in the graduate program, she began to volunteer with the Little Brothers of the Poor (now Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly) and met Lilo and Michel Salmon who changed her life. She worked with the Little Brothers, living in community and participating in all aspects of their direct social services until a brief relocation to Arizona. Shortly after Lilo and Michel founded H.O. M.E., Gerry returned to Chicago to work in the new organization. When she decided to pursue nursing, it was largely motivated by a belief that the intergenerational shared living communities integral to H.O.M.E's founding vision could benefit from a health care provider on staff. Although her path led toward nursing education and end of life care, Gerry remained entwined with H.O.M.E. and her three children grew up in and around the intergenerational houses, sharing holidays and celebrations with their residents and staff.

What resonates with you most about H.O.M.E.’s mission?

H.O.M.E.'s mission resonates with renewed urgency as I join the Board of Directors. As an educator and nurse, I have witnessed the consequences of our post-COVID landscape. Virtual learning and telehealth widened our distance from one another at a time we crave community. H.O.M.E.'s unwavering commitment to holistic service, steadfast to Lilo and Michel’s founding vision, reminds us hospitality cannot be artificially designed. It comes from the human warmth generated around a shared table.