Throughout her career, Beverly Janco Tuttle has touched every aspect of senior living, working her way up from the front desk to sales and operations and, finally, the C-suite. In early 2025, she was named CEO of Navion Senior Solutions and became a member of Sage’s inaugural Client Advisory Board (CAB). Beverly is known for combining operational rigor with deep compassion for her team and residents. In this candid conversation, Beverly shares her approach to building a growth-oriented workplace, leading through rapid expansion, and choosing technology partners that support—not burden—caregivers.
My mom is an RN who worked in long-term care, so her stories of serving seniors were shared over the dinner table each night. When I was 10 years old, my “summer camp” was spending time with her at the nursing home where she worked as the director of nursing. I would be assigned to a department, spending my days learning a new role and interacting with the residents. I worked in the kitchen, in activities, and in laundry. It was there that I fell in love with seniors.
Fast forward, my first job working with seniors was as a receptionist at a nursing home in Charlotte, North Carolina. I spent time learning about the business and, a few years later, I applied for a sales position for a community in assisted living, an up-and-coming industry. This journey was exciting and offered me a chance to make a mark on something that was growing and evolving each day. While helping families choose the right community for their loved one, I realized this was a calling for me; something bigger than a job. During this time, I was exposed to operations and decided to become a licensed administrator. After I got my license, the perfect opportunity arose six months later when the executive director position turned over. I knew I was helping to create something meaningful for our residents and their loved ones. It was a way to make sure that we were delivering what we were selling.
So many people believed and invested in me, and I’m forever grateful for that, so I try to do the same thing for those around me. My greatest mentors all shared similar core qualities: integrity, approachability, and authenticity. They are leaders people can talk to, admit when they make a mistake, and grow from it. Those are the qualities I try to emulate in my own leadership. I certainly don’t always get it right—I make mistakes like anybody else—and I truly value it when people come to me. It takes courage and strength, and that warrants my time, attention, and energy.
When I came on board in October 2020, we had 16 communities—we currently have 51. We had rapid growth over those first three and a half years of my tenure. Through that growth, we refined our acquisition strategy so that, when we acquire a community, we spend time listening to them about what they need in a new operator. What are they not getting now and what do they desire for the future? It’s important to start building trust from the first interaction.
We’re responsible for clarifying what success looks like. Success shows up in many forms: clinical and regulatory compliance, resident care quality delivery, satisfaction scores, financial prudence, and, ultimately, how people speak about the company. It’s important to hear Navion associated with something positive, grounded in compassion, care, and transparency. We listen so that we can make the needed improvements.
Halfway through our growth initiative, I found myself apologizing for the burden it was putting on everybody. Our executive leadership team sat down and discussed our communication around growth and said, “Why are we apologizing for this? We’re growing because we want to serve more seniors and provide growth opportunities for our team members. We want to be a leader in senior living. We need to embrace and celebrate growth, not apologize for it.” That changed how we communicated with our teams about the exciting growth plans for Navion’s future.
The forefront of our mission statement is to be a growth-oriented workplace for our team members. Of our executive team, 90% or more started at a community level and/or have been promoted from within Navion. We really do invest in the development of our people and our teams. We have found that when you invest in the right people, in the right ways, successful outcomes follow. Because of that, our brand has become something people want to be a part of and a place where they want to develop as professionals. That makes me incredibly proud.
I don't think that there's a secret sauce. It is constantly evolving, so we continue to evaluate our culture and ask people how they’re doing. It starts with a foundation of psychological safety. Our people are only going to share real feedback if they feel that information is protected.
I’ve started inviting team members to my farm. We call the program “Rooted in Culture.” Lindsey [Daugherty, Sage’s head of community] helped me and my husband start our hobby farm and develop our starter herd of Highland cows. We also have chickens, pigs, alpacas, and a donkey. My husband and I regularly welcome team members to our farm for a visit that’s part connection, part conversation, and all heart. We start on the porch, where we talk candidly about their experience at Navion. I ask the tough questions and genuinely listen—whether the feedback is positive or constructive. We share a lunch made with something from the garden or farm-raised, and I send them home with a jar of homemade pickles or something canned from our kitchen—something personal, from my heart to theirs. My goal is to remove the mystery around the CEO title and foster a sense of genuine connection that feels like true family. The response so far has been incredible. When we break down barriers and create space for honest dialogue, we cultivate transparency, trust, and meaningful growth.
Candidly, this has been very difficult through our growth initiative. We took a deliberate stance that we weren’t going to bring on an acquisition and force them into new systems until we gave them time to get to know us and adapt to a new company. But what we have found is that we then created an environment with multiple systems and vendors. We have so much data in different formats and at different stages of efficiency. It makes sense to clean that up—because our tech needs to support the most important thing, which is ensuring that our residents receive great care and services. We went through a major integration with ECP, our electronic health record platform, over the last year and a half. Now we’ve moved on to our integration with Sage.
We ran a Sage pilot in January 2025 and the data, information, and insights were so valuable that it made me immediately feel like the other communities were missing out. From a resident and family perspective, people are demanding transparency into the care and the value of what they’re paying for—as they should. Sage allows us to provide that transparency in a way that feels efficient, intentional, and organized.
Right now, seven Navion communities are live with Sage. This is an important junction in our future and we’ve made the global decision to implement an enterprise-wide transition, so the remainder of the year will be spent converting our remaining communities to Sage. That's going to give us a global look at the care we're providing and the efficiency with which we provide it. It will also ensure that our team members have the tools and support they need to do their job well and in a less burdened way.
I was really honored when the Sage team invited me to participate in the CAB. At the time, we had one community that was in pilot, so for them to acknowledge the value of having voices representing different operating groups and with different volumes of integration really spoke to me. I’ve had an opportunity to meet with Sage’s product team and hear about some new and exciting initiatives. They asked for feedback—and they listened. There’s a complete alignment with the same transparency and openness I find important in my organization.
Another thing I love about the Sage team is that they have folks who have been in active roles in senior housing. These are not all IT developers. They're folks who understand what a community looks like and the day-to-day life of a community operator—and that's important to me.
There has been report after report regarding the senior housing boom and the growth that's coming. It’s exciting—and how we keep up with that growth is incredibly important. We recently completed a highly successful memory care expansion in one of our memory care communities in North Carolina. Whether through acquisition, development, or purposeful expansion, we will continue to look for ways to meet the rising demand for senior housing.
While we are still on a growth track, we're bullish about how we expand. It's not about volume; it’s about quality execution. The right acquisition at the right time with the right alignment. Geographic density remains a high priority for us. With the right regional support structure, we can ensure our communities receive the resources that they need to provide great care and services to our residents, first and foremost, and the resources that they need as a team. Our communities deserve the best and, with the best investment, they deliver the best full-circle resident care. That truly is the most important outcome we can strive for.
