Paul Bridgewater, President/CEO
Paul E. Bridgewater is President & CEO of the Detroit Area Agency on Aging (DAAA), one of sixteen area agencies on aging in the state of Michigan and 670 in the nation. He began working in gerontology in 1980 and became the Executive Director of the agency in 1986. While at the agency, it has grown it from 12 employees to as many as 120 and he obtained the highest executive position in 2006 and he celebrates 30 years with the organization this year. The agency’s budget has also grown to approximately $30 million per year.
He has established one of the country’s largest Holiday Meals on Wheels programs feeding 4,000 daily and the organization created a region-wide Medicare/Medicaid counseling program. The agency runs one of Michigan’s top care management and home-care support services, also transitioning nursing home residents back to the community.
Bridgewater was appointed by Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick to serve as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging the White House Conference on Aging in 1980, 1990, 1995 and 2005, and was selected to attend the 1998 White House Conference on Social Security by President Clinton. He has been a member of the National Caucus and Center on Black Aged since 1984, he became its treasurer in 1998.
He has testified before the U.S. Congress, the Administration on Aging, and the Michigan Legislature about the concerns of the elderly. In 2008, Josefina Carbonell, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging, invited Mr. Bridgewater to speak at a forum on the critical disparities in health and long-term care services among the urban poor. In 2009, the Wayne State University School of Social Work Alumni Association honored Paul Bridgewater with the Citizen of the Year Award for national and community-based leadership and advocacy promoting effective public policy and services to older adults.
Mr. Bridgewater spearheaded research through Wayne State University on health disparities among Detroit’s elderly. The final report, Dying Before Their Time, led to government initiatives for long-term care reform, and the agency received a $13.1 million demonstration grant to establish a “Single Point of Entry” for long term care — one of four sites in Michigan.
Most recently, DAAA created the Detroit Long Term Care System Change Task Force to engage stakeholders in the reform of skilled nursing care facilities and other long-term care settings. The 150 member task force engaged a broad base of support from individuals representing community stakeholders, healthcare professionals and providers, consumers and advocacy groups that served on a nine subcommittees established for the primary purpose of improving the quality of long-term care for Detroit’s seniors, adults and disabilities and caregivers. The task force developed twenty-one policy recommendations and strategies that support system change and about sixteen of the policy recommendations are being considered for draft legislation. The results of this body of work are represented in the 2009 Public Policy Agenda presented to Detroit legislators to support the development of changes in legislations, regulations and administrative roles. A final report will be prepared with research findings and the recommendations by 2010.
In 2010, Mr. Bridgewater was honored by being selected as Co-Chair of the Detroit Branch NAACP 55th Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.
Mr. Bridgewater, a native of Saginaw Michigan, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Saginaw Valley State College and a Master’s Degree in public administration from Oakland University. He has taught gerontology courses at Wayne County Community College District for 8 years. He resides in Detroit with his wife, Juanita and grandson, Zackary.