About The Waters

Our Leadership Team

The Waters Senior Living leadership team is recognized as leaders in the senior living industry. 

Lynn Carlson Schell, Principal

Lynn Carlson Schell is a co-founder and principal of The Waters Senior Living. Ms. Carlson Schell also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Shelter Corporation, a Minneapolis-based leader in multi-family housing development, innovative financing, and property management for families and seniors. Ms. Carlson Schell has developed or acquired multi-family and senior housing consisting of over 15,000 units encompassing $800 million of real estate. Ms. Carlson Schell’s accomplishments include leading the company’s development of affordable housing and spearheading the successful diversification into senior communities with the 1998 formation of The Waters Senior Living. In 2009, Ms. Carlson Schell was honored as an Industry Leader by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Ms. Carlson Schell currently serves as Treasurer of the Twin Cities Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization as well as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Library Foundation of Hennepin County. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Dance Theatre and Dance Institute and the National Multi Housing Council.

Howie Groff, Principal

Howie Groff is co-founder and principal of The Waters Senior Living and is President and founder of Tealwood Senior Living.   Mr. Groff has over 30 years of experience in the senior housing industry, of which 25 years have been in executive management for independent, assisted and long-term care organizations. Mr. Groff’s portfolio has grown over 18 years and currently consists of 22 nursing properties and 26 assisted living properties in four states in the upper Midwest. 

Mr. Groff is the immediate past chair of the National Center for Assisted Living (“NCAL”), the assisted living voice of the American Health Care Association. NCAL is headquartered in Washington, DC and is dedicated to serving the needs of the assisted living community through national advocacy, education, networking and professional development.  Mr. Groff previously served as the vice chair of the Regional Multi-Facility Committee and on its Executive Committee.

Gail Sheridan, Principal & Executive Vice President of Clinical Operations

Gail Sheridan, RN, is a Principal and Executive Vice President of Clinical Operations at The Waters Senior Living.  She is an experienced nurse specializing in Geriatric Nursing and serves over 45 Skilled and Assisted Living communities in four states.  Ms. Sheridan is responsible for Clinical Care Systems/Quality Improvement, Regulatory Compliance, Human Resources and shares responsibility for the Workers Compensation Loss Control Services program and Risk Management.  Ms. Sheridan is actively involved in Care Providers of Minnesota serving on the Board of Directors, Chair of the Quality Committee and is recently past Chair of the Board of Directors. In addition she is a member of the Survey and Regulatory subcommittee for the American Health Care Association.  She works with several governmental agencies in the continuing effort to assure efficient and effective regulatory processes and quality improvement.


Garrett Carlson, Jr., Principal

Garrett Carlson, Jr. is a principal of The Waters Senior Living. In this role, Mr. Carlson structures the purchase and manages the acquisition of a wide variety of senior housing projects.

Mr. Carlson's expertise includes budgeting, financing, and understanding the intricacies of conventional and governmental loan programs, Section 8, Tax Credit and construction and permanent mortgage loans. Mr. Carlson secures competitive financing via tax-exempt revenue bonds, commercial banks, state housing finance agencies or institutional joint ventures. He graduated with a B.A. in economics from the University of Minnesota.

Greg Brown, Principal & President

Greg Brown is President and a principal of The Waters Senior Living. Mr. Brown is a CPA with 30 years of experience with national senior housing and health care providers. He directs The Waters Senior Living’s strategic planning, financial profitability and development.  

Mr. Brown began his career with Beverly Enterprises, Inc., a publicly-traded senior care company (“Beverly”) in 1979.  He continued there through 1998 as Vice President of Finance for the Specialty Services Division which operated 300 skilled nursing facilities in urban markets.  While at Beverly, Mr. Brown also held the position of Director of Finance for the North Central Region which encompassed Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.  Mr. Brown was the Chief Financial Officer for Tealwood immediately prior to assuming the position of President and CFO of The Waters Senior Living in July 2006. 

Mr. Brown is active in the American Health Care Association (“AHCA”), having served on the Finance Committee. He currently serves on the imperative payment committee for Care Providers of Minnesota.

Daly Goblirsch, Chief Operating Officer

Daly Goblirsch is Chief Operating Officer of The Waters Senior Living. Mr. Goblirsch is a licensed Nursing Home Administrator with over 30 years’ experience in senior housing and the long term care profession. For the last 20 years Mr. Goblirsch has worked in multi-facility management. As the Chief Operating Officer of The Waters Senior Living, Mr. Goblirsch manages all aspects of operations from licensure, marketing, and reimbursement to survey and quality assurance. His dedicated work in the area of business development has been instrumental in expanding facility programming and services. 

Prior to joining The Waters Senior Living in 1999, Mr. Goblirsch spent 19 years with Beverly Enterprises, Inc. His last position with Beverly was as the Group Vice President of Minnesota where he was responsible for the operations and profitability of 15 large metropolitan properties. 

Mr. Goblirsch has served as a member and has been elected to the Board of Directors of Care Providers of Minnesota. He received his Liberal Arts degree and Long Term Care Administration post graduate education at the University of Minnesota.

Jay Jensen, Senior Vice President of Development

Jay Jensen is the Senior Vice President of Development for The Waters Senior Living.  In this capacity, Mr. Jensen is responsible for the entire development process from site selection and facility design to financing to construction management.  He also oversees acquisition opportunities for the organization.  Mr. Jensen also is a Senior Vice President and a Principal of Shelter.  Mr. Jensen has structured the purchase or construction of a wide variety of housing types including affordable family housing and for-sale land development. 

Previously, Mr. Jensen was employed as a Senior Vice President at Miller & Schroeder Financial where he worked on a variety of finance and economic development programs. The housing finance programs included home improvement loan programs, single-family mortgages, multifamily housing, and essential function multifamily housing bonds.  Mr. Jensen’s economic development financing experience encompassed industrial revenue bonds, hospital revenue bonds, education revenue bonds, tax increment bonds, hotel financing, public facility bonds and moral obligation bonds. 

Prior to that, Mr. Jensen was Executive Director of the Minneapolis Community Development Agency (“MCDA”), where he managed all housing and economic development programs for the City of Minneapolis with an annual budget of more than $300 million. In over 15 years at the MCDA he participated in structuring over $1 billion of public financing, managing over $150 million of federal housing funds, creating over $40 million of foundation funds, and structuring over $200 million of tax increment financings.  Mr. Jensen was involved in the financing of the Orpheum Theater, Target Center and the Minnesota Convention Center, all in Minneapolis. 

Mr. Jensen has addressed both United States Senate and House Committees on a variety of housing legislation issues.  He frequently speaks to organizations, including the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies, where he was a three-term president; the National League of Cities; the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials; and the National Home Builders Association. Mr. Jensen has also advised the cities of Toledo, Tampa, New Orleans and St. Petersburg, Russia, on comprehensive urban housing and economic development programs.

Kyle Didier, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Didier is an accomplished finance and operations executive with 20+ years of experience. Most recently, Mr. Didier served as Vice President of Finance for a Fortune 1000 company and was instrumental in raising in excess of $500 million of financing through structured private placement and bank syndications to help the company achieve 10 year annual compounded revenue and earnings growth of more than 15 percent. In addition, Mr. Didier developed an expertise in organizational development while leading acquisition integration efforts focusing on enhancing productivity levels, improving operational efficiency, and designing and streamlining financial processes. 

In 1989, Mr. Didier joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in its audit and assurance practice serving large publicly traded companies as well as small privately held businesses.  Mr. Didier is a CPA (inactive) and holds a BA-Accounting degree from the University of Northern Iowa. Mr. Didier is very active in his community providing leadership and financial expertise to several non-profit organizations.

Kathleen Conlan Joyce, Senior Developer

Kathleen Conlan Joyce is a Senior Developer for The Waters Senior Living. Ms. Conlan Joyce has a wealth of experience in new construction development, acquisition, financing, construction and management of multifamily and senior housing. She joined The Waters Senior Living development team in 2005 after serving as a consultant for the company.

As a developer for The Waters Senior Living, Mrs. Conlan Joyce is responsible for site selection, negotiating purchase agreements, analyzing and assessing market feasibility reports, developing financial pro forma, obtaining government approvals, obtaining financing, supervising design, managing the construction schedule and costs, and overseeing the entire cost of the development.

Prior to becoming a consultant and joining The Waters Senior Living, Mrs. Conlan Joyce was Executive Vice President for Gramercy Corporation, a leading senior housing cooperative developer in Minnesota. She was directly involved in development; managed all lender, HUD and FNMA approvals; supervised the entire development team; and managed the construction schedules, budgets and member upgrade selections for eleven cooperatives, totaling nearly 1,000 units.

Lisa Zeis, Vice President of Operational Services

Lisa Zeis is a licensed speech-language pathologist with over 22 years of experience in rehabilitation, specializing in geriatric care settings. Ms. Zeis began her career with a large national provider of contract rehabilitation services, which specialized in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. As an Area Vice President, she was responsible for the contract management of multiple sites and the development of several rehabilitation programs. In 1999, Ms. Zeis joined Birchwood Companies, Inc. as a Director of Rehabilitation and Quality Performance. Within this role, Ms. Zeis was responsible for the education, implementation and integration of company-wide quality improvement programs designed to quantifiably improve the provision of care delivery and enhance customer satisfaction.

Ms. Zeis joined The Waters Senior Living as an Operations Consultant in 2007 upon the acquisition of Birchwood Companies. In addition to providing consultation to the contracted rehabilitation programs, Ms. Zeis is also involved in the development of initiatives such as company-wide wellness and other projects designed to improve customer satisfaction and enhance operations.

David Holm, Director of Spirituality & Wellness

David Holm is Director of Spiritual Services for The Waters Senior Living. In his capacity of leadership as a pastoral resource, he works to assure communities provide vital pastoral care, worship, study, meditation, and prayer. David Holm is a pastor with nearly 40 years of experience as senior pastor in several leading congregations in Wisconsin, South Dakota and Minnesota. His most recent pastorate at Normandale Lutheran Church of Edina, Minnesota, included the development of the Normandale Center for Healing and Wholeness, a ministry exclusively devoted to vibrant senior living. 

Pastor Holm recently founded and developed a design team and creative ministry with seniors at The Colony at Eden Prairie. This experience provided an impetus to integrate residents and parishioners in experiences of community life. Pastor Holm is a trustee of Fairview Southdale Hospital, a director of Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh, and a friend of the Benedictine Monastic Community, St. John's, Collegeville, Minnesota. Pastor David Holm is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a B.A, Luther Seminary with a Master of Divinity, and Princeton Seminary with a Master of Theology.

The Waters Senior Living Leadership Team

About The Waters

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