Celebrating Changemakers 2025: Meet Doug Schiffer

By Amy Reinholds on July 3, 2025 in News Senior Living

It’s time to introduce the next round of 2025 Changemakers, leaders who are driving innovation and reimagining the future of the senior living industry. We’re proud to join with Senior Housing News (SHN) in presenting in-depth interviews to capture their stories, strategies and advice.

With a background in commercial real estate and finance, Doug Schiffer guided Allegro Senior Living into a unified organization combining development, management and community operations so everyone was “rowing together.” As president and CEO of Allegro Senior Living, a Yardi Senior Living Suite client, Schiffer emphasizes smart growth, resident-centric innovation and the power of culture during industry shifts. He served as chairman of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) and is a current member of the Senior Housing Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

In his interview, Schiffer reflects on AI integration, meeting resident expectations and bridging cultures during mergers. Get the highlights here and explore the full conversation with SHN.

Meet Changemaker Doug Schiffer

SHN: In what ways do you think the senior living industry is changing right now?

Schiffer: The industry is in a state of flux. There are so many aspects that are changing. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track. The players are changing. There are mergers, acquisitions, failures and changes in leadership. This creates many opportunities for growth and is one of the reasons we were able to merge recently. Consolidations and integrations are in fashion right now as sub-scale operators are having a harder time. Finding the right size is interesting — it means being small enough that culture matters and large enough to have economies of scale.

AI is everywhere and is especially [prevalent] in senior living. We are all working to find ways that AI can enhance our business model. That means looking at everything from room monitoring to caregiving. Wherever AI can be helpful to residents when we have staffing challenges, we are looking to bring it into the community.

SHN: Change is hard. Can you talk about a time when you tried to execute a change, and things didn’t go according to plan? How did you pivot, and what did you learn as a leader?

Schiffer: We’re going through that right now as we merge Spring Arbor and Allegro. There are core beliefs and culture in each organization that we don’t want to lose, and it’s my job, along with others, to figure out how to pull them together into an integrated organization. I had a similar challenge earlier in my career. During the early days of Allegro, the owner was Hallmark Housing, the manager was Love Management, and the communities were known as Allegro.

These were all entities we owned, but knew we needed to act under a common name, so everyone understood that they were all “rowing” together. I thought it would be an easy conversion, but didn’t consider the level of investment each group had in their respective naming. I had to take a step back, listen to each group and slowly make the change so that everyone felt heard. That’s exactly the process we’re going through now.

SHN: What fictional character would you enlist to help change the senior living industry for the better this year?

Schiffer: What a fun question. I’d like to enlist Spock (from Star Trek). He is highly logical with an emotional center that helps with decision making. That’s what we need. Someone of advanced age who would understand our issues, be able to cut through the “bull”, but wouldn’t forget “the needs of the one.”

Explore more Changemakers

The 2025 Changemakers class celebrates innovative leaders in the senior living industry. Yardi is sponsoring the SHN interview series for the seventh consecutive year.

Interviews are released in batches and announced as the series progresses. Stay tuned for more stories of Changemakers on The Balance Sheet.

Curious how Yardi solutions help operators like Allegro elevate their communities? Explore our Yardi Senior Living Suite resources.