Katie Chiappinelli brings more than 25 years of experience in education and research to her role as Flourish Program Manager at Alder. Her background spans classroom teaching, educational publishing, curriculum research, and a tenure as a researcher at the Education Development Center in Waltham — where she led data collection and coordination for nationally funded K–12 mathematics projects. At Alder, she leads a team of Enrichment Specialists in designing highly individualized engagement plans for older adults and their families.

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The thread connecting education to aging care is, for Katie, a consistent one: a belief that curiosity, purpose, and personal growth are lifelong pursuits, not something that ends when formal schooling does. That philosophy is what drew her to this work, and what shapes the Flourish program. She sees meaningful engagement not as an add-on to care, but as care itself — a way of recognizing every person's continued capacity for connection, growth, and joy, and building something around that rather than around what has been lost.