"I would like to see the new Erickson School of Aging Studies become the feeder for new college hires into the Social Security Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and for my company and others like ours that are the primary providers of senior housing and services in this country."

UMBC: For those who are not familiar with your company, can you give us a brief history of Erickson Community's creation?

JE: The full service retirement communities that we're known for started here in Baltimore about 21 years ago. At the old St. Charles Seminary Campus we pioneered the original model of how you can offer housing and services for the mainline, middle-income American retiree. That was our goal and we unfolded the project in 10 years at that campus [Charlestown], and it grew into the largest retirement community in the country.

When the model was complete, it was not only successful it was compelling enough for us to make this lifestyle available in multiple localities around the country, to make it a national project. There are 14 communities right now and we have about five more in the pipeline for next year.

UMBC: What distinguishes your philosophy on elder care?

JE: Several things. We have sort of the Southwest Airlines business model to get the Erickson product to as many seniors as you possibly can and specifically to the under served middle-income market, as opposed to 'charge the most you can charge until no one can use it anymore.' Once in the middle-income market, we wanted to be the very best provider there was--with more services, more activities, more involvement at the community level. We took the goal of excellence and delivering value and put those two pieces together and as a result, we got the broadest market share of any company in the country.

The two things that drove that success was the 100% refundable entry deposit, which is very attractive to the middle-income market. The other feature was that if you have a basic service package that covers the way people are currently living--main meal, transportation, utilities, all those things--for the same price or less than the cost of living in their own home and yet, if they need it, there is home health support, assisted living, comprehensive nursing or physical therapy all on the campus, then it becomes a decision that people can make more rationally.

UMBC: Where did your own interest in caring for the elderly originate?

JE: It probably goes back into the early '70s. I was involved in a lot of active adult housing communities in Florida and found that a lot of people came down to Florida and had a great lifestyle. In thinking about it, I realized that for every person who came to Florida, 20 stayed home, and someone should be developing that same social-based, active, dynamic community model to serve people who stayed home but needed some access to services.

A lot of people were widowers or living alone, and that takes a lot of fun out of life. A lot of people had a health risk that made them insecure and they needed a place for better access to medical services support, so I thought I would take my early experiences from the '70s to see if I couldn't design a product for that group. I enjoy the community aspect of my work. I call myself a social engineer. I love to spend time on things that make life better for other people.

UMBC: Where did your interest and commitment to UMBC originate?

JE: It came from two things. One was that my first campus, Charlestown, happens to be very close to the school. The second was that I happened to meet Freeman Hrabowski and he asked me to come over and give him some comments about his school. The next thing I know, I found myself on a board to build some housing and it just kept growing and growing. A lot of it has to do with Freeman's leadership. I've since gone on to pioneer a concept to redo the whole central quad by the library, and I have a plan for several thousand more housing units to be built over the next couple of years.

UMBC: You and your wife Nancy recently gave $5 million to fund the Erickson School for Aging Studies at UMBC. Why did you choose UMBC as the beneficiary of such a generous gift?

JE: That's probably a combination of several things. One is that UMBC is only about a half-mile from the headquarters of the Erickson companies. Number two, I'd gotten to know Freeman Hrabowski and his leadership skills. And number three, we're sitting in the shadow of the two largest institutions in the country that affect aging: the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. With all of those institutions of aging policy right here within a mile of this school and the headquarters of my operation, the natural place for the nation's study on aging should be right here. I could have negotiated a gift of this type to any of 30 or 40 schools, but the most strategically located school and the one with a president that I really think has a vision and an interest in growing excellence along the same lines I did in the retirement community field is right here in my back yard.

UMBC: What goals do you hope the new school will achieve?

JE: It's like buying this Charlestown campus. It was a defunct seminary college with about 250,000 square feet, and I didn't know what it would become. But you work on it a day at a time and it became the model for the best retirement community concept this country has seen thus far. I have the same attitude about the School for Aging Studies. I don't know what the outcome will be, but right now, we have very little University-level preparation for people to work in the aging industry. There are a few campuses that teach gerontology, which is more the health failure side of aging, but there's no place where you can be involved in all the aspects that improve quality of life, such as hospitality training, community management, and health policy. I decided that what we really needed was a school that would prepare and place people into active positions around the country that deal with aging.

I would like to see the new Erickson School of Aging Studies become the feeder for new college hires into the Social Security Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and for my company and others like ours that are the primary providers of senior housing and services in this country. I want them to provide graduates going into federal agencies like Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services that deal with aging programs for society. I want this school to be the primary focus where every major aging-related enterprise, be it government or private, will say, 'That's where I want my new hires to come from.' I think this will become one of the largest industries in our country, and a university program like this will be a mainstay for obtaining committed employees.

UMBC: What do you see as the greatest challenge facing the future leaders of the eldercare industry?

JE: It is one of the most complex businesses we have in the whole country because it involves so many interdisciplinary activities. You take a typical campus like I've built and you are running between seven and 10 full-service restaurants feeding 2,500 people a day. You have to be a restaurant manager to do that. We run medical services and we're the primary source of medical treatment for residents, so you need someone who understands that part. Then you've got community managers that essentially run a mini-government. Then there's the real estate development business that is immensely complicated and a disciplined business all its own. And there's the regulated health side, operating the delivery of government-regulated services where you have to know all the rules and regulations to properly deliver services. You take all those complex businesses together and you see that it is a very difficult field. What I want people to understand is, as difficult as it is, people who are willing to learn the discipline of each of these functions can become experts in those functions. Eventually, I want to see academic tracks for students to major in and to graduate from UMBC with thorough training and study in each of these specialties.

The biggest complexity remains the utilization of our health services. We have a system that has the incentives all in the wrong places for health service utilization, so we spend way too much money on fixing disastrous conditions in hospitals when we should be spending a lot more money on prevention and interception before these negative health events even happen. For example, we do a fall prevention program to test people's balance. The balance test costs about $30 compared to a $15,000 to repair a hip fracture.

UMBC: With the aging of the population, do you see that the timing for the creation of the school is advantageous as well?

JE: Absolutely. In fact, in 15 years we will have a massive crisis on our hands. In 15 years, the current baby boomers will be moving into their 70s and we do not have the ability to continue to provide services they will need when we double or triple the number of people using them. Between the two trends of people living longer and this huge bubble of baby boomers-who have changed society at every point they have touched across the spectrum--moving into aging, we are not going to be ready for what's to come if we do not put an army of qualified people out there in this field right now. That is why timing is essential.