Lona Marecheau- Peerson
My career path has been quite a journey across different but connected fields. I earned my bachelor's degree in culinary arts and management, which naturally led to management roles rather than cooking, focusing on budgets and operations. I spent about 10 years working in food service operations for contract service companies in hospitals, nursing homes, and senior living facilities. Eventually, I moved into mentoring and onboarding new food service directors and culinary personnel for the entire company. Then I was promoted to executive director for a senior living facility, where I managed the business side, helping residents understand their Medicare and Medicaid options and how they could afford to pay for their stay in the facility. That experience opened my eyes to how people can afford to live in these places, which led me into insurance. Now, I've been in the finance and insurance industry for nearly 2 years, helping people use insurance products to facilitate living in senior care without spending down their assets. Throughout my career, I've been fortunate to have mentors who saw potential in me and asked me to step into new roles rather than me having to seek them out. I've had great mentors in nursing leadership and overhead administration, including people with advanced degrees who pushed me to pursue my own advanced education. My biggest achievement has been my ability to work across all platforms and disciplines, from working with younger clientele and children as a mom and coach, to working with seniors in nursing homes and assisted living, rather than sticking to just one area.
• Bachelor's degree in Culinary Arts and Management
• Medical research fundraising
• Alzheimer's Association
• Autism and disabilities support
• Youth soccer coaching
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received is to never stop learning. Once you think that you've reached your potential, that's when you start to fail. So I always strive to be better, always strive to do better, so that the people around me know that I'm interested in their growth and mine as well. My mentors taught me that it's okay to sometimes fail to understand how I can be better, and that letting people around me fail so that they're not always dependent upon me makes me and them stronger.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them, you know, basically, don't give up. Whatever they think the reason is for them to try to stop or slow down should be the momentum for them to move forward. Basically, never give up and stay with the momentum.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in my field is that it's overpopulated with men, and the disparity comes from what the norm is. Because the norm is seeing a male in this role, people are more focused on probably speaking to a male rather than a female. However, I see a lot of positive change and female leadership emerging. The company I work for now has women's groups and initiatives because they also saw the disparity and did something about it. I love working with companies that accept change and accept growth, and are willing to go outside the box and be uncomfortable in order to make it better for everyone and create a space for everyone. I think women have an advantage because we have more empathy and understanding where people are coming from when they speak to us, and we're able to relate back to them.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think the biggest value is communication. If you're open about understanding and being able to tell people your concerns and your happiness, there will be nothing left on the table to be hidden. The truth will always come out. If you're hiding and keeping facts away from people, what's going to happen is you're only going to get half, or less than half of what the answer is, or less than half of what the result should be. If you communicate the most out of every situation, whether you're doing the communication or receiving it, I think it is important because it gets all of the facts on the table. I tell that to my son, I tell it to my coworkers, I tell it to my clients. I can't help you if you don't tell me the whole story, and you can't help me if I don't explain myself properly. My biggest goal in life is to always offer help and always be as supportive as possible.