Lorna Malawi, NHA, PCHA
Lorna Malawi, NHA, PCHA, is a dedicated healthcare leader and Associate Executive Director at Freedom Village Brandywine, a community managed by LCS (Life Care Services) in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. With more than a decade of experience in skilled nursing, rehabilitation, and senior living administration, she has built a career focused on delivering high-quality care while fostering supportive, resident-centered environments. As a licensed Nursing Home Administrator and Personal Care Home Administrator, Lorna oversees operational leadership, staff development, and regulatory compliance while ensuring residents receive compassionate, dignified care.
Before joining LCS in 2023, Lorna served as a Nursing Home Administrator at Phoebe Ministries for over five years, where she led teams responsible for delivering comprehensive long-term and rehabilitative care services. Earlier in her career, she held a similar leadership role with Reliant Senior Care, further strengthening her expertise in healthcare operations, staffing, and patient-centered service delivery. Lorna’s professional journey also includes nearly two decades with the Devereux Foundation, where she worked in behavioral health and human resources, gaining extensive experience in care coordination, team management, and nonprofit healthcare services.
Lorna’s strong educational background complements her leadership in senior care. She earned a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from Wilmington University and later completed a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Counseling Psychology at Argosy University, deepening her understanding of human behavior, leadership, and organizational development. Her academic training, combined with decades of hands-on experience, enables her to approach healthcare administration with both compassion and strategic insight.
Passionate about improving the quality of life for seniors, Lorna remains committed to building communities where residents, families, and staff feel supported and valued. Through her leadership, she continues to champion operational excellence, collaborative teamwork, and a culture of compassion that defines exceptional senior living care.
• Nursing Home Administrator [Preceptor]
• NHA
• PCHA
• Wilmington University - Master of Science - MS, Counseling Psychology
• Argosy University - Doctor of Education - EdD, Counseling Psychology
• Delaware State University - Bachelor's degree, Art/Art Studies, General
What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute it to my dad. My dad was born and raised in Africa, I was the first child out of 6 kids. He was an orphan and grew up in extremely poverty, extremely so he… he did minuscule jobs like moving cattle from one place to the next, just to kind of make ends meet, to feed himself but at some point during school, especially high school, there's a realization that came to him that education was actually the most successful thing for him to do to get to the next point and all the 6 children are like that. That's how he raised us. He raised us to understand that you have to have the education to move forward.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The advice I would want to give them is, first of all, find the best mentor, or find somebody you can always fall back on in regard to just wanting to be successful in that field. Always have to have (a person).
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges, I would say, is regulatory compliance, right? So, we're very regulated by the government and the federal government, both by state level and a federal level. So that becomes a little complicated when you have to kind of follow rules on a daily basis, and not everything is under your control, right? So if you're dealing with 450 employees, I cannot control what the 425th employees going to do. So, something's going to happen that is out of compliance, or out of regulatory requirements, and that is difficult. It is difficult to oversight.