By Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

Mary Sandoe. Bobbie Jean Hill. Floy Biggs. Abby Pascua. These four women have guided Claremont nonprofit AgingNext since its inception 50 years ago.

AgingNext began with Sandoe’s frustration with the lack of transportation resources for a wheelchair bound friend. Instead of trying to find a solution, in 1975 she decided to become one.

After talks with leadership at Claremont Manor, Hillcrest, Pilgrim Place, Mount San Antonio Gardens, and Claremont Graduate University, Sandoe compiled a list of services. That list became the founding charges for Baldy View Community Services for the Aged, which became AgingNext in 2019.

Sandoe retired from AgingNext in 1988. She died in 2008, but her legacy lives on; the nonprofit she founded has provided services to independent living seniors in Claremont and the surrounding communities for five decades.

Jean Hill, who had worked with mentally gifted children in La Verne and Claremont schools before transitioning to senior services, became the nonprofit’s director after Sandoe retired. She would go on to add many new programs.

(L-R) AgingNext CEO Abby Pascua and former CEO Bobbie Jean Hill. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

“Every year and a half, I started a new program — I call them services,” Hill said. “So, I started about 15 services during that time.”

Hill established the senior companion program, the enrichment center adult day program, which serves seniors with dementia (later renamed the memory care center), and the senior peer counseling and senior employment programs, to name a few.

Following Hill’s 2006 retirement, Biggs, coming from a background in senior care at Claremont Manor, was named its third CEO.

Biggs expanded AgingNext’s service area west into Los Angeles County and east into San Bernardino County. Today the nonprofit services 16 cities.

“When I took over, I think it was just time to expand and promote the programs more,” Biggs said. “And then there was more private foundation funding available. So, I think that it was just an easy transition to step in San Bernardino County.”

She’s also credited with establishing AgingNext Village, a space for seniors to connect with one another online, and for keeping the nonprofit afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. She retired in 2022.

Pascua, who worked both Hill and Biggs, took the reins in 2022. She has continued to secure funding for the nonprofit, and last year oversaw the expansion of its offices.

AgingNext CEO Abby Pascua and her dog, Maggie.

“It’s a bright future for AgingNext, through partnerships, the memory care center, and the sustainability … we’re just excited to see it,” Pascua said.

“It’s all based on needs,” Hill added. “We know the needs are going to grow and grow because there’s more and more seniors in the world, and we know a lot more about what their needs are.”

Pascua’s predecessors share her optimism.

“I think that, again, the building blocks were in place for her to be able to kind of sit back and really start looking at bigger opportunities,” Biggs said.

“We get things done, that we know for sure, no questions about it,” Pascua said, when asked about women in leadership positions. “It just so happened that this organization is an orchard and really thrived with women.”

AgingNext’s pedigree of female leadership wasn’t predetermined, or part of a business plan.

AgingNext’s staff includes (front row, L-R) Stacy Mittelstaedt, volunteer director, CEO Abby Pascua, Maggie the dog, Berenice Alonso, mobility manager, Liz Weigand, philanthropy manager, Zaira Tinsley memory care center director, (back row, L-R) Cindy Angulo, finance manager, Jen Sancen, senior companion director, Myra Davola, grant writer, and Sal Merchain, administrative liaison. Courier photo/Peter Weinberger

“It just was … easy for us all to fall in those positions, I think,” Biggs said.

Hill agreed: “It’s interesting because it seems like the right person came along with the right skills every time we needed it as an organization,” she said.

It was “never a question about we need to have a man, or we need to have this because of DEI,” Pascua said. “No, it was never [anything] but the right skill set for the right time.”

“I think a man could lead AgingNext,” Biggs echoed. “It just happened to be a legacy of women.”

AgingNext is not the only local nonprofit led by women: Cher Ofstedahl is the Children’s Foundation of America’s CEO; Claremont Chamber of Commerce’s CEO is Kathleen Fariss; Lisa Pion-Berlin leads Parents Anonymous; Larissa Matzek is Crossroads Inc.’s executive director; and Kami Grosvenor is the CEO of Inland Valley Hope Partners. These are but a few of the female-led nonprofits in the Claremont area.