Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Dana Flores, the new administrator at Avamere Twin Oaks Rehab and Specialty Care, is settling into her new job and looking forward to settling into the Sweet Home community.
She started working in Sweet Home on March 14 after Avamere, the corporation that owns Twin Oaks, decided to rotate three administrators to different buildings. She replaces Steve Herzog, who is now working in Eugene.
Twin Oaks provides transitional, rehabilitative, sub-acute and terminal care for patients on a long-term and interim basis. It has 48 beds and is located at 950 Nandina St.
Flores comes to Sweet Home by way of Portland. She was born and raised in Medford but has spent the past 21 years in Portland, where she was transferred by her employer.
She changed careers about a year and a half ago, she said. She has spent most of her life working in financial services in general, including banking, insurance and financial planning.
“I used to work with a lot of seniors,” she said. “So I’ve always been a senior advocate, but this is a lot more significant for me than what I was doing before.”
Her work before was meaningful, she said, but she wanted to find something even more significant.
She joined Avamere in June 2006 and served as interim administrator at Junction City, where she stayed for two months. She then went to work as administrator at Eugene Rehab and Specialty Care, a skilled nursing facility.
“What attracted me to it is the seniors themselves,” she said. “I love who they are. I’ve always had a tremendous respect for the elders of society. I have a lot to learn from them.”
She enjoys their history, the richness of their character and their traditions, but “they’re a very vulnerable section of society,” she said. “That’s what brought me into this industry.”
Flores is looking for housing in Sweet Home right now, she said. She has a residence in Portland that will soon be on the market. She is commuting from Eugene right now and returning to Portland on weekends.
“I like it,” she said of the Sweet Home community. “I think it’s a very charming, close-knit community from what I’ve seen.”
Foster Lake reminds her of the Columbia Gorge near Mt. Hood or Lake Meade in Nevada.
“I like the fact that the mountains are so close,” she said. “You can almost reach out and touch them.”
She grew up camping and spending time in the outdoors and looks forward to living in an area like Sweet Home. A “very much rooted” person, she plans to stay in Sweet Home as long as possible.
She is married to Dewithz Flores. She has no children but does have many nieces and nephews.
Her husband is a maintenance technician at Western Seminary in Portland and is also qualified as a teacher. She met him as an exchange student in the 1980s to Costa Rica.
“I’m very pleased to be part of the community,” she said. She is looking forward to learning more about the community and getting involved.