Baker Senior Center Naples names Emily Ptaszek CEO

Baker Senior Center Naples named Emily C. Ptaszek as its next president and CEO, making her only the second leader in the organization’s history. 

She succeeds founder Jaclynn Faffer, who served as president and CEO from 2014 until her unexpected death in December 2025. 

Ptaszek most recently served as managing director of Elevation Health Partners, a healthcare consulting firm operating across eight states that advises providers on strategy, operations and system transformation. She brings more than a decade of senior leadership experience in healthcare and nonprofit operations across Florida and Colorado. She will officially assume her new position June 1. 

Career rooted in psychology and senior care 

Ptaszek began her career as a psychologist, working with seniors in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities while providing psychotherapy and cognitive screenings for patients. 

The work felt meaningful and reinforced a theme that would shape her career: caring for people who most need support and services. 

“We are meeting a need. We are closing a gap,” Ptaszek said. “We’re taking care of people who otherwise would be falling through the cracks.” 

Leadership in nonprofit healthcare 

She shifted into nonprofit healthcare leadership after seeing how systemic challenges affected both patients and clinicians, later becoming president and CEO of Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida in 2019. 

Ptaszek said the experience highlighted the growing need for mental health and other support services for older adults. 

“The senior population is often underserved and under-addressed when you design programs and services for communities,” she said. “Things like mental health, oral health and primary care access.” 

Ptaszek holds a Doctor of Psychology degree from Loyola University Maryland. Her work in nonprofit healthcare has included serving as president and CEO of Peak Vista Community Health Centers, a federally qualified health center delivering medical, dental and behavioral healthcare to roughly 84,000 patients annually with a $120 million budget. 

After being approached to participate in the search for a new president and CEO, Ptaszek said she recalled the organization fondly, noting its strong reputation in the community. 

“It feels like this confluence of my ability to use various skills all at once in one role, with a wonderful organization doing amazing work,” Ptaszek said. “I feel personally and professionally connected to this work at this point in my career and life.” 

Vision for the senior center’s future 

When she begins the role, Ptaszek said her priority will be to listen and learn from staff and the older adults the center serves. She plans to engage with members, board members, staff and volunteers to better understand their needs and determine how to expand services. 

Ptaszek said mental health and caregiver support are critical needs in the community as families navigate aging and cognitive changes in loved ones. She also emphasized that building these services requires strong community partnerships. 

“Doing that in partnership with community, understanding how that needs to work and who our partners are going to be in building and expanding, is also really important because none of these needs can be met by one organization alone,” she said. 

Local healthcare leaders welcomed Ptaszek’s return to the community. 

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Emily Ptaszek back to our community,” said Jamie Ulmer, CEO of Healthcare Network. “She is a proven leader whose dedication to community health and well-being has made a meaningful difference in our community. We look forward to the impact she will make in this new role, and I am confident she will bring the same passion, innovation and collaborative spirit to her role at Baker Senior Center Naples.” 

Scott Burgess, CEO of David Lawrence Centers, said, “I am so incredibly thrilled to welcome Emily back to Naples and look greatly forward to partnering with her again. Her extraordinary leadership, healthcare and human services expertise, and true spirit of community will be absolute blessings to the Baker Senior Center and Collier County at large.” 

Ptaszek said she hopes to gain deeper insight into Faffer through those who knew her best and to honor her legacy by preserving what made the senior center meaningful to her. 

“It’s important to always hold that space for the work that has been done and to be inspired by that,” she said. “I look forward to learning from everyone who’s there and design the future together.”