Paul Falkowski, MA – Founder and Executive Director,
Exposed to the world of long-term care through a series of outreach projects, Paul was deeply moved by what he saw and heard. As a man of faith, he asked himself, “What is my responsibility?” From that point forward, Paul began scheduling visits to nursing homes to play music for the residents. Over the next two years, the list of nursing homes grew which Paul was playing in grew from 20 to 200. Paul was learning first hand the challenges and the needs of the staff, the residents and their families.
In 1993 Paul called together a group of friends that became his Advisory Board. Paul, along with his Advisory Board, birthed Desert Ministries and its vision. During this time, Paul continued to visit nursing homes, but now took on the role of defining the needs of the staff, the residents and their families and developing programs to meet those needs. In addition, Paul considered how to best communicate those needs to the community realizing that the community must play a vital role in care of our elderly. Falkowski says,
Everything that we do is driven by our desire to improve the quality of care for the frail elderly and to mobilize people of all ages join us in that effort.
Paul has an Bachelors degree from Duquesne University in Music and an Masters degree in Gerontology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is currently working on his PhD at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Paul also teaches Gerontology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
