Champion Advocates Biographies

Anne Conrad-Antoville has over 20 years experience in family caregiving, senior and disability advocacy. She first became a family caregiver at age 23 when her mother became cognitively and physically impaired due to complications of lupus. As a caregiver, Anne struggled with numerous issues including medical and physical care planning, selecting care settings and facilities, non-emergency medical transportation, insurance appeals and government benefits access. Eventually, she worked with the Long Term Care Ombudsman’s office of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center to help found a Family Council at her mother’s skilled nursing facility that would address family members concerns and provide care advocacy to facility residents.

Anne’s experience as a family caregiver was the impetus for her to become a professional advocate. In 2001, she became a state registered HICAP Counselor, Long Term Care Insurance Counselor and Community Educator for the the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP), a State Health Insurance Assistance Program providing Medicare and health insurance advocacy for seniors and persons with disabilities. In 2003, she became the HICAP Program Manager for the Area 1 Agency on Aging for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. Under her five year leadership, the program served over 4,000 people per year and saved local Medicare beneficiaries over 3 million dollars.

Anne has authored numerous Medicare and insurance articles for the Senior News, the Times-Standard and the Caregiver Quarterly. She has also been interviewed for Medicare stories for KIEM News Channel 3, KHSU FM, the Eureka Reporter, the Sacramento Bee, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. She has provided material for reports to Congressional committees, the California Department of Aging and the California Commission on Aging.

Anne is currently a member of the Senior News Editorial Board. She is a graduate of the Cascadia Leadership Program. She has been an elected board member of California Health Advocates, a statewide Medicare advocacy organization, and has served on several committees for the California Department of Aging. She was honored with a Peer Achievement Award from the State HICAP Association in 2006 and the Excellence in Public Heath, Public Health Hero Award from the Humboldt County Department of Public Health in 2007.

Anne holds Bachelor of Music and Master’s of Music Degrees in Violoncello Performance from the University of Southern California, where she was a student of Master Cellist Gabor Rejto. She has won awards as both a cellist and composer including awards from the Aspen Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival, MacDowell Artists Association, UNISONG international competition and others. She has released an original recorded work on the Contemporary Recording Society label.

Anthony Antoville has over 15 years of professional experience in caregiving and aging related issues. In his youth, he provided years of support to both of his parents as they served as family caregivers to Anthony’s grandparents. It was during these formative years that Anthony learned of some of the major issues surrounding bone fractures from falls and chronic mental illness.

Anthony’s peer reviewed and extensively cross-indexed manuscript, Aide Tested Techniques to Improve Long-Term Resident Care, was published by The Edwin Mellen Press, an international academic press. The writing of the book was a culmination of years of work in skilled nursing facilities as a Certified Nursing Assistant, Restorative Nursing Assistant and Rehabilitative Aide, where he learned the dramatic and subtle array of needs of long term care residents.

Anthony served as a California State Certified Long Term Care Ombudsman and volunteered his time through the Humboldt Senior Resource Center by advocating for several years on the behalf of residents in long term care facilities. In 2001, Anthony began working as a Resource Specialist in the Senior Information and Assistance program. There, he learned the principles of Information and Referral and began traveling statewide to provide training to his peers in Alliance of Information and Referral Systems standards.

In 2002, Anthony became Program Manager of Humboldt County Senior Information and Assistance for the Area 1 Agency on Aging. He was an elected board member of California Alliance of Information and Referral Services (CAIRS). In 2003, he was made Program Manager of the Area 1 Agency on Aging Caregiver Services program, which trains and lists caregivers for the Humboldt County care provider registry. As Program Manager for five years, Anthony consistently advocated for the registry to maintain its 33-hour training to the public and professional caregivers for the benefit of in-home care recipients.

Anthony has written numerous articles on caregiving and senior issues for the Times-Standard, the Senior News and the Caregiver Quarterly. Anthony served as technical advisor, script writer and narrator for a three-part series on caregiving produced and aired on KEET public television.

Currently, Anthony is a member of the Humboldt County Dementia Care Coalition. He has been a member of Humboldt County Care Provider Task Force, the North Coast Senior Services Coalition, Humboldt County Continuum of Care Committee and has facilitated the Humboldt County Information and Referral Network meetings. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California and is a graduate of the Cascadia Leadership Program of the Humboldt Area Foundation.