Episcopal Retirement Homes


Nonprofit Executive Director of the Year Award
Doug Spitler joined Episcopal Retirement Homes in 1982 as its executive director for the Whetstone facility in Columbus. Five years later, he was named president and CEO of ERH, which today owns and operates six retirement communities across the Cincinnati and southern Ohio region.
Over the past 24 years, he has had quite an impact on ERH as he helped shape the organization’s direction and fostered its growth, helping it expand the mission first set forth by the original founders and leaders in the early 1950s.
Spitler has more than 30 years of experience in the aging services field in both management and consulting capacities. In addition to his role of leading ERH, he is a founder and chair of Senior Resources Alliance, a purchasing and shared services collaborative representing not-for-profit communities. He has also served as AOPHA’s chair and is currently a member of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s House of Delegates and Leadership Circle.
His leadership experiences have proven effective in taking ERH to new levels of excellence. This past summer, the company won two major regional awards. Its premier retirement communities, Marjorie P. Lee and Deupree House, were named the top two retirement communities on Cincinnati’s east side in the Community Press Readers’ Choice Awards. St. Paul Village, an ERH affordable housing community, was selected the top apartment complex. On top of these honors, Spitler has also seen the company be recognized as a 2010 Top Place to Work among greater Cincinnati’s midsized businesses.
“These are truly important honors for ERH,” Spitler says. “It’s gratifying to have the support of staff and community. When staff members feel good about where they work and the work they do, they then serve our residents well. It means a lot to know they recognize us as a great place to work.”
Part of Spitler’s approach, which has helped him in serving the residents that live in his facilities, is knowing that it’s because of these residents that he is able to do his job.
“Residents don’t live in our properties,” he says. “Instead, we work in their home.”
It’s this kind of approach to leadership that has made him effective and has helped him drive home the original values or the organization, even several decades after its founding.
How to reach: Episcopal Retirement Homes, (513) 271-9610 or www.episcopalretirement.com