Senior Advocacy Group of Ahwatukee with Vicki McAllister and Derrick Johnson and Special Guest June Tesdall
SAGA, also known as the Senior Advocacy Group of Ahwatukee is a nonprofit comprised of local businesses and volunteers organized to assist seniors, caregivers and families through education, resources and advocacy. 
Vicki McAllister has worked in healthcare for over 40 years. . She was a licensed skilled nursing facility (SNF) administrator and licensed assisted living manager having worked in numerous settings that serve older adults including four continuing care retirement communities, SNFs, assisted living and senior living apartments in the Phoenix Metropolitan community and Wisconsin. Her executive leadership and administrator experiences include post-acute rehab, dementia care and person centered program development within all levels of licensed care and post-acute rehabilitation services and home care.
She has served in program development at Banner Health’s Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, as a Senior Consultant at a national healthcare consulting firm and recent Board roles included Vice President and Board Member at the Arizona Board of Examiners, NCIA/ALFM (Nursing Care Institution Administrators & Assisted Living Managers) and numerous other volunteer leadership activities. Vicki has been recognized with ACHCA as Distinguished Administrator National Award (1996) and AZ Chapter (1996) and Administrator of the Year for Arizona Healthcare (1994). She was a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Administrators.
Vicki holds a BS degree from Carroll University and is enrolled in the MBA program at Ottawa University. She has been the Board Chair of the Senior Advocacy Group of Ahwatukee since 2017.
Derrick Johnson has been a Firefighter/Paramedic for over 30 years and has been involved with health care in the areas of public health policy and as a provider. He became involved in SAGA in 2015 and became a board member in 2016.
Working with SAGA, he helped develop the nonprofit’s innovative tool, MedStats, to provide important health and other information to first responders in order to save time and facilitate care during a medical emergency.
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June Tesdall is a model for senior empowerment as she successfully obtained resources from the DES Blind Services and is an active volunteer at the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
