For nearly a decade, Marissa Gordon, MPA, has led JFS at Home with a mission rooted in compassion, dignity and deeply personal care for older adults and their families.
As CEO/Administrator of the organization since 2016, she has helped grow the organization into one of South Palm Beach County’s most trusted providers of senior home care services, supporting thousands of seniors while strengthening its partnership with Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services.
But Marissa’s connection to senior care began long before her professional career.
Raised in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach communities, she grew up surrounded by older adults and Holocaust survivors, including her own grandparents. Those early experiences shaped her lifelong commitment to helping seniors live with dignity and independence.
Her appreciation for public service was also deeply influenced by her family. Marissa's stepfather, Howard Lasher, served for 20 years in the New York State Assembly and seven years on the New York City Council, representing districts with some of the largest senior populations in New York City – and among the highest concentrations of older adults in the nation.
“Watching both of my parents respond with compassion and dedication to the needs of older constituents gave me an early understanding of the importance of public service and instilled in me a profound respect for advocating on behalf of seniors,” she noted. “My whole life was about community service and the constituency with seniors.”
Marissa’s passion eventually led her to study healthcare policy and management, earning a Master of Public Administration in Healthcare Policy and Management from NYU’s Wagner School. She later completed her residency at the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, where she gained firsthand exposure to gerontology and senior healthcare systems.
Marissa’s career path has included leadership roles in nonprofit healthcare, assisted living, hospital systems, and senior transportation services. Yet she says her journey was driven less by a defined career plan and more by a genuine calling to serve older adults.
One of her earliest nonprofit roles involved coordinating a senior companion program, matching seniors who wanted to help with older adults needing companionship and support.
“It was like a matchmaking service,” she says. “I loved it.”
Today, that same sense of connection remains central to the culture she has built at JFS at Home.
“We treat our clients like family,” Marissa explains. “When we’re talking to someone on the phone, we see ourselves in them – or we see our parents or grandparents.”
Marissa has also become a recognized leader in the home care field, presenting nationally on dementia care, home health agency development and senior companion programs. In 2024, she participated in a professional mission to Hogeweyk, the innovative “Dementia Village” in Amsterdam, and later co-presented on person-centered dementia care at the PowerNet conference.
"Marissa has built far more than an exceptional home care organization – she has built a culture where compassion, professionalism and dignity define every interaction with the families we serve," said Danielle Hartman, President and CEO of Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services.
"Her ability to combine strategic vision with genuine empathy has made JFS at Home a trusted resource for our community and an extension of our mission to help older adults live safely, independently and with the highest possible quality of life. We are incredibly proud of the leadership she brings to our organization every day," Hartman added.
As healthcare increasingly shifts toward aging in place, Marissa remains committed to ensuring seniors receive not only quality care, but also compassion, connection and the dignity they deserve.
For more information about JFS at Home and its wide range of services, please contact Gordon at (561) 852-4663 or marissag@jfsathome.org.
