Independent Consultant, Aging Services
Self
Milwaukie, OR, United States
Christopher Laxton is a healthcare association professional with over 40 years of experience in long-term care, policy, leadership, and organizational performance excellence. Laxton was Executive Director of AMDA – now PALTmed, the Post-Acute and Long-Term Medical Association – from 2013 until his retirement in May 2023. He is now an independent consultant in aging and an active volunteer in aging services quality improvement.
From 2010 until 2013 Laxton was President of Life Services Network of Illinois (now LeadingAge Illinois), the state association for providers of the full continuum of senior living, including home‐ and community-based services, independent senior housing, assisted living, and not‐for‐profit skilled nursing facilities and continuing care campuses. LeadingAge Illinois is the state affiliate of two national associations: LeadingAge and Argentum. Before that, he was Interim Chief Operating Officer at the Society for Biomolecular Sciences, and served as CEO of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) in Chicago. AADE is a multi‐disciplinary organization of more than 10,000 nurses, dietitians and other health professionals dedicated to providing and advocating for quality diabetes self‐management training.
Laxton served from 1995 to 2002 as the executive director of the Washington‐based Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the largest professional association representing infection control professionals worldwide. Prior to that, Laxton worked at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, serving as its vice president for communications and information services and chief operating officer.
Laxton has written and delivered numerous articles, lectures and workshops on governance, strategic planning, organizational quality and performance improvement. He was one of 9 CEO thought leaders on the program for the first Association Chief Executives (ACE) Symposium in Washington DC in the fall of 2013, speaking on the Future of Leadership. He has been widely published, most recently in Association Trends, and FORUM magazines.
Laxton volunteers as Vice-Chair of the Center for Excellence in Assisted Living, now CEAL@UNC, a program of the University of North Carolina; the Moving Forward Coalition; the Advancing Excellence in Long-Term Care Collaborative; and the Board of Overseers for the American Health Care Association’s Baldrige-based National Quality Award.
He lives in Portland, Oregon, in a multi-generational household with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two of his four grandchildren.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2025
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM PDT