About
Dearest Aging was created from both professional experience and a deep belief that older adults deserve more than simply having their basic needs met.
While aging can bring change, uncertainty, and increasing complexity, it is also a continued stage of life. We desire to feel valued, engaged, and fulfilled in our communities.
We value emotional wellbeing, dignity, autonomy & quality of life.
At its heart, Dearest Aging recognizes that wellbeing extends far beyond physical health or completing daily tasks. The environments we live in, the people around us, the opportunities we have to learn, contribute, connect, and continue growing all shape how we experience later life. Support should not begin only when a crisis occurs. It can also create opportunities for greater ease, confidence, fulfillment, and quality of life long before those moments arise.
This philosophy guides every aspect of Dearest Aging. Practical support is blended with meaningful human connection, recognizing that no two people or families experience aging in the same way. Services are personalized, flexible, and grounded in the belief that aging should be met with dignity, creativity, compassion, and respect for each person’s unique goals, values, and life story.
Founder, Kate Kondolf, brings together years of professional experience working alongside older adults and families in a wide range of settings, including enrichment and companionship, caregiving support, dementia care, educational programming, research, assisted living, community initiatives, and care coordination. In addition to her academic and professional roles, she has worked independently with older adults and their loved ones, providing personalized guidance, practical support, enrichment, and consultation designed to enhance quality of life in later life.
Kate earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Ithaca College, a Master of Arts in Human Rights and Democratization from the University of Sydney, and a Ph.D. in Human Development with a specialization in Social Gerontology from the University of Rochester. Her academic path has been enriched by studying, working, volunteering, and traveling across thirty-five countries on six continents, experiences that deepened her appreciation for cultural diversity, resilience, equity, and the universal human need for dignity, belonging, and connection.
Perhaps most importantly, Dearest Aging has been shaped by the countless older adults whose stories, humor, wisdom, resilience, and everyday moments have left a lasting impression over the years. Those relationships continue to inspire an approach rooted in curiosity, presence, and the belief that later life deserves not only care, but also opportunity, meaning, joy, and continued growth.
