HouseWorks CEO Andrea Cohen is a social entrepreneur dedicated to transforming the way that care is delivered to seniors at home. Her vision for the business crystallized over 20 years ago when she took care of both her parents and became committed to making what she went through easier for families. In Boston over the last decade, Andrea and her team have built the largest single site private home care company in the country, and opened a second location in Bethesda Maryland in 2008.

Under Andrea’s leadership, HouseWorks has earned a reputation for finding creative solutions to help seniors do as much as they can for as long as they want. Andrea played an active role in the launch of Beacon Hill Village and the national Village movement. She constantly engages staff in every aspect of innovation by creating opportunities for out-of-the-box thinking, including participation in the 2010 Boston College Social Innovation Collaborative.

Andrea was recently awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and the Louis Lowy Award by the Massachusetts Gerontology Association. In recognition of her achievements as an entrepreneur, Andrea was selected as a Finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011, and was chosen as a 2009 Pinnacle Award honoree by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Her business accomplishments have been highlighted in The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, and the Boston Business Journal. She has also been a featured presenter at professional and academic symposia speaking about business growth, leadership, the shifting aging paradigm, and aging baby boomers.

Andrea currently chairs the Board of the National Family Caregivers Association, and sits on the Boards of The Commonwealth Institute, the Boston Medical Center Exceptional Care Without Exception Trust, and the Leadership Council of the Schwartz Center. Previously, Andrea served on the Boards of the Massachusetts Home Care Alliance, the National Private Duty Association, the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work Alumni, and on the project development committee for Hebrew SeniorLife’s NewBridge on the Charles. Andrea is an advisor to several companies including Care.com, Confidant and Serality, all of which provide innovative, online solutions for family caregivers.

A tireless advocate, Andrea was selected as an at-large delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging where she helped influence national policies that will impact all seniors and family caregivers in the years ahead. She also organized the Boston Family Caregiver Town Hall Meeting (a PBS forum broadcast in 2004), and was a significant contributor to the Family Caregiver Handbook produced by the MIT Workplace Center in 2007. Andrea received her MSW from Boston College and completed her BA at Ithaca College in upstate New York.