On January 5, 1999 she was appointed Secretary of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs a position she held until October 15, 2001. Her accomplishments as Secretary are very extensive and range from increasing the budget of the Department by 93 million dollars to mandating that public funded programs become culturally competent, instituting a new assessment tool designed to capture the frailty levels of the elder and his or her caregiver, the implementation of a variety of pilot programs including a Farmer’s Market for elders in Gainesville, the Coming Home program designed to expand assisted living facilities to the rural areas, the new telemedicine program in the Florida panhandle and the expansion of the CARES (Comprehensive Assessment and Review for Long-Term Care Services) nursing home diversion program into nursing homes, resulting in the movement of elders and disabled adults from nursing homes back to their communities. All of these done while adding 93 million dollars to the department’s budget.

As a result of Secretary Hernández’s expertise in the area of cultural competence, the Department was names by the Administration on Aging as a National technical assistance center on Cultural Competence and as an Outreach Resource Center for Culturally Diverse Elders. Additionally, Dr. Hernández designed and implemented a Positive Aging campaign for the main purpose of focusing on changing the image of elders and encouraging them to live life to the fullest. She also began the Dementia Caregivers Telehealth Support Project, expanded respite for Alzheimer’s caregivers to include all 67 counties, strengthened regulations of Assisted Living Facilities, initiated a program to help Assisted Living Facility staffs provide greater assistance with medication, initiated Elder Abuse Awareness campaigns and created the first Elder Day at the Capitol.

Dr. Hernández has been recognized for her role in State Initiatives in End of Life as one of three national leaders on this subject. She has been a recipient of numerous awards, the most recent being a Humanitarian Award for her work in improving the quality of life of older Floridians, presented by Prime Time Seniors. She has also been honored as the recipient of the Best Practice Model on Cultural Competence Programs by the Administration on Aging, made an honorary citizen of Hernando County, and awarded an Excellence in Volunteer programs by the Florida Commission on Community Services and has been nominated to the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame and the Women Executive in State Government Excellence in Leadership Award. Dr. Hernández Elder Ready Community: A Community for Life Program was awarded an Innovation Award by the Southern Governors Association and is now the flagship of Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislators.

Although all the above accomplishments by themselves deserve recognition, it is our belief that Gema Hernández’s most important accomplishment to benefit all residents of the United State is her Community for Life Program: Elder Ready, Child Friendly and Family Focused. It was therefore appropriate that in 2002 the then mayor of the first city to complete the Elder Ready survey for the Well Elder, Tom Anderson, Mayor of the city of Dunedin, and Natacha Seijas, Commissioner of Miami-Dade County, the first major metropolitan area to sign a proclamation to evaluate their degree of readiness, jointly nominated Gema Gomez Hernández to the Smithsonian Profiles of Excellence Program.

At the time of her departure from the Department of Elder Affairs, the Department has received 35 resolutions from cities around Florida indicative of their desire to become Communities for a Lifetime: Elder Ready, Access Free and Family focused. It is our belief that Dr. Hernández’s Communities for a Lifetime Program: Elder Ready, Family Focused and Children Friendly and her Positive Aging campaign will do the most to improve the lives of all individuals for generations to come.

Dr Gema Hernández is now the president of Aging and Cultural Consultants, Inc. in Tallahassee, Florida. She provides technical assistance to communities around the country in how to become Communities for a Lifetime. She also conducts training and provides consultant services to organizations and hospitals on a variety of aging and culturally competent issues.