Meet Angela Sewell: Advocating for Older Adults and the Families Who Love Them

For Angela Sewell, LSW, working with older adults has become much more than a career. It’s a calling shaped by the stories she hears, the relationships she builds, and the opportunity to make a meaningful difference for individuals and families navigating some of life’s most challenging moments.

As a member of the Aging Gracefully team, Angela brings experience in Medicare and resource navigation, dementia and memory care support, caregiver burnout, and hospice care. She is also helping expand Aging Gracefully’s reach into the Illinois communities she calls home, giving more families access to the guidance and advocacy they need as their loved ones age.

But Angela’s path into this work wasn’t exactly what she originally planned.

Finding Her Passion for Working with Older Adults

When Angela began her journey in social work, she envisioned working with children. Her grandmother, Doris, who went by Dodi or Nonny by her grandkids, was a major influence in her life. A foster parent with a remarkable capacity for compassion, Dodi was someone Angela admired and wanted to emulate.

“I wanted to be just like her,” Angela recalls. “I thought I wanted to work with kids, but in hindsight, it was really her that I wanted to be like and that connection I had was with the older generation.”

Angela initially accepted a position working with older adults to gain experience and expand her knowledge. Within a week, she knew she had found her place.

Over the years, her work has deepened her appreciation for the wisdom, resilience, and life experiences older adults have to share. She loves hearing their stories, from the adventures of their younger years to the challenges they’ve overcome and the lives they’ve built.

One of her favorite memories involves a 93-year-old client who had said she never played some of the most popular children’s games, so Angela challenged her to a game of Candy Land and Hi Ho! Cherry-O. 

“She kicked my butt,” Angela says with a laugh. “I told her that now she couldn’t say she had never played those games in her life.”

It’s a small moment that captures something important about Angela’s approach to care: aging doesn’t diminish a person’s individuality, personality, or ability to enjoy life. Every person has a story worth hearing and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

Angela also shared a wonderful story about her gaming friend who created a video documenting her life story. A passionate advocate for individuals with Down Syndrome, the woman wanted to make sure her story and advocacy continued to be shared. She even planned her own funeral and made sure photographs of the healthcare workers who had played such an important role in her life were included.

Experiences like these have reinforced Angela’s belief that older adults deserve to be heard, valued, and remembered for everything they bring to the world.

Finding the Right Fit at Aging Gracefully

After working in several areas of social work, Angela found herself drawn to the opportunity to provide more personalized support to older adults and their families.

Living in the Columbia and Waterloo area of Illinois, she recognized a need for care management services in her community. Many older adults had spent their entire lives there, raising families and building connections. She wanted to help them access the resources and support necessary to remain in their homes and communities for as long as it was healthy and safe to do so.

As Angela explored starting her own business, she connected with Melanie, founder of Aging Gracefully, as a mentor. Through their conversations, she realized she could combine her desire to work directly with individuals and families with the opportunity to help grow a care management business.

When Melanie invited her to join the Aging Gracefully team, it felt like the right fit.

“I get the best of both worlds,” Angela explains. “I can keep working one-on-one with people while also growing the Aging Gracefully business on the Illinois side.”

Angela appreciates having Melanie’s support with networking, marketing, and business development while continuing to do the hands-on work she loves. She also values being part of a team with so much collective knowledge and experience.

“We can lean on each other,” she says. “We’re all fun and quirky, and it’s so much fun to work together.”

Helping Families Feel Less Alone

One of the most rewarding aspects of Angela’s work is helping families navigate the uncertainty that often comes with serious illness, dementia, and end-of-life care.

She recently worked with a man whose wife had cancer. He wanted help preparing for medical appointments, asking the right questions, and understanding the options available to them. As Angela got to know the couple, she helped connect them with the appropriate resources and guided them toward hospice care when the time came.

For Angela, the most meaningful part was helping the husband feel confident that they had the information and support they needed to make decisions that honored his wife's wishes.

She wanted him to have the opportunity to simply be her husband during their final moments together, rather than carrying the full weight of being her caregiver.

“He could just be a husband and have those loving memories and moments together, not worry about her medication or changing her, he could exclusively be her loving spouse,” Angela explains.

That experience reflects what Angela believes care management is all about: providing guidance, advocating for an individual's wishes, and helping families navigate difficult decisions with greater peace of mind.

She is particularly passionate about ensuring that people living with dementia continue to be treated with dignity.

“Even if they’re cognitively impaired, they shouldn’t be treated like children,” she says. “Talk to them and treat them as adults.”

As Angela helps Aging Gracefully grow in Illinois, she hopes more families will discover that they don't have to manage everything alone. Care managers can provide an extra layer of support, whether that means coordinating resources, advocating for a loved one, or helping a caregiver figure out where to begin.

“You’re not alone,” Angela emphasizes. “You can have people help you while you are still in control.”

She also recognizes that not everyone has family nearby to check in on them. Care management can help fill that gap by providing an additional source of support and making sure someone's needs don't go unnoticed.

When Her Professional Experience Becomes Personal

Angela's work has also influenced the way she approaches her own family relationships. She has seen firsthand how close-knit families support one another through difficult times, and she strives to build that same sense of connection with her own loved ones.

Recently, her professional and personal worlds collided when she recognized signs that something was wrong with her mother. Angela suspected her mother might be having a stroke and urged her father to call 911.

At the hospital, Angela found herself in an unfamiliar position. She knew how to ask questions and advocate for a patient, but this time, the person needing help was her mom.

“I had to process being not only the professional but also the daughter,” she recalls.

Once she arrived, her training and experience kicked in. She asked questions, sought answers, and advocated for her mother as the family navigated the situation.

Afterward, her mother told her, “I knew you were going to take care of it and ask the right questions because I don’t know what’s going on.”

Her father also sent her a message telling her how proud he was of her and seeing her jump into the problem solving role.

For Angela, the experience was a powerful reminder of how much her work has prepared her to help the people she loves. It also reinforced that being a good advocate doesn't mean setting emotions aside.

Sometimes, it means drawing on your experience while allowing yourself to be human, too.

Life Beyond Care Management

Outside of work, Angela is a busy mom of three children, ages 10, 7, and 4, and a dedicated Girl Scout leader. She had led her oldest daughter's troop for six years, and is now leading her second grader's group. 

Girl Scouts is a family tradition. Angela's own mother was a troop leader, and today, the two serve as co-leaders.

Although planning camping trips and activities can be stressful, Angela says the rewards make it worthwhile. Watching the girls grow together, work through challenges, support one another, and give back to their community reminds her why she dedicates so much time to the organization.

She especially loves seeing the relationships her mother has maintained with former Girl Scouts who are now grown and raising families of their own, knowing that will be her someday with her own Girl Scouts.

Another fun fact about Angela? Her favorite food is sauerkraut. Unexpected? Maybe, but she grew up in Germany while her parents served in the Air Force, and the food brings back fond memories of that time in her life.

Her love for older adults also extends into her family life. Angela has built a close relationship with an older friend, Gary, whom her children affectionately know as Grandpa Gary. They enjoy visiting him and have developed a special bond of their own, asking to go to his house to help him out or just spend time with him.

Angela hopes her children grow up understanding what she has learned throughout her career: older adults have incredible stories, valuable wisdom, and so much to offer the people around them.

A Passion for Protecting and Supporting Others

Ask Angela what she has loved about her career, and her answer is simple: she has loved every job she's had in social work. Each experience has taught her something different and helped prepare her for the next opportunity.

She brings that same enthusiasm and determination to her work at Aging Gracefully, where she is committed to helping older adults maintain their dignity, supporting families through difficult decisions, and making sure no one has to navigate the aging journey without an advocate.

As she continues building connections in Illinois, Angela hopes more families will come to understand the difference care management can make, not only during a crisis but also before one occurs.

For Angela, these are her people. She believes in standing up for them, protecting their interests, and making sure their voices are heard.

And with the support of the Aging Gracefully team, she's looking forward to helping even more older adults and families find the guidance, confidence, and peace of mind they deserve.