Editor’s note: McKnight’s Home Care, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Senior Living are profiling the McKnight’s 2022 Women of Distinction honorees daily July 5 through Aug. 11. For additional McKnight’s Women of Distinction content, visit this page.

Luz Liebeskind joined RiverSpring Living in 2008, at the height of the recession, as chief financial officer.

The building primarily was a skilled nursing facility at the time. Since then, she has helped transform RiverSpring Living into a comprehensive non-profit long-term care organization. It encompasses New York State’s third-largest managed long-term care plan, middle-income independent living, multiple affordable senior housing communities, and home health agencies.

Under Liebeskind’s financial leadership, RiverSpring Living now serves 18,000 older New Yorkers, 98% of whom live below the poverty line, and has an annual operating budget of $1.1 billion.

Before joining RiverSpring, Liebeskind was associate controller for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she was responsible for accounting for the museum’s $3 billion endowment portfolio and the financial budget. Before that, she was the corporate controller at Montefiore Medical Center. She began her career at Ernst and Young as a senior manager in the firm’s healthcare and nonprofit practice. 

Liebeskind has served on the board of the Baruch College Fund, since 2000, and was the treasurer from 2000 to 2011. She is co-chair of its finance committee and also is a member of its audit committee. Through her affiliation as a board member with the Baruch College Fund, she has been an “exemplary” role model in mentoring college students in their future careers, according to Daniel Reingold, president and CEO of RiverSpring. 

“Luz genuinely wants her staff to be successful and shine,” gushed Reingold. He said that Liebeskind engages with her employees, shares her relevant knowledge and expertise and allows people room to develop their set of skills while providing positive and constructive feedback.

Described as a dedicated and trusted adviser to the RiverSpring Board of Trustees, Liebeskind is responsible for all financial operations, treasury, capital projects and investment functions for the organization. She also manages the human resources, purchasing, art/museum and research departments.

Admired by her colleagues for her ambition and strong leadership, she provides exceptional support to the staff in problem-solving and is known as being dependable and always making herself available when needed, Reingold added.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Home Care, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Senior Living. The program’s Diamond sponsor is PointClickCare. Silver sponsors include OnShift and PharMerica, and the Bronze sponsor is Reliant Rehabilitation. Table sponsors included Dreamscape, Gojo/Purell and Sound Physicians