SOMERS, N.Y. - As administrator at The Paramount at Somers Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Mark Badolato has spent a lot of time with retirees. Now he’s about to join their ranks.
After more than two decades in health care administration, Badolato officially stepped down in early September. His final weeks have stretched longer than expected while he helped onboard his successor. lt marks the end of a career built on compassion—and stamina.
From Recreation to Administration
Badolato, a Mahopac High School alumnus, began his professional life running recreation programs for people with developmental disabilities. In 1998, he accepted a role as director of recreation at a White Plains nursing home.
“Before that, I never, ever, ever wanted to work in a nursing home,” he said. “But it took me maybe an hour—I am not kidding, an hour—to realize that’s where I should be.”
He soon moved into administration, first at Waterview Hills, and by the mid-2000s had his license as a full administrator. Then, his career took a brief detour as he built a construction business with two partners. By 2009, the depths of the recession brought Badolato back to health care—this time at a 120-bed facility in Cortland.
“When I got there, the building had leaky ceilings, but it was some of the best care I think I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It was a small, close-knit community. Everyone knew each other. That experience put me back to loving what I was doing.”
Over the next decade, Badolato ran facilities that tested both his skills and resilience. At a 280-bed nursing home in Kingston specializing in traumatic brain injuries, he inherited massive financial losses and the intricacies of managing a complex web of care specialists, from psychiatrists to physical therapists, on his staff.
“I might as well have been teaching a sixth-grade algebra class,” he said, recalling his first days. “It was that different from anything I had done.”
With persistence, he secured higher reimbursement rates from the state, stabilized the operation, and deepened his reputation as a leader who could navigate a Profit and Loss sheet without losing his humanity.
By 2015, Badolato returned closer to home with CareRite Centers, taking over Emerald Peek Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Peekskill. In 2018, he was tapped for The Paramount in Somers.
Running a large facility meant toggling constantly between crises, large and small. Often, he was helping families navigate the hardest days of their lives.
“As an administrator, you’ve got these switches you’re turning on and off every minute of the day,” Badolato said. “And then one of those switches flips when someone you’ve seen every day suddenly passes. It stings. It does have to matter.”
Those moments, he said, were made memorable by small gestures: a resident handing him a drawing for his office, or families sharing gratitude for care during difficult transitions.
“Those things carry you through,” he said.
Activities Director
Now, for the first time in 25 years, Badolato is looking forward to coordinating a different kind of daytime recreation—his own.
He says he’s looking forward to getting calls during snowstorms this winter. A lifelong skier, he and his wife, Laura, have a home in Vermont, and he’s eager to join longtime friends on the slopes.
Cycling is another passion. Each year for three decades, he and a close friend have flown their bikes to a new starting point—Memphis, for example—and ridden hundreds of miles over several days.
“We’ve only missed three rides in 30 years,” he said. And this year, he and Laura cycled through Belgium, ending the trip with a week aboard a rented houseboat.
Home base is now New Milford, Connecticut, where the couple keeps gardens, a pond and chickens. Their three adult children—and one grandbaby—all live in Brooklyn. Badolato says he looks forward to more openings on his calendar for family time.
With that being said, Badolato isn’t hanging up his health care hat for good. He expects he will do some consulting work in the future, though he is determined to take time before stepping back into any professional role.
“There’s always been something to interrupt what I wanted to do—kids, work, responsibilities,” he said. “Now I’m going to wake up and have to find things just for me.”
As one of the first in his friend group to retire, Badolato knows he’ll need to create his own routines. But after years spent helping others through difficult chapters, he is ready to embrace a new era of freedom.
“I’ve always had a schedule filled with things I have to do,” he said. “Now it’ll be filled with the things I want to do.”
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