Moses Dixon will never forget the night the Affordable Care Act was passed.
As the late U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid was exiting the Senate floor, he turned to Dixon and said: “We did this for your grandmother and people like your grandmother around the country.”
While working for Reid as a college student, Dixon had told him about his grandmother, a woman who after being diagnosed with cancer was denied health care because the disease was considered a preexisting condition.
She died from cancer on Thanksgiving Day, when Dixon was 13 years old.
In less than a decade, Dixon had gone from watching his grandmother pass to standing in the halls of U.S. Congress, telling her story.
“That moment for me was when I knew I had an obligation, particularly with older adults, to make sure that they had access to not just essential services like food and Meals on Wheels, but they actually had the proper health care,” said Dixon.
Fast forward and today Dixon is leading Senior Connection, as the Worcester nonprofit’s president and CEO.
Celebrating its 51-year anniversary this year, the organization works to break down barriers to care for older adults, like Dixon’s grandmother, and provides a range of services in health, housing, disability, financing, and transportation.
“People always say, ‘Well, Massachusetts has great health care.’ That’s true for some, but there’s still an issue with access,” said Dixon.
Since taking over the helm of Senior Connection six years ago, Dixon has led the organization through a time of enormous revenue growth.
Between 2009 and 2019, the nonprofit’s annual revenue had hovered around $2.8 million, ending 2019 with $2.87 million in revenue. By 2024, that figure had more than doubled to $5.74 million, according to nonprofit tracker GuideStar.
While COVID stimulus funding has contributed to Senior Connection’s revenue growth, Dixon has spearheaded programs not only bringing in revenue, but changing people’s lives.
Last year, the organization expanded its Grandparents Raising Grandkids Resource Center, connecting wraparound services to grandparent caretakers, such as advocacy, legal aid, and food.
In 2024, Senior Connection got $3 million from Congress to develop 40 affordable apartments in Worcester for grandparents raising their grandchildren.
Dixon understands the wisdom and value in older adults that often others don’t see, said Brenda Jenkins, community wellness coordinator at the YMCA of Central Massachusetts.
She’s known Dixon for 20 years, since he was a grad student at Clark University, doing outreach for those experiencing homelessness and mental health issues.
Many children don’t readily have the sensitivity to deal with the transition of when a parent becomes dependent on them with age, she said, and Dixon has a unique ability to level and connect with these newfound caregivers.
“He provides an educational component, explaining to families the value [seniors] bring, and to remind them we all one day will be aging,” said Jenkins.
Jenkins, who herself receives services from Senior Connection as a grandparent raising three grandchildren, has seen the way Dixon cares for his clients with compassion and empathy.
“He has the great skill of listening. A lot of people have that skill set: people may hear you, but to be listening and to really listen, to understand before he answers,” she said. “He’s a humble person.”
Listening proved a vital component for Dixon as he worked to establish Senior Connection’s Care Express Bus, a mobile clinic providing free health, dental, and vision screenings; medication management; and referral services for older adults throughout Central Mass.
Dixon was motivated to start the initiative after seeing how seniors struggled to access their doctors and dentists during the COVID shutdown, especially those in rural communities.
“I knew we needed to do something different,” he said.
He held listening sessions and met with local seniors to get their input, creating a brain trust to determine what services were needed.
In July, Senior Connection was a runner up for The John A. Hartford Foundation 2025 Business Innovation Award, with the New York City-based organization specifically recognizing the Care Express program.
Now, Dixon is in the process of getting the mobile health bus designated as a Rural Health Clinic to broaden its range of services, including offering preventative screenings.
While the model is thriving today, some community-based partners Dixon approached to launch the initiative didn’t see the value in it, he said. But now, with federal cuts to Medicaid and the looming expiration of ACA subsidies, Dixon sees the model more important than ever.
“We are going to ride the wave, to continue to provide the rural health services in these communities and partner with anybody that wants to partner with us,” he said. “At the end of the day, we are doing something positive, and in my view, it is something that is saving people’s lives over time.”
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
