Speakers

Former Chief Economist and Director of Research, National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC)

Beth Burnham Mace served as the Chief Economist and Director of Research & Analytics at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) for nearly a decade, retiring in December 2023. In this role, she managed a group of research analysts and directed the research activity of the organization, including assessments of primary data related to senior housing and skilled nursing market fundamentals, interpretation of economic and capital market trends and how they affected the senior housing sector, and the management of research grants to Harvard University, NORC at the University of Chicago, and other prominent research organizations. She led the seminal research conducted in 2019 on the “Forgotten Middle”, the cohort of older adults that cannot afford today’s senior housing offerings.

Prior to joining the staff at NIC, she served as a member of the NIC Board of Directors for seven years and chaired NIC’s Research Committee. Ms. Mace was also a Director at AEW Capital Management in Boston and worked in the AEW Research Group for 17 years. While at AEW, Ms. Mace worked with the firm’s Direct Investment Group and provided primary research support to the organization’s core and value-added investment strategies and provided research-related underwriting in acquisition activity and asset and portfolio management decisions. Prior to joining AEW in 1997, Ms. Mace spent ten years at Standard & Poor’s DRI/McGraw-Hill in Lexington as the Director of the Regional Information Service, with responsibility for developing forecasts of economic, demographic, and industry indicators for 314 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. Prior to working at DRI, she spent three years as a Regional Economist at the Crocker Bank in San Francisco. Ms. Mace has also worked at the National Commission on Air Quality, the Brookings Institution, and Boston Edison.

In 2025, she was inducted into the American Senior Housing Association (ASHA) Hall of Fame, where she was recognized as an industry leader and visionary. In 2020, she was inaugurated into the McKnight’s Women of Distinction Hall of Honor. In 2014, she was appointed a fellow at the Homer Hoyt Institute and was awarded the title of a “Woman of Influence” in commercial real estate by Real Estate Forum Magazine and Globe Street. She has been a guest lecturer at Boston University, Washington State University, and Cornell University, and produced a regular monthly Podcast while at NIC. She also had a monthly column for Wealth Management Real Estate and NCREIF’s quarterly publications. Ms. Mace has been often cited in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Seniors Housing Business, Seniors Housing News and McKnight’s Senior Living. She has also earned The Certified Business Economist™ title (CBE) from the National Association of Business Economists (NABE) and is currently a certified NACD™ Corporate Director. Ms. Mace has been a member of the National Association of Business Economists (NABE), the Urban Land Institute (ULI), ULI’s Senior Housing Council and New England Women in Real Estate (NEWIRE/CREW). Ms. Mace is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (B.A.) and the University of California (M.S.).