A conversation about dignity, accountability, and the evolving role of guardianship.
Through decades of research, fieldwork, and time spent on the frontlines of guardianship, Heather L. Connors, Ph.D. always returns to the same truth: the people who step in for the most vulnerable care deeply.
“They are doing the work that people would never want to do,” she says, “and they are doing it with such care and dedication.”
But honoring that dedication doesn’t mean lowering the bar. If anything, Heather believes guardians should be held to a higher standard. The nuance is not lost on her. In her work, she threads the line carefully by protecting dignity while insisting on accountability and the core principle that people deserve to be heard.
When asked about a defining moment in her career, Heather doesn’t mention a policy win or research milestone. She talks about Lena.
Lena was one of the first people she helped early in her career in guardianship. During one of their conversations, Lena told her something that stayed with her ever since: “I always thought guardians were hostile, and that they were there to take away my rights,” Lena said. She believed guardianship meant losing everything.
Then Lena said something that reshaped Heather’s understanding of the role entirely:
“What’s important to me is that you listen to me.”
Since that moment, Heather’s work has been centered on reframing the guardian — not just as the authority figure, not as the “bad guy,” but as an advocate and listener.
Heather now serves as the Executive Director of The Center for Guardianship Excellence, where she leads national efforts to professionalize and humanize guardianship through research, training, and community-building.
Under her leadership, the Center has become one of the largest providers of continuing education for guardians in the country, offering live and recorded courses that help both new and seasoned guardians meet certification standards and deepen their practice. Each week, new learners join the organization. Some join in pursuit of certification, while others simply want to become better advocates for the people they serve.
But the Center is more than a training hub. It was built after years of noticing a gap in Massachusetts courtrooms, where family members were often asked to step in as guardians with little more than a “good luck” and no formal training. Support groups grew out of that realization, helping guardians feel less alone as they navigate an often overwhelming responsibility.
Today, the Center offers story-based, interactive trainings grounded in the National Guardianship Association’s Standards of Practice. Through case rounds, breakout discussions, and peer connection, guardians learn from one another while building a community around shared challenges. In many ways, the trainings function as a sounding board for real-world problems, helping guardians translate standards of practice into everyday decision-making.
Beyond listening, Heather emphasizes that good guardianship is also about paying attention to the details so that when someone cannot fully advocate for their own interests, the guardian understands what those interests are.
A core principle of the Center’s training is getting to know the person. In practice, that means understanding the values that shape someone’s life: what kind of care they want at the end of life, whether staying in the community matters most to them, and what environment feels like home.
“You hear some people who say they don’t want to leave their apartment,” Heather explains. “It’s the place where they know their neighbors, where their church is nearby, and these are the things that are important to them.”
When guardians take the time to understand those details, they are better equipped to make decisions that are not only safe, but aligned with the person’s values. That process of truly getting to know someone can be time-consuming, but Heather sees it as the heart of the work.
And yet, guardianship remains widely misunderstood.
Heather is careful not to dismiss those concerns. Guardianship can involve significant authority, and historically the system often treated people with incapacity as broadly “incompetent,” with guardians stepping in to make nearly every decision on their behalf.
The best thing to happen in the last thirty years in guardianship, she says, is the major shift toward limited guardianship and supported decision-making — a move toward making guardianship person-centered rather than a one-size-fits-all model. Instead of the guardian being broadly in charge, the focus is on ensuring the person themselves does not get lost in the process.
Even still, Heather believes Massachusetts has an opportunity to strengthen guardianship systems further.
At the top of her wish list is the creation of a true safety-net Public Guardian to provide support for individuals who want to ensure someone will be able to step in if they lose capacity but have no one in their lives to fill that role. She also believes Massachusetts should consider allowing public agencies to serve as healthcare proxies in certain circumstances. Giving people the ability to designate a trusted agency before a crisis occurs would allow decision-making to remain grounded in a person’s known values while potentially reducing the need for court involvement altogether.
And finally, Heather believes professional guardians should be required to obtain certification. She struggles to understand how someone making decisions on behalf of a person with incapacity is not required to have any sort of higher-level training. Certification, along with proper education, should be the minimum standard in Massachusetts.
Regardless of what changes may come, Heather consistently brings the conversation to the dedicated people doing the work every day.
Stranger guardians often step into someone’s life at the most vulnerable moment, tasked with navigating complex systems, difficult decisions, and emotionally charged situations.
“It is hard work and it is often thankless work,” she says. “There are a lot of people who will fight you, and there are many steps in the process that make it difficult.”
And yet the work continues because it is necessary. As Lena reminded Heather all those years ago, good guardianship begins with something simple: listening.
To learn more about the Center for Guardianship Excellence, including its training programs and guardian support resources, visit the organization’s website.