01/15/2026
Meet Our Founder
Ernestina Adkins
Founder & CEO, SparroWell
Ernestina Adkins is a nurse with over 17 years of experience dedicated to improving care for older adults across the long-term and post-acute care continuum. She is the sole founder of SparroWell, a company built from firsthand clinical experience and a deep commitment to restoring connection and consistency in a fragmented care system.
Her journey began at the bedside as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) while attending nursing school. After graduating nursing school in 2009, Ernestina advanced through progressive clinical leadership roles within the Post-Acute Care sector - serving as a Charge Nurse, Director of Clinical Education, the Director of Nursing, followed by United Healthcare. In these roles, she led staff training, regulatory preparedness, clinical oversight, and survey readinessāensuring teams were supported, confident, and compliant.
After five years in facility leadership, Ernestina moved into a Regional Clinical role with a large nationwide assisted living organization. There, she specialized in facility turnaround, working closely with teams across Missouri and Iowa to strengthen compliance, improve survey outcomes, and implement sustainable policies and procedures. This work reinforced her belief that strong systems matterābut only when they are built around people.
Seeking broader, system-level impact, Ernestina joined UnitedHealthcare / Optum as a Senior Analyst in the post-acute care space, gaining critical insight into value-based care, payer strategy, and the operational gaps facing long-term care providers nationwide.
In 2021, Ernestina founded Care Midwest, initially envisioning a small regional presence. That vision quickly expanded. Today, operating as SparroWell, the organization supports partners nationwide, delivering clinical expertise, operational rigor, and scalable solutions rooted in compassion and trust.
SparroWell was founded on a simple but powerful belief: It Starts with You.
The nurse who calls a patient on their hardest day.
The coordinator who sees the whole person.
The provider who chooses presence over protocol.
The teammate who shows up with empathy, intention, and heart.
At her core, Ernestina remains a nurse firstāand she openly embraces the ongoing journey of learning how to lead and grow a company. She credits SparroWellās success to a team that believes deeply in the mission and offers grace, partnership, and shared purpose as they build something meaningful together.
SparroWell is not just managing chronic illness.
It is restoring hope, building trust, and changing lives.
And that change?
It starts with you.
