Her mother, Dee Francis, was first-generation Lebanese[1] who grew up in an Arabic speaking household in Washington, Pennsylvania.
[4] During Law School, she was the research assistant for Edward H. Levi, the former President of the university and Attorney General of the United States.
She joined Ambassador Apartments Inc. (NYSE:AAH), a multifamily REIT, as president and a director, in 1997 where she helped sell the company.
[6] Her initial actions at Ventas were to restructure the bank debt, lead a global consensual restructuring of its main tenant Vencor so it could emerge from bankruptcy (renamed Kindred Healthcare, Inc.)[7] Cafaro was listed as one of the best performing CEOs in the world for six years by the Harvard Business Review, until the list was discontinued in 2020.
[8] In 2016, Cafaro became an owner and member of the management committee of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a National Hockey League team, who won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017.