Women's Ministries
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Susan d'Olive Mozena
Women of Faith Award Recipient

 
             
  Susan d'Olive Mozena
Susan d'Olive Mozena
 

Susan d'Olive Mozena is senior vice-president of operations of Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, a $30 million, 550-employee operation. She serves as chief operating officer of a ten-village system of housing and services for about 2,000 senior residents. Housing alternatives include independent living and assisted living (including memory loss units and nursing home care).

Holding responsibilities for all sites, she has initiated many organization-wide efforts to achieve operational improvements and cost reductions. She initiated and leads the corporate culture change effort as part of a performance improvement program, which utilizes outcome studies. Regularly she convenes clinical staff from across the system to discuss improving the residential care issues using outcome data. The first enterprise-wide computer network was implemented under her leadership.

 
             
 

Ms. Mozena is known for her commitment to quality housing and services. She ensures that the highest professional standards are met in a human services environment where the pressure to cut corners is immense. No one has ever been asked to leave Presbyterian Villages of Michigan due to their inability to pay.

Her commitment to the Detroit community and beyond has been consistent and effective. Ms. Mozena is president of the Mount Holyoke Club of Detroit and in June 2002 the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College awarded her the Alumna Medal of Honor. She is president elect of the Detroit A.M. Rotary Club and a sustaining member of the Junior League of Detroit.

Susan d'Olive Mozena is an elder in Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, a Presbyterian Church in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. She is the mother of a son and daughter and lives with her husband, John, in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.

 
             
   
  How My Christian Faith Influences My Work  
             
  I have chosen my work because of my Christian faith. My professional life has been an evolution, starting with several years of secondary school teaching, moving through the professional hiatus of young motherhood and community volunteer work and resulting in twenty-three years as a health care and human service executive. I have always had a strong desire to help others. Though teaching is certainly one of the most important helping professions, I learned that it was not for me. When I left the classroom as a teacher, I knew I wouldn't be back. While at home with my children, I was drawn to hospital volunteer work. That opened the door to my career change: I knew that I wanted to run something and what I wanted to run was a hospital. After a number of years in the hospital world, I now enjoy a closely related professional challenge in senior housing and long-term care.   Photo: Susan d'Olive Mozena
Susan d'Olive Mozena. Photo by Danny Bolin
 
             
 

My professional talents and experience lie in leading others to attain organizations' strategic objectives. My heart and faith have dictated that I do this in organizations such as Detroit Receiving Hospital and Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, whose missions are to care for people who are highly vulnerable.

At Presbyterian Villages of Michigan all that we do and our methods of serving are based on the Christian foundation of the organization: mission guided by Christian compassion, concern and stewardship, which provides seniors with quality services, care and housing. To be working in an intentionally faith-based organization, especially one related to my own church, is a wonderful, positive experience for me.

The term "servant leader" is perhaps used too casually in the corporate world. The image of Christ washing the feet of the disciples is far more profound and moving than anything I might do on a daily basis. My role as a senior manager is to make it possible for others to do their work, serving them appropriately so that they can serve our residents, their families and the greater community. In that way we will bear a strong witness to our faith, demonstrating Christ's love for work in our world.

—Susan d'Olive Mozena

 
             
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