Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News are profiling the McKnight’s 2021 Women of Distinction honorees daily July 6 through Aug. 9. To see the 2021 McKnight’s 2021 Women of Distinction awards ceremony, register for free here. For additional profiles of McKnight’s Women of Distinction, visit this page.

Mary Sue Patchett headshot
Mary Sue Patchett

From candy striper to senior living executive to owner of a senior living consulting firm, Mary Sue Patchett has a lot of accomplishments. And for the past several years, she’s been an executive at a company she’s been passionately putting time and effort toward for years.

Patchett is the executive vice president of strategic operations at Brentwood, TN-based Brookdale Senior Living, the United States’ largest senior living company. Previous titles there include vice president of community operations, division president of the Southeast division and divisional vice president.

Patchett also previously served in multiple positions at one of Brookdale’s acquisitions, Horizon Bay Retirement Living. Among these posts are chief operating officer and senior vice president of operations. She also worked in leadership positions for Alterra Senior living and Sunrise Senior Living. Before that, she was the owner and president of Patchett & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in senior living that she founded. 

Patchett has been an effective leader, according to her colleagues at Brookdale. She was part of the team that created the Assisted Living Federation of America, now known as Argentum, and established Florida’s chapter of the association. Patchett also was a founding faculty member of the ALFA Institute, created to educate administrators, and she recently concluded a three-year term on the Argentum Board of Directors.

A key advocate for culture change in long-term care, Patchett helped change the terminology of “homes for the aged” to assisted living. She has received numerous accolades for her expertise in the industry. For helping establish Argentum’s Florida chapter, she won the ALFA’s Horace D’Angelo Jr. Memorial Award. She has also won the Florida Assisted Living Association’s Outstanding Leadership and Service Award, among other recognition.

Serving as a mentor to others is a passion for her, and she believes in community. Patchett is active with Soroptimist, a global volunteer organization working to provide women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. She also is a past Business and Professional Women’s Foundation member and chapter president.

The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. The program’s Diamond sponsor is PointClickCare, and the Roundtable Sponsor is Paycor.