Pat Sussman recognized the importance of integrating social and medical services in a very personal way after the death of her daughter Sarah from Sudden Infant Death. At the age of 40, she returned to school in nursing and, later, earned a master's in organizational behavior. In the decades that followed, she served the aging veterans in a VA Emergency Room, Alzheimer's patients in skilled nursing facilities and terminally ill patients on hospice. She has been championing the cause of older Americans for decades, inspired by her deep belief in the necessity of integrating home and community-based services with medical services for all people, especially as they age.

In late 2006, Patricia Sussman and several friends and neighbors sat in a living room discussing the aging of their parents and how they themselves wanted to age. She never dreamed that that casual discussion would later blossom into Ashby Village, a thriving San Francisco East Bay “village” based on Boston's Beacon Hill model.

Designed to enable elders to continue living independently in their homes, the village she co-founded now boasts 270 members, 40% of whom are also among the 170 volunteers who do everything from driving members to the supermarket or doctor to helping weed a garden, solve a technology problem or change a light bulb.

It's a three-year-old grassroots, member-based, one-stop-shopping organization that continues to astonish Pat herself. "Look at what happened," she says. "It's a living, breathing community!"

After years as a hospice volunteer, she became Director of VNA and Hospice of Northern California, working with a team of nurses, social workers, chaplains and doctors to meet the complex needs of dying patients and their families. Her hospice work, she says, was "one of the biggest gifts for me. That's where I learned the ability to be with people."

Later, Pat became Chief Operating Officer of Lifelong Medical Care, a group of community health centers founded by the Gray Panthers to care for the underserved. She was recruited for the position after years as a member of the board which she rejoined after leaving the staff. For the past decade she has had the unique opportunity to work as a consultant for Contra Costa County helping design programs allowing frail seniors and people with disabilities to remain in their homes.

At the age of 75, two years after officially "retiring," Pat continues to volunteer 24/7 for Ashby Village, swims almost every morning and meets with her book group to feed her passion for reading. A mother of three daughters, she and her husband of 42 years relish their time with their seven grandchildren, whose photos line the walls of their home. She's an elder who's founded her life and career on the principle that people matter.