For Mary Doezema, it's all about creating change. As Director of the Aging Institute of Michigan, a grass-roots, consumer-oriented,education and consulting organization, most of her time is spent advocating to enhance quality of life for older adults, families and caregivers. Her work centers on advocating for more walkable, rollable and strollable communities known as, Livable Communities. While this may sound age-specific, Doezema believes that Livable Communities actually promote lifestyle and community-wide benefits that help people of all ages and abilities. "After all, the same curb cut that helps the older adult with a walker or cane, helps the young mother with a stroller, the child with a big wheel, and the person with a wheelchair."

In 2005-06, the Aging Institute of Michigan was created to initiate, lead and complete the Traverse City Aging in Community Initiative based on the national AARP Livable Communities model. This initiative was a community-wide evaluation project that involved public and private sectors, local government, community leaders, volunteers and those who lived and worked in the greater Traverse City area. The purpose of the project, according to Doezema, was to help encourage Traverse City to take a new look at our community and neighborhoods in light of livability issues, identify unmet needs, and invest in creating long-term community-wide changes based on the evaluation and community input. (www.tlcsurvey.org) The Traverse City project and the Aging Institute of Michigan were nationally recognized in 2006 as Best in the Great Lakes Region at the National Grantmakers in Aging Conference held last fall in Wisconsin. (www.mihometown.org)

A key component of the Traverse City Aging in Community Initiative was a strong emphasis on partnering with business to accelerate change to better serve older adults in the marketplace while helping business to better connect with both boomers and their aging parents. Doezema calls this the "Senior Sensitive Marketplace.” She is currently developing an online, interactive educational series for individuals, businesses and corporations interested in increasing their awareness, readiness, and commitment to aging and age-related issues dominating today’s marketplace.

In addition to publishing the Senior Resource Guide & Compass across northern Michigan and the eastern Upper Peninsula, now in its 27th year of production, Mary Doezema is a speaker, community consultant, and advocate for livability issues. She often presents to neighborhood and community associations, local and state governmental bodies, a variety of state-wide collaborative boards as well as business organizations, higher-education, and non-profits about the challenges and rewards of engaging in meaningful, long-term change. She is also a frequent presenter at local and state conferences and events. Most recently, Doezema was a guest speaker at the 2007 Michigan Township Association Conference in Gaylord, the 2006 Back from the Beltway series that toured northern Michigan, the 2006 Michigan Rehabilitation Conference in Traverse City, and she is pleased to be a part of the 2007 Michigan Affordable Housing Conference in Lansing today.

Mary is an active member of the National Council on Aging and the American Society on Aging. Currently, Doezema is authoring a book based on the Traverse City livability project called,

P.E.A.K. Communities: A Transformational Approach to Sustainability