MOUNT VERNON — Michelle Engelbach is ready to hand off her CEO title at the Ohio Eastern Star Home after more than four decades caring for elders.
But “retirement” isn’t quite the right word for what comes next.
“I can’t leave; I just can’t leave,” she said with a laugh. “I can leave the role of CEO, but I still want to stay involved in some way in what’s going on.”
When you ask Engelbach what she considers her biggest achievement, she does not hesitate: 43 years of loving what she does.
“It’s not a job,” she said. “I love what I do.”
“Those of you that work with me and have been around me long enough will know that one of the first things that I always say is family first.”
Michelle Engelbach, former CEO Ohio Eastern Star Home
Engelbach admitted that if it were not for her husband, Mark, and grandchildren, she would likely keep going another 10 years. However, she said it is “time to switch from being CEO to being Nan and Princess Grandma.”
“They live very close to me, and I feel like it would be awful to not take advantage of that,” she said of her granddaughters. “So many people aren’t blessed that way; their grandchildren are so far away.”
Engelbach’s tenure at OESH included a one-hour commute each way, which she calls good thinking time. She said staff have learned to expect a phone call mid-drive that starts with, “So I’ve been thinking…”
Building community, not just care
Among Engelbach’s proudest accomplishments is Pine Hill, a project she describes as her dream. She is determined to see it through to completion even as she steps back from day-to-day leadership.
Pine Hill sits alongside another achievement close to her heart: A broader push to move senior care away from rigid, institutional routines and toward something that feels like home.
“There’s a movement and a philosophy that so many nursing homes are institutions,” she explained.
Staff often wake residents on a schedule and assign specific shower days. Residents are expected to follow rules that feel more suited to an institution than a home.
“They always took a bath at home in the evening, but now we’re saying, no. Tuesdays at 7 a.m., that’s when you shower. Why?” Engelbach asked.
Changing that paradigm meant retraining staff who had themselves been conditioned by institutional habits. Engelbach said the philosophy is simple: If a resident wants an evening bath every night, she gets an evening bath every night.
Families are asked about routines, daily rituals, and what matters most to their loved one. Staff members build those details into each resident’s life, including bringing in their own furniture and photos.
“That’s what it should be,” she said.
Engelbach is proud of the “neighborhoods” model OESH has embraced, which creates a community home for seniors with increased opportunities for socializing and fellowship.
What comes next
As for the road ahead, Engelbach and her husband will soon take off on a cross-country summer trip. She plans to stay connected to work along the way, although she’s candid about being torn on how much connection is too much.
As Engelbach reflected on her career, she returned again and again to gratitude.
“I just feel so blessed and so grateful to have been able to do these things,” she said. “I’m not that smart. I’m not any of those things. I just want people to be happy, and I want to do the right thing. And that has a way of working out.”
As she steps back from her CEO role, Engelbach summed up her feelings with a Winnie the Pooh quote:
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
A change in leadership
Engelbach’s last full-time day was July 2. She marked the transition with a small reception with family, co-workers, and residents.
Referencing Engelbach and Ohio Eastern Star Home’s legacy to the community, Mount Vernon Mayor Matt Starr said the community sees the milestones and anniversaries. However, what really gets things done is what he calls the quiet work.
“It’s the behind the scenes, it’s the planning, it’s the meetings, it’s the sweating, it’s the agonizing and all of the things that happened in order to get to a place where you see the accomplishments and you see the impact on this community and what Eastern Star has done under Michelle’s leadership,” he said.
Engelbach joined Ohio Eastern Star Home in 2012 as interim CEO, but the title was soon made official.
“The more I got to know the staff, the more I got to know the residents, the more I could see the heart of this community, the heart of the staff, the heart of the residents. And that’s what spoke to me,” she said. “I didn’t have any vision when I got here. I just saw heart.”
Engelbach said it was a dream to see Pine Hill come to life.
“But the bigger dream is whenever I get the chance to talk to all of you that live here. That’s what fulfills my heart. Because you all are so happy you are building your own community,” she told the residents.
Nathaneal “Blu” Johnson took the reins as administrator on July 3.
“I am confident that he’s the right person for the job,” Engelbach said.
“I am confident he will continue with the vision, and that he will continue to do everything the way it can and should be done for this community.”
(Below are Cheryl Splain’s photos from the reception.)
