recognizing and celebrating the dedicated leaders who make a difference in our senior community

Jessica Sullivan likes to joke that she started working at the Arizona Pioneers’ Home when she was 9. Her mom was a registered nurse there, and Jessica would help out and visit with the residents. This early experience convinced her to train as a certified nursing assistant. She joined the staff at the Arizona Pioneer’s Home, where she’s continued to build her career over the last 25 years. Five years ago, she was appointed by then-governor Doug Ducey to her current role as the superintendent. “It feels like a Cinderella story that Arizona took a chance on me,” she says of her role leading such a historic facility. Built 115 years ago to support disabled miners and early pioneers of the state, it grew from housing 40 men, to adding a 20-bed women’s wing a few years later, and now can care for up to 125 residents. To earn a room at the Arizona Pioneers’ Home, you need to either be a miner or have spent a cumulative 50 years living in Arizona. Some historic figures have lived there, including Big Nose Kate and Sharlot Hall. “I like to call it Arizona’s oldest love story,” Jessica says. “It was built before we even became a state.