Susan Hornfeld, chief executive officer of Michigan Ability Partners, wants to create programs that are “transformational” for her  clients.

MAP is a nonprofit agency that helps people with varying levels of disability.

She has been with MAP since it was founded in 1984, though she was working in the background without an official title for the first few years. Then, in 1992, she left her position with Washtenaw County Mental Health to serve as half-time director of MAP. The program grew quickly, and she became its full-time CEO less than a year later.

Since then, Hornfeld has led MAP through changes and expansions in the range of services it offers, though the focus remains primarily on helping homeless disabled clients and veterans find housing and jobs. Over time, Hornfeld said, MAP has developed a strong emphasis on helping clients become self-sufficient, and the agency itself is also trying to become more self-sufficient.

“It’s easy to do everything for (our clients),” she said. However, if they aren’t empowered to make lasting changes in their own lives, they will end up going through many of the difficulties with unemployment and homelessness that brought them to MAP in the first place, she said.

MAP has had to transform over time as well: seeking new sources of grant money, developing new programs and partnerships, and finding ways to fund its housing programs in an economy that has been hard on for-profit and nonprofit businesses alike.

For instance, the agency was able to combine two causes — employment and housing — by training MAP clients in construction skills, giving them paid work building affordable housing and then allowing some of those clients to live in the housing they built with their own hands. Rent money, in turn, pays for more MAP programming, “part of our self-sufficiency plan,” Hornfeld said.

The agency is also taking advantage of booming interest in “green” matters by using eco-friendly elements in those housing units and developing a program — in partnership with Recycle Ann Arbor — to train MAP clients to do home energy audits.

Hornfeld genuinely enjoys her job and said she was startled when an acquaintance said she felt sorry that Hornfeld had to work with “those people.”

“But I really admire the people we work with,” Hornfeld said. “It’s a privilege to work with them.”

Background

Age: Age is relative.

Education: Master’s degree in counseling /social work.

Family: Roy and Baylee and me.

Residence: Ypsilanti.

Business Insights

Best business decision: To leave a county job for a half-time job at a new nonprofit making half the salary.

Worst business decision: I’m thinking …

Best way to keep a competitive edge: Partner with great people and make sure that together you pull off something spectacular every now and then.

Personal hero: Steve Martin — he is a creative genius but is not too serious about it.

How do you motivate people? By encouraging people to think and live outside the box .

What advice would you give to yourself in college? For every hour of work, play two.

Word that best describes you: Creative.

First website you check in the morning: E-mail.

Confessions

What keeps you up at night? Work. There are not enough hours in a day.

Pet peeve: A “can’t do”attitude.

Guilty pleasure: Thursday night TV — “Grays Anatomy” and “Private Practice.”

First job: Peach sorter #3 on an orchard assembly line.

First choice for a new career: Staging houses for sale — interior design.

Treasures

Favorite cause: Animal welfare — dogs rule!

Favorite book: I read a lot and am always discovering new favorites.

Favorite movie: “Love Actually.”

Favorite hobby: Stories — reading and writing.

Favorite restaurant: Rattlesnake Club.

LinkedIn, Face book or Twitter? Too much information.

Typical Saturday: Looking for the perfect sale.

What team do you root for? I am definitely Team Jennifer … Oh wait, did you mean sports?

Wheels: I am waiting for my hybrid Mustang convertible .

Who would play you in a movie? I love many movies, but if I could step into one, it would be Mama Mia — “It’s all soooo Greek.”

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at sarahrigg@yahoo.com.