“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,” said Michael Corleone in the movie “The Godfather Part III,” lamenting his return to the family business.

Susie Tack Beardsley of Prospect, too, returned to the family business she'd never planned to join.

But for Beardsley, partner and chief administrative officer at Quality Life Services, the decision has worked out well.

Being a part of her family's nursing home business has allowed Beardsley to help guide other health care providers in the region, to set an example for women in business and to contribute to the community beyond her work.

Beardsley, whose father, uncle and grandfather founded Quality Life Services, was raised in Chicora and graduated from Karns City High School in 1987. She then earned a degree in communications from Clarion University in 1990.

“I was going to do completely different things. I went to the South Hills of Pittsburgh and worked for a steel company for 10 years,” she said, describing her communications job with Tomsin Steel as a “catch-all position,” requiring her to perform a wide array of both internal and external communications tasks.

After a decade at Tomsin Steel, Beardsley worked for Meadowcrest, a personal care home in Bethel Park.

“When I graduated high school, I basically had two options with Quality Life: I could become a nurse, which I wasn't cut out for, or working in the accounting office. I didn't really feel like there were options for me, when the company was small, that would fit my skill set,” she said.

“But (while working at Meadowcrest), I started to think, 'Wait a minute. I'm already working in the nursing home business. So, it just ended up, 10 years out of college, I was led back into the Butler area and back to the family business.”

Still, Beardsley said she was not enthralled with the recruitment and retention director job she took with Quality Life Services in 2002.

“That was probably when the nursing shortage had reached its peak. My job was to retain the people we had and recruit for the positions we needed to fill. You try to attack it from a lot of different angles. You try to figure out what your competition is doing. Is the grass really greener over there? And how do you fertilize your own lawn?” she said.

“From there, it kind of evolved into a broader and more inclusive human relations role, including benefits management.”

In about 2010, Ken Tack Sr., Ken Tack Jr. and Philip Tack remained with the company, but day-to-day leadership of Quality Life Services passed to the next generation. Susie Tack Beardsley took over as CAO and her brother, Ken's son Steven Tack, took over as CEO. Philip's daughter, Mary Susan Tack Yurek, is chief quality officer.

As CAO, Beardsley oversees personnel and “all insurance, from employee benefits, to workers comp, general and professional liability (malpractice), property, auto ... We're insured out the wazoo,” she said.

However, as a partner, Beardsley must help lead a company running nine care facilities, plus a pharmacy, employing more than 1,000 people and, between skilled and personal care, caring for more than 1,082 individuals.

“It's a service that people don't ever want to need. You're not Disneyland, where people can't wait to go. A lot of people don't like the idea that they or a loved one will have to be in a nursing home,” she said.

“We're trying to change that culture to address a lot more of the holistic needs, not just the physical needs of our elders, making it more of an environment where they can go to live. I believe what really helps me is my faith and believing it's all in God's hands to begin with.”

Health care reform in the United States has made Beardsley's job even more difficult.

“Budget cuts continue to plague our industry, so we're always trying to do things smarter and more efficiently, without doing things cheaper. We have to make sure our quality of care never suffers from a reduced budget,” she said.

Of working with her family, Beardsley said, sometimes, good leadership means stepping aside and letting others do their jobs.

“In our case, we have found the things that work very well for our generation is transparency and communication. You make no assumptions; you talk about the hard stuff. We are always checking in with each other to make sure we're on the same page,” she said.

“With the three of us, (bad disagreements) just do not happen very often. We respect each others' expertise. You can't let your ego get in the way of what's best for the company.”

To better serve Quality Life Services, Beardsley participated in the Leadership Butler County program in 2007.

“(Through the program), I discovered how vibrant Butler County is, how many opportunities are here that I was not aware of, what a thriving community it is,” she said.

Beardsley's leadership class toured sites including Iron Mountain in Boyers, Butler County Community College, Marburger Dairy and several schools.

“Every day we had a class, I learned something different. It was an education every day,” she said.

The 2006-2007 LBC class project included raising money for the Butler Community Health Clinic, which opened back then, as well as helping build the children's play area in the facility.

Beardsley has translated that experience into a broader awareness of the community and her place within it.

She and her husband, Rick, who she married in 1995, volunteer at the schools of their children Danielle, 14, and Cole, 16. She also meets monthly with other businesswomen in the county and is co-chairman of the Butler County Health Care Consortium.

“It's an industry partnership under the Tri-County Workforce Investment Board,” Beardsley said of the consortium.

“It brings all different kinds of health care providers to the table to discuss everything from the challenges we face to organizing and putting together shared training.”

In the end, returning to the business she'd never dreamed of entering has worked out for Beardsley, ultimately giving her the opportunity to become a leader in her field and the community. And, like many good leaders, she spreads the credit around.

“(My brother, my cousin and I) had good teachers in our family. They instilled a good foundation, taught us to work hard, be ethical, not to take shortcuts,” Beardsley said.

“If you do the right thing, at the end of the day, hopefully, the results will be success.”

<b>Leadership is: </b> “God has given me certain gifts and He’s given others gifts, as well. As a leader, it’s my job to help people use and develop the gifts God has given them, and to find the best application of those gifts to benefit the company.”<b>Leader:</b> “I would say (Christian evangelist) Billy Graham. He just never compromised. He was able to lead a whole movement and he never compromised his values or his integrity and beliefs.”<b>Address: </b> Prospect<b>Family: </b> Husband Rick, daughter Danielle, 14, and son Cole, 16<b>Employment: </b> Partner and chief administrative officer<b>Company:</b> Quality Life Services, headquartered in Butler with nine locations throughout southwestern Pennsylvania<b>What company does: </b> Provides skilled and intermediate nursing, Alzheimer’s care, hospice, assisted and independent living, respite care and adult day care<b>Employees: </b> More than 1,000<b>Community leadership: </b> Butler County Health Care Consortium