Millie Oakeson is a native of Arizona, growing up in Scottsdale and attending Arcadia High School, Ricks College and Arizona State University. Her professional career spans over 25 years in leadership roles with Beverly Enterprises, St. Joseph’s Hospital, KTVK-TV3, Southwest Airlines, Sierra Pointe Senior Living, Belmont Village Senior Living as well as Friendship Retirement Corporation, Beatitudes Campus and currently Diamondback Health and Memory Care. In each of these diverse marketing roles Millie championed the management of corporate marketing responsibilities including community outreach, communication functions, brand management, digital marketing management, team building, media relations, advertising and the design of collateral material. While Millie has enjoyed all of the opportunities that have been a part of her professional journey her true passion is in healthcare working to create resources for an aging population that makes retirement a seamless process.
Early on in her career and while she was at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Millie had the opportunity to work with the Phoenix Fire Department, Phoenix Police, numerous non-profit organizations as well as athletic organizations on initiatives that were critical to the community at large. Phoenix Fire created “Just a Few Seconds,” for child drownings. Phoenix Police had “Project Graduation,” focused on drinking and driving. While at KTVK-TV3 Millie worked to produce at that time public service announcements, one that stands out to her mind was the instructional video produced to teach children when and how to call 911. Having the ability to promote and sponsor these amazing organization was stated to be a privilege.
While at Friendship Retirement Corporation Millie was asked to co-host a radio show that aired on KFNX called “Successful Aging,” weekly the show would dive into issues that affect an aging population. Aging successfully involves much more than what was originally thought when the show started. Millie and her producer would ask experts all across the Valley to offer ideas and suggestions on how listeners could live their best life and be happy doing it. The show acquired the most up-to-date information from doctors, lawyers, memory care specialists, Geriatric Care Managers, police and fire departments all in an effort to keep our aging population healthy and safe. It was a triumph; the show streamed live on Facebook and YouTube for three years and received several awards.
Within her field Millie is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, Women in Communications, Arizona Healthcare Association, LeadingAge and she sits on the board for Arizona Assisted Living Federation of America. Currently, as the Director of Marketing and Business Development her efforts are focused on the marketing and promotion of Diamondback Health and Memory Care a new 70-bed upscale post-acute rehabilitation and 24-bed skilled memory care facility in the west valley. There is so much that inspires Millie but first and foremost is her dedication to sustainability solutions in healthcare. Especially elder care. Millie states, she needs only to look at all the hard-working team of professionals she deals with every day in healthcare. “It is amazing to work in an industry where people not only believe passionately in what they do but also live with intense positivity and resilience.”