Kathryn Roberts had no background in animal science when she guided the Minnesota Zoo to national prominence. She wasn't a sports fan when she led the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission through threats to downsize the Minnesota Twins out of Major League Baseball.

Now Roberts, 53, is turning her entrepreneurial attention to another, unlikely purpose -- care and housing for the elderly at the 142-year-old nonprofit Board of Social Ministry based in Shoreview.

In her first 18 months on the job, Roberts has embarked on an ambitious program to tighten finances, expand the organization, turn an operating surplus -- the nonprofit term for profit -- and even change the group's name.

Starting today, the nonprofit is now called Ecumen.

"Our old name took some explaining -- a woman called me asking for help getting into a seminary -- and our new name will take some explaining, too," she acknowledged. Ecumen -- pronounced EK-umen -- is taken from the word "ecumenical" and its Greek root, oikos, meaning "home."

Most of the 4,233 people Ecumen serves with traditional housing and nursing care are in their 70s and 80s, but Roberts is focusing on people her own age as the organization charts a new course.

"Baby boomers live differently than our parents, and that won't change when we need help as we grow old," she said. "They will want much more individualized service," picking and choosing from a smorgasbord of help that might range from high-tech medical care to flexible housing where frail and healthy spouses can comfortably live in the same unit -- perhaps all in one complex of buildings, she added.

Although little known outside the long-term care industry, it is the fifth-largest nonprofit provider nationally of nursing home, housing and older adult services, mostly in rural Minnesota.

"Our whole industry of long-term care for older people is changing dramatically, and we're determined to be leading some of that change," Roberts said.

"We're expanding financially, physically and geographically, but we're also expanding our vision," said Roberts, who oversees 22 nursing homes and 55 housing facilities owned or managed by Ecumen.

Part of that new vision, she said, is to help older people get the kinds of services they want, delivered wherever they want them.

"Most people don't want to move. So how can we help them stay in their homes or apartments?" she said.

"And when they decide the time is right for assisted living, or even a nursing home, how can we help them with moving, with selling extra possessions, easing the transition? Maybe we can be a one-stop shop, either providing help directly or bringing in other specialists who can."

What Roberts brings to Ecumen, she said, "certainly isn't expertise in care of older people, and I'm not even a very good administrator -- we have a lot of good people who do that. What I bring is leadership. I help people dream bigger, aim higher and achieve more."

Since Roberts took over at the start of 2003, Ecumen has:

• Branched out into Wisconsin and Iowa, buying or managing five housing projects. It's looking at seven more, including one in Arizona.

• Formed a new for-profit consulting business in January, which is expected to generate $1 million in revenue helping nursing homes, housing projects and others to do everything from conduct market research to prepare for government inspectors.

• Focused on adding more senior housing to "rebalance" Ecumen's revenue. With the nursing home industry shrinking, she aims to reduce the nursing home share of revenue from 74 percent to 52 percent in five years.

• Begun creating measures of how well the non-profit is doing. One measure surveys employee satisfaction. Another being developed will find out if the residents of its nursing homes and housing complexes believe they have enough choices, and if not, what services to add.

• Set a goal of adding at least five new housing or nursing home facilities -- preferably buying them.

To help, she hired Steve Ordahl, a former aquarium manager and another novice in long-term care. Ordahl developed the aquarium at the Minnesota Zoo when Roberts was there, and most recently was executive director of the Underwater Adventures aquarium at the Mall of America.

He heads a six-person quick-response team that, after the initial paperwork, can swoop in to a facility that Ecumen might manage or buy, make a three-hour assessment and decide whether to proceed.

Before she came on board, Roberts said, the old Board of Social Ministry "had a good reputation among those who knew of us, and were certainly financially solvent. But the organization was ready for change.

"And that's what we're really about now, changing as our clients change," Roberts said. "I want to create housing and services that will attract me when I'm old."

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