Crain’s Detroit Business has named Patricia Benner, vice president of operations at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, among the “notable women in HR” for 2019.

The business magazine noted:

Patricia Benner’s ever-increasing competence and capacity for high-level work are the primary reasons Mackinac Center for Public Policy promoted her to vice president of operations.

She has been integral to the development of the center’s mission and vision statements and in ensuring staff reconnect with that vision as a team or in collaboration with trainers and consultants.

Further, Benner conceived of and implements the center’s robust hiring process and developed targeted training opportunities for staff members.

Benner has worked at the Mackinac Center, based in Midland, for more than 15 years. She has over 20 years of accounting and management experience with a variety of companies, ranging from small businesses to a Fortune 500 firm. She has experience in virtually every aspect of accounting and helped manage audits from the Internal Revenue Service, the Michigan Department of Treasury and various private accounting firms.

Benner has a master of business administration degree from Saginaw Valley State University, where she graduated with honors, and she earned her undergraduate degree from Northwood University. She has taught principles of economics as an adjunct instructor for SVSU, and she has been an adjunct business instructor at Delta College.

“The only thing better than getting professional development is knowing that everyone who works for you is getting it too. Pat Benner saw a need for customized professional development on our staff. So, she created a program and made sure that all of our colleagues have access to it,” Joseph Lehman, president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told Crain’s.

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