Home Care Team in San Diego, CA

​Melissa Leon is our General Manager and fearless leader. She has successfully directed and coordinated all activities for the franchise for the past 5 years. Under her leadership, we have seen enormous revenue growth and development of our business. Her achievements come from her service-oriented, joyful heart, and her genius for motivating the Key Players within our office. Her passionate drive and skill for problem-solving motivate her to create profitable solutions and generate innovative ideas. Her heart for people, the Lord, and her work is evident in how she manages our Franchise 158. When she is not generating new opportunities for our business’s development, you can find her spending time with her large family, being Nana to 3 beautiful grandchildren, or enthusiastically hunting for new treasure at local estate sales.

​Tim Norris is the Community Liaison and Home Care Consultant for our office. Tim establishes strong work relationships with clients, the public, and local organizations. His successes have been instrumental to our location’s development. His gregarious nature and influential work ethic solidify his importance to our team. He productively invests his time in the office and enjoys contributing to the Home Instead Big Picture. When Tim is not dedicating his drive to our Franchise, you can find him dedicating time to his family, roasting mallows at a nightly family bonfire, or Penny-Boarding Carlsbad Village with his friends.

​Wade Curry is the Caregiver Administration Assistant in our office. Wade ensures that Caregivers’ certifications, insurances, and other documentation are kept current. A former caregiver himself, Wade is great in his role as a ‘master of ceremonies’ for client to caregiver introductions.  Wade illustrates the honor and integrity of Home Instead. He appreciates Biblical values and knows those values are an advantage to the Caregiving culture.  When Wade is not focusing on his duties at the office, you can find him imparting individualized insight to his family of seven, pastels or painting, or planning a fishing weekend to picturesque places, like the Eastern Sierras. 

​Robin Kennedy is our Training & Engagement Coordinator. She utilizes her previous experience as a Caregiver and San Diego Hospice volunteer to connect with our caregivers and help them understand they are a vital part our company. Her dedication to Caregiver inspiration and engagement results in our Caregivers providing the most professional, caring service to our clients. When Robin is not mindfully connecting with our Caregivers, you can find her using her inventive mind to create jewelry and paintings, enjoy time with her dog, or travel to exciting places. 

Hemi Jeong serves as the Office Coordinator. Hemi served as a CAREGiver with Home Instead for almost 1 year before joining us in the office. Previously, she has worked in the fashion industry for about 10 years as an assistant fashion designer, technical designer, design room coordinator, fashion stylist, production coordinator, and visual merchandiser. In those positions, Hemi worked with vendors and manufacturers, overseas and domestic. She was the liaison between sales teams, buyers, designers, sewing houses, dye houses, and fabric vendors. Oftentimes, she was thrown in the mix, having to take on new and challenging tasks without much training or even no training at all. Communication was a key skill- being able to write, speak, and listen clearly and effectively is always critical. All of these previous experiences have helped her in her current position as Office Coordinator with Home Instead. Her keen attention to detail and love of meeting new people has helped her to share her heart, not only with sweet senior clients, but also with fellow colleagues and anyone reaching out to the Home Instead office over the phone. Always with a smile on her face, Hemi truly enjoys helping people and providing support to those who need it. If Hemi is not at work, you can find her enjoying the outdoors, traveling (before Covid), cooking, and reading.

​Pamela Boswell gives our franchise a competitive advantage in her role as the Recruitment Coordinator. Her exceptional organization skills and attention to detail enable office life to run smoothly and all others to perform at their best. She is known for her welcoming spirit and is the first face seen when you walk in our office doors. When Pam is not answering phone calls or bettering the work environment, you can find her spending time with her husband at the beach or enjoying the many hiking trails in San Diego.

Sonia serves as the Marketing Coordinator for Home Instead San Diego. She enriches our online presence through social media, digital marketing communication, and website content development. She found out about Home Instead after her college graduation from Mr. Baker. She knew this would be a great opportunity to apply her marketing knowledge and serve aging adults, like her beloved grandparents. Her passion for Home Instead shows through her desire to depict Home Instead online as it is portrayed in person: a company that truly cares. When she is not enhancing our online presence, you can find her surfing at La Jolla shores, doing yoga on Pacific Beach bluffs, or hanging out with her friends and family.

​Dianna Hillaker is our office Service Manager. Multitalented, Dianna oversees the staffing department, CAREGiver and client scheduling, as well as finances and Long-Term Care Claims. Her wealth of knowledge stems from her previous experience working in the areas of After-Hours support, Staffing, and Recruitment. She welcomes daily the opportunity to work for a respecting, caring, God-fearing and people-loving corporation like Home Instead Senior Care. When she is not devoting her purpose-driven work ethic in our office, you can find her devoted to her family, or to attending Hill Country Community Church or braving the early mornings at Planet Fitness.

​Mary Cortez is our Lead Service Coordinator. She works daily with our CAREgivers and Clients to keep the ongoing schedule running smoothly and flawlessly. She also enjoys building and creating the schedules for our new CAREgivers and Clients. She can honestly say that she loves what she does. She enjoys finding the best way to effectively use her heart to serve in order to best care for our seniors and provide support to their families. With her strategic planning and resourcefulness, she solves the puzzle of staffing and scheduling to provide the best solution to the schedule’s constantly moving pieces. Her ability to maintain calm in high stress situations and adapt to sudden changes with effective solutions gives her the title of our scheduling wizard. When Mary is not working her magic in our office, you can find her hanging out with her best friends, enjoying time with her family, or proving to be a fierce teammate and opponent in her coed softball and dodgeball teams.

​Ruby Magana operates as our Service Coordinator. She started with our Franchise as a Caregiver and after 5 years, came into our office. Her kind-hearted knack for scheduling and handling the difficulties of staffing make her successful in her position. She has always had a desire to serve seniors. She loves keeping them company and sharing in the family’s precious moments. That desire translates into her work. She always goes the extra mile to assure the Client’s family that they have the Home Instead family to rely on now, so that they can enjoy being family members and let Home Instead do the caretaking. Her family-oriented, dedicated approach translates well in work as her role as mom, master craftswoman, or completing a complex knitting project. 

​Kristen Garcia is our office’s Client Care Manager. Kristen serves to create quality and personalized experiences for our clients and their families. Her daily tasks consist of quality assurance visits, introducing Caregivers to Clients, and creating trusting relationships. Kristen understands the importance of meeting people where they are. She is perceptive and modifies our service care plan to best support the on-going needs of the clients so they can improve and enhance their quality of life. Kristen is a Certified Nursing Assistant and uses these skills to recognize needs in our clients and find valuable, lasting solutions. When she is not using her ingenious to improve the well-being of our clients, you can find her travelling, dancing, spending time with her family, or bonding with her fur baby. 

​LaTasha Haynes is the Client Care Coordinator in our office. As a former Caregiver, LaTasha recognizes the importance of building great relationships with Clients and their families. She uses this insight to recruit quality Caregivers, create new community partnerships, and recruit new staff who share our vision and values. She exemplifies the compassion and values of Home Instead while conducting personal care training and being a supportive team member for Caregivers. When she is not engaging the community or being diligent within our office, you can find her engaging in family time at the beach with her kids or delighting in being a much-loved grandma.

Candis Johnson serves as our Client Care Coordinator and On-Call Coordinator. As Client Care Coordinator, she provides quality assurance calls, reaching out to Clients and their families to address concerns and provide resources as needed. As On-Call Coordinator, she serves as after-hours staff on weekends- addressing scheduling needs for Clients and CAREGivers. She began her interest in aging adult care when she began working at an assisted-living facility in high school as kitchen staff. From there she turned toward residential care services and her passion for becoming a CAREGiver sparked. Since then, she has experience as a Certified Nurse’s Assistant, patient care in the hospital, as well as being a CAREGiver before joining our office staff. If she is not joyfully fielding phone calls, you can find her home with her family, at a game night, or lounging with her pets.

Joyce Shepard is our On-Call Coordinator & Office Assistant. She first started serving seniors as a Certified Nursing Assistant and PT aid for 35 years in the state of Rhode Island. After she retired from work in Rhode Island in 2012, she moved to San Diego to start working for Home Instead. She loves how Home Instead makes it possible for her to be there for her clients. She is known for being there for not just her client’s needs but also their heart, listening to them, and listening to our CAREGivers whenever they place a call. Her hard work and dedication are apparent in the office, from her attention to clients’ needs in detail, even to her organization of the filing cabinets. If she were not at work, you can find her spending time with her grandkids as Grandma GG or finding a great bargain at Ross, Hobby Lobby, or the local shopping malls.