Care Professional of the Month

Jeanne was an Occupational Therapist for more than 24 years, and her highly successful career that included a generous daily mix of empathy and compassion was a perfect skill set when Jeanne transitioned to a Home Instead^® Care Professional position as a result of new family experiences and challenges.

“I worked as a full-time Occupational Therapist until my husband and I were incredibly blessed with our twin boys and beautiful daughter, all within a couple of years. We felt as if we had triplets because they were born in 2007 and 2008!” Jeanne recalled. “I was a busy stay-at-home mom during their preschool years and also worked part time as an Occupational Therapist.”

Her OT career and family caregiving responsibilities served Jeanne well when she began searching for a flexible employer and fulfilling work.  Jeanne explained: “I was caregiving for our little ones at home and caregiving for adults of all ages at rehabilitation centers, hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.”

Furthermore, Jeanne pointed out: “While working as an Occupational Therapist, I grew very fond of working with my geriatric patients because they reminded me of my parents. My OT background comes in handy when helping my Home Instead clients maintain their independence in their daily activities and routines.”

Home Instead^® Care Professional of the Month Amy Scott’s ears perk up when she hears her clients’ intriguing stories. Amy feels fortunate to tune into talking “history books,” especially when ex-military clients dust off their memorable moments. “I particularly like to listen to the stories when my veterans talk about their careers. My dad was in the Air Force for more than 20 years. Yes, I was a military brat,” Amy said with a smile. “In general, it is difficult to choose a favorite client story. They all have different needs and interesting life stories to share.”

To experience those warm, rewarding days with her Home Instead clients, it took a monumental shift in Amy’s work career. She entered professional senior care for the first time just over a year ago with the award-winning Home Instead franchise owned by Chase and Taylor Crenwelge, an office that serves Collin County, Texas, and is based in Plano.

“I spent 30 years in the transportation industry and was looking for something meaningful and more fulfilling while still working with people,” said Amy, who found Home Instead through her LinkedIn account and interviewed with several other companies before selecting Home Instead. 

Amy savors her Care Pro role, in which she lives Home Instead’s guiding principles by “Building Trust, Taking the Lead and Sharing Her Heart.” For Amy, touching lives impacts her soul, whether she is offering physical help such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders or personal care, or if she is extending emotional support in the form of companionship and empathy.

For as long as she can remember, Home Instead® Care Professional of the Month Janice Callahan has been drawn to seniors. Two memorable seniors who lived near Janice’s childhood home in Independence, Missouri, were retired U.S. President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess.

“I have four brothers, and we would walk past President Truman’s house from time to time. Bess Truman waved to us once as we ran home. When I was 8 or 9, I encountered President Truman at the mall, and of course the Secret Service was there. When I went to say hi, a Secret Service agent stopped me, but the president waved him off and graciously spoke briefly to me. I think he had recognized me from the neighborhood. He was a very personable man,” Janice recalled.

That’s one of Janice’s eye-opening stories, but she is far more interested in listening to seniors’ stories than telling hers. “I have always wanted to know about them and their histories. That is true with my Home Instead clients, too. I still have their stories in my heart, even from my former clients in Austin, Texas, when I worked for Home Instead there,” said Janice, who joined Home Instead of Collin County in Plano, Texas, on April 27, 2023. She was selected as Collin County’s Care Pro of the Month in July 2025 at the award-winning franchise owned by Chase and Taylor Crenwelge.

Janice previously worked for the two Austin-area Home Instead franchises from March 11, 2011, to March 30, 2014. Then Janice’s mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, came to live with Janice in Elgin, Texas, about 25 miles east of Austin. “When I worked for Home Instead in Austin, I worked mostly with Alzheimer’s clients. I would take the Alzheimer’s clients who were too hard for other Care Pros to handle. At night, I would pray to God about my client situation, and He would give me an answer for creating friendly diversions for the clients,” Janice said.

Growing up in a multi-generational family in Cambodia provided Sokkea “Sophia” Em with the opportunity to provide care for her grandparents at a young age, valuable experiences that Sophia has never forgotten. Those memorable learning episodes have served Sophia well as an award-winning Care Professional with Home Instead^® of Collin County in Plano, Texas.

“In my native country, we all have multi-generational homes in which the children help their parents take care of their grandparents and sometimes great-grandparents. We all lived together. I helped with the care of my grandparents. Then, later, I helped take care of my father, who battled cancer for three years before he passed away in 1997 at age 49. I was just 14 or 15 years old at the time,” Sophia recalled. “I have four brothers – no sisters – and was the second-oldest child. I helped my parents with my younger siblings.”

Sophia’s mother is 76 years old and still lives in Cambodia, but Sophia’s family caregiving hasn’t ended. “I have an 81-year-old uncle who lives in McKinney, which is a 15-mile drive from my home, and I help him when I can. For example, in addition to other forms of care, I drive him to physical therapy,” said Sophia, who moved to America in 2011.

Home Instead^® Care Professional of the Month Ella Sydnor will never forget a treasured moment with a memorable client. “Toward the end of her life,” Ella recalled, “I’d ask her if she recognized me. She always said, ‘You’re my baby.’ I loved that term of endearment. One day I brought her flowers and took a picture of her with them. I’ll have that photo forever. She had a sharp mind until the final couple of weeks, when she was on hospice.”

Ella added: “The client was awesome, and she was the oldest client I’ve helped. I had assisted her from the early part of 2022 until four or five days before her 101st birthday, when she passed away later that year. She shared so much wisdom. She was so positive. She had such a great attitude.”

Ella’s client was a high school teacher, and her husband was a college instructor. She loved teaching, was passionate about education and had compassion for others. “Originally from Louisiana, my client talked about watching the return of military members from the Vietnam War. As an educator, among the things she did was help the soldiers who had PTSD,” Ella explained.

Life’s travels took the client across the country. The client had lived in California before moving to Arizona, where she also had been assisted by Home Instead Care Pros. Referring to Collin County, Texas, where Ella worked for the award-winning Home Instead franchise in Plano, she said: The client had moved here to be closer to family members. We became part of her family.”

One of Home Instead® Care Professional of the Month Leona Dickens’ greatest senior-care experiences lasted 12 years, about 11½ years longer than a medical professional had predicted. Leona hadn’t been working for Home Instead at the time – she was embracing her fulfilling role as a family caregiver. “I was taking care of my darling mother,” Leona said.

“My mother has gone on to be with the Lord,” Leona said. “Following my mother’s original diagnosis, her doctor had sent her home into my care with a three-to-six-month window of life. With God’s help, a lot of tender, loving care and my spouse’s assistance, my mother’s window of life expanded to 12 years. My mother’s daily expressions of gratitude for her quality of life brought much joy and peace to our home.”

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Leona later joined Home Instead of Collin County, Texas, where the award-winning franchise operates from an office in Plano. Chase and Taylor Crenwelge are the franchise co-owners. Leona said: “I began my employment with Home Instead in December 2020. I had just moved from California to Texas after retiring from a very wonderful career of 23 years as an office manager of a physical therapy clinic. I have worked in the medical field, in different services, for 40-plus years.”

Leona added: “My life has been one of serving others as the need is presented to me. Home Instead has allowed me to continue in that vein of servanthood. They have given me new tools and professional senior-care techniques to stay current in our ever-changing field.”

The near-fatal car accident occurred decades before Karen Brown became a Home Instead® Care Professional. But she still remembers how her own caregiver impacted her life.

“At age 18, I was ejected from a car during a horrific accident, resulting in a traumatic brain injury and requiring 26 facial reconstruction surgeries,” Karen explained. “I don’t remember the caregiver’s name, but I remember she was so kind and gentle, with a quiet, sensitive presence. I wish I had been able to interact with her, and I think of her often. I feel her spirit as I go about my caregiving.”

Drawing on the strength of her unknown caregiver who helped in Karen’s life-changing comeback, she serves others as an award-winning Care Pro for owner Todd Felker’s Home Instead franchise that assists seniors in Collin County, Texas. Karen’s journey to Home Instead included an intense experience as a family caregiver, ironically the result of a car accident.

“For four years,” Karen recalled, “I cared for my husband throughout the aftermath of a broken neck suffered in a crash. He spent all four years at home before he passed away in 1996. He had four vertebra fusion surgeries, but ultimately died from the effects of a powerful painkiller that had been widely used in the 1990s. At the time, as I was taking care of my husband, I also was being a mom and working in accounting when possible.”

Mission. … Purpose. … Destiny. Gwendolyn Brown had been searching for the right job during her life’s journey, and she believes she’s found it with Home Instead^® of Collin County, Texas, an award-winning franchise owned by Todd Felker. Gwendolyn confirmed: “Basically working with Home Instead to be there for my clients is my calling.”

“My story behind going to work for Home Instead is centered on my dream of helping others. I’ve always wanted to help others and be a positive influence in the lives of others. Home Instead presented me with the ability to accomplish those goals,” said Gwendolyn, who discovered Home Instead while combing the internet for a job that matched her personality.

Gwendolyn’s background includes jobs as a Certified Nursing Assistant and caregiver. In many ways, she had been equipped to handle those jobs and her Care Professional position with Home Instead because of having shepherded her brothers and sisters. “My experience as a family caregiver came from being the eldest of eight kids. Growing up, I had the responsibility of looking after my siblings while my parents were working,” Gwendolyn explained.

When Selam “Sal” Abai joined Home Instead® of Collin County, Texas, last summer, she’d returned to the workforce after a 6½-year absence during which she had stayed home with her two young children. When she went online to search for her first U.S. job, Sal clicked on “caregiver.” With Home Instead, the position is called “Care Professional.” It turned out that Sal and Home Instead were a great match.

Sal was “a home-run hire,” earning the Home Instead franchise’s Care Pro of the Month just months later. Sal explained: “I had done this kind of work when I lived in the United Kingdom, where I was an experienced caseworker in a 24-person private care community. Some of the residents had dementia, while others had cancer or other chronic conditions. I am a college graduate, but I was in an entirely different field. I happened to like the caseworker job.”

Sal’s elder-care experiences actually had extended back even further. As a 16-year-old, Sal had helped take care of her great-grandparents. “I was comfortable around seniors,” she said.

When Home Instead Care Pro Advocate Amanda Ross heard about Sal’s entire background during the job interview, Amanda immediately knew she had a gem. Among Sal’s many senior-care skills, she knew how to handle a Hoyer lift. Sal’s valuable experiences dovetailed nicely with the needs of the award-winning franchise’s clients.

As far as one of the Home Instead^® clients was concerned, Valarie Dominguez was The One.

In June, the client asked Valarie if she had a passport. “Yes,” Valarie said, “but I wasn’t sure if it had expired. The client’s daughters had planned a cruise, and the client wanted to go. She told Valarie, “The only way I can go is if you accompany me and take care of me.”

As soon as Valarie returned home, she looked for the passport and indeed found it had expired a month earlier. “When I went back to work with her,” Valarie recalled, “I explained the situation and told her that she should ask one of her other Care Pros if they could go with her.”

The client’s reply? She emphatically said no.

Valarie added: “She said I was the only one who she wanted to take. As the months passed, my client’s health declined and she just recently passed away. She will always have a special place in my heart and will be greatly missed, but I know I made a difference in her life. She was happy those last five months I worked with her. And, for that, I am grateful,” said Valarie, who was honored as the October Care Pro of the Month. In May, she joined owner Todd Felker’s Home Instead franchise that serves Collin County from its office in Plano.

Julie Bang has a formal education in the caregiving field as well as more than five years of experience as a family caregiver. She brought both assets to Home Instead^® of Collin County, Texas, in September 2023 when she became a Care Professional. One year later, Julie was selected as the award-winning franchise’s Care Pro of the Month.

While announcing Julie’s honor, Home Instead Care Pro Advocate Amanda Ross said: “Julie gets great compliments from her clients. She displays Home Instead’s guiding principles of ‘Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.’ For this award, an employee has shown she has gone above and beyond the call of duty.”

During the summer of 2023, Julie’s husband took a new job in Texas, so their family moved from Kansas to Texas. While Julie was looking for a job, owner Todd Felker’s award-winning Home Instead franchise in Plano contacted Julie after seeing her résumé on a job website.