Meet Our Team

Therese Zdesar, RN, BSN, is the president and owner of QualCare, LLC, dba Home Instead Senior Care. She is a graduate of the University of Akron College of Nursing and previously worked as an RN with seniors and in administration The MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio.

She has a deep passion and love for serving seniors and credits her experience living with and caring for her grandmother as the heart of her beliefs. In 2001, Therese opened QualCare, LLC, a Northeast Ohio based home care company that assists older adults with private duty care at home. Over the past two decades, she and QualCare, LLC have been the recipients of over fifty professional and business awards, including being named by Inc. magazine to its prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America. She was named a top 10 Women Business Owner of Northeast Ohio and her business has been recognized for strong organizational culture of family and significant community philanthropic involvement.

Therese is passionate about being a servant leader and has served on several boards including The United Way, The Children's Museum of Cleveland, and the Chagrin Athletic Association. Therese and her husband Joe, a captain on the Cleveland Fire Department, and are the proud parents of five children and are licensed foster parents. She is an active speaker on issues such as senior care, successful aging, leadership and organizational culture. Therese is also an author of the book, 'Perspectives" in which she discusses the importance of a strong organizational culture.

Therese and her team are passionate about serving each senior and their families with personalized and compassionate care. They are proud to be recognized as a local employer of choice.  

Joan is the Executive Director at Home Instead and loves helping people fulfill their dreams and goals and holding onto what they value the most to give them the meaning and purpose of their daily living. She has spent much of her career in the Senior Care industry, gaining experiences in areas such as building relationships and resources to help bring more meaning and better quality of care to the Seniors of her community. While daily operations of the business are her primary job functions by day, Joan also enjoys spending time with her family and friends, her pets, and she is a true fan of the Cleveland Indians. Joan is experienced in all phases of Senior Care and has developed strong relations with supportive services to bring the best care available. In addition to her primary job functions, Joan has been recognized by those around her for the passion she has for seniors and for those who care for them. Joan’s passion for Seniors can be traced back to 1998, where she spent significant time working on Affordable Housing for Seniors and advocated for their rights to have nice communities to live in, affordable medication, and meal programs. As a Senior Housing Manager, she specialized in making sure the seniors had fair housing while finding the resources for the seniors and educating seniors on their rights and what was available them.
Joan loves to travel. Within the 48 states, Joan has been to all of them except Washington and Idaho. Joan has lived in several cities within the United States and values that experience. She loves animals and lives on a small farm, in the home and community that she grew up. She is married to her childhood sweetheart. Joan’s bucket list includes overseas travel to Ireland and Scotland where her descendants are from.
Joan has been with Home Instead for 13 years. Each day, it is important to Joan that we are making a difference in the lives of our Seniors. To see the positive changes that Home Instead CAREGivers give to their clients and to see the senior’s health improve warms her heart. Every day, each employee can end their day saying they made a difference today. Together, we all take the lead and serve with trusted expertise from the Heart.

Mercedes Morley is the Director of Human Resources at Home Instead. She knew at a young age that she wanted to work in the medical field or have a career helping people. Before Home Instead, she spent her entire career as a Medical Assistant while also having experience in phlebotomy and management of a physician's office. She is very passionate about taking care of people and doing what she can to make a difference in their lives. She has always been recognized as someone people can count on and go to for support and help.  
Outside of work, she's a mother to four children whom she loves spending time with, along with her fiancé, the rest of her family, and friends. She also loves playing games, crafting, and music. Her goals at Home Instead are to give great support everywhere it is needed, to help our Caregivers succeed with our seniors, and to feel the love and care of being part of our Home Instead family. 

Paula is the Care Manager at Home Instead. Her love for the medical field started when she was 16, helping to take care of her grandma.  Her grandma always encouraged her to reach her goals, so she joined the fire department and graduated college with a medical assisting degree.  Paula is a retired Fire Captain with 28 years of service and still an active volunteer.  She is also a Chaplin and serves as a Youth Director with her husband at her church.  Caring for people, especially seniors, has always been a passion of hers.
When not helping seniors in her community, she enjoys the outdoors and spending time with her two daughters and her husband of 26 years. 
Her motto to live by is “Life is journey we are given by God, love each day with grace and endurance”. Paula's goals at Home Instead are to ensure that each senior feels loved, appreciated, and valued and that their families have the satisfaction of knowing there loved one is in trusted hands.  

Heather is the Service Manager at Home Instead. She comes from an extensive background in hospitality management, with a bachelor's degree in food and nutrition. Her career started in 2005 as a Catering Coordinator and worked her way up to Senior Sales Manager. She was a member of Experience Columbus and MPI Ohio Chapter, very active on both boards. She holds her Certified Tour Ambassador, Vendor Hotel Champion, and the highly respected Certified Meeting Professional certifications. She has always loved working with people and helping them by ensuring their needs were exactly what they envisioned. She has always had the interest and passion of applying her hospitality skills to the senior community, which lead her to Home Instead.  
She loves being a mom and spending time with her two children. She has many hobbies such as reading a good James Patterson book, cooking and baking, and being outdoors on a hiking trail or on the beach with her toes in the sand!
Heather's goals at Home Instead are to provide satisfactory support to the seniors and their families by matching them with superb caregivers.  

Teddy is a goldendoodle and is proud to take over animal therapy after his brother, Charlie. Teddy says his mission as a therapy dog is simple: to spread smiles, inspire kindness and bring comfort to those in need. He never tires of playing catch with a tennis ball and loves pepperoni.