Meet Our Team

IN 2024, WE ARE CELEBRATING TWENTY YEARS IN BUSINESS SERVING THE TWIN PORTS REGION

Mary opened Home Instead in 2004 after a successful career in business management and the staffing industry. Before Home Instead, her career experience included over twenty years of sales, marketing, recruitment, staffing, and management responsibilities. Mary lived on the West Coast, working in sales and marketing for the electronics industry before transitioning to the personnel and labor sectors. After working in various personnel management capacities, Mary utilized her recruitment and management experience to open the Home Instead franchise office in the Twin Ports Region. So, she purchased the territory for the franchise and opened the office in April 2004.

Mary felt that the home care agency mirrors how the personnel industry functions. There were many similarities in the recruitment and screening processes. “Our agency identifies and recruits our area’s best caregivers who exhibit compassion and understanding of others. Empathy and compassion are two common threads we look for in personality traits. These traits make the very best caregivers, and our caregivers are the foundation of our business! Mary enjoys family events, local sponsorship with the N.A.H.L. Hockey, snow sports, and living locally around the shores of Lake Superior.

Mary’s educational background: B.A. in Business Management from Cardinal Stritch University, College of Business and Management, Milwaukee, WI​.

Anne's favorite quote comes from her oldest son. He says, "If you want to have a good day, be the reason you have a good day!" Anne tries to live each day by that. When Anne joined the Home Instead team in 2015, she filled a great need within our growing organization. From day one as a bookkeeper, she started creating her own success. In a short time, she had positioned herself as a subject matter expert on all things, and, over time, she took on additional projects and responsibilities. Her hard work paid off because, in 2019, she was promoted to Operations Manager.

As the Operations Manager, Anne is responsible for all the day-to-day operations. She's also responsible for putting together the visuals for newspaper advertisements, or brochures and corporate reports monitoring, measuring, and analyzing the effectiveness of advertising ads as they relate to the overall company's goals. It's crucial for a business by implementing strategies and tactics that grow our followers, engage and retain them, and help convert them into leads, and customers.

Char has been making a difference in the lives of seniors working at Home Instead. She started her career at the Twin Ports office in 2009 as the Recruitment / Retention Coordinator & Training. As time progressed, she excelled in roles such as Office Manager, Caregiver, and Alzheimer’s Educator. Char was also the Campus Administrator for a couple of senior communities before returning to home care. Through her years of working with seniors, she learned how to improve their quality of life. She was blessed to train as a “positive approach to care trainer” through a program by renowned dementia expert Teepa Snow.

Char has been on a mission to bring awareness about Alzheimer’s/Dementia to Duluth and the surrounding communities. Char knows how important staying at home is for long-term happiness in seniors and has invested her career in educating the community at large. She has and continues to volunteer as a group leader for the Alzheimer’s Association Support Group Meetings in Duluth, and has also served as a group leader with the Dementia Friendly Duluth Initiative, and as a Dementia Friends Champion volunteer. Over the years, Char has focused on dementia care initiatives and personally raised thousands of dollars for the local walk, and to this day, she participates in the walk annually. 

According to the World Health Organization, more than 55 million people have dementia worldwide. This number will double every 20 years, reaching 78 million in 2023 and 139 million. Since it is a neurological disorder that affects so many people, Char wants to inspire our staff and help bring awareness about this cause through her training and support programs offered by Home Instead.

Mary Andrews says, “We are lucky Char doesn’t know how to retire; we won’t let her retire!”

Amelia joined the Home Instead Twin Ports team in February 2024. Amelia has 19 years of experience in care, ranging from Nursing Assistant to RN roles. Her background in geriatrics is an asset to her role. She formerly worked in facility care, serving seniors and dementia residents for several years before transitioning to the clinic system. Her focus turned to serving the whole family from obstetrics to End of Life care, and she specialized in Diabetes education. More recently, her role in case management transitioned back to elder care in clinic support.

Amelia gets the most joy from her work when she can improve patients’ lives and quality of care, especially for the vulnerable elderly. Geriatrics has always been an important part of her career and the population she has enjoyed working with the most.  Her professional goal is to keep this population as safe and independent as possible in their homes while maintaining the highest level of function and preserving their personal definition of quality of life. 

Born and raised in Duluth, Amelia is busy with her family, teaching her kids about the great outdoors and activities they enjoy together. These family moments include two miniature dachshunds and a growing, young family to keep her on her toes!

Laura joined the Home Instead Twin Ports team in 2012 and served in client care support in various capacities. She first began her  nursing career as an L.P.N. in geriatric facility care and, within the first year, became an R.N. From then on, Laura primarily focused on geriatrics and served as a D.O.N. at a few facilities. Her R.N. career includes working in two years of acute care, fourteen years managing assisted living, and six years in case management. A total of 22 years in nursing so far!

Laura was drawn to nursing because it was a profession with purpose and provided her with the ability to support her family with much work and effort. Earlier this year, she completed her B.S.N. accreditations, which is a huge accomplishment on top of working full-time and tending to family. Laura says she likes to work a lot but never loses sight of staying connected with her daughters and grandkids. To top it off, her parents live nearby, so Laura also ensures their needs are being met. There is never a dull moment for Laura in caring for her three family generations, attending school, and continuing with career commitments.

Joey Iwen came aboard Home Instead in October 2024. Joey is our Service Coordinator for the Twin Ports Team. The Service Coordinator’s duties include implementing and coordinating client schedules and relationships, overseeing responsibilities on HIPAA and Labor Law practices for the agency, maintaining caregiver relationships, and performing home visits with introductions and client inquiry meetings. Joey gets involved in other project management opportunities.

Before Home Instead, Joey focused on the family business she built with her husband, providing their clients with creative solutions in brand marketing campaigns, video & photography, web design, & social media content creation. Her experiences in merchandising, account management, sales, finance and planning, and project management helped her achieve professional and personal goals throughout the years.

Joey’s first introduction to Home Instead was in Omaha, her hometown, where her family used Home Instead services for a loved one. The extra support that Home Instead provided was such a blessing both to the family and to her loved one. The relationships between the caregivers and her father-in-law were genuine and heartfelt, impacting everyone positively. The feeling of gratitude towards Home Instead inspired Joey to help others that way, too. When she saw the ad from the local office in Duluth, MN, she responded and was hired. 

Other Interests: Spending time with her family & dogs at their cabin in Northern Wisconsin, Enjoying Duluth & the North Shore doing various outdoor activities, traveling, volunteering with P.T.A. & coaching softball, and various arts & crafts. Education: Master of Science: University of Nebraska-Omaha, Exercise Science/Biomechanics BS: Iowa State, Exercise Science