Meet the 2025 Rising Care Pros of the Year
Each year, we honor 10 Care Pros whose work changes lives. They support families through hard days, find new ways to spark connection, and show up with steady care that helps older adults remain at home. They inspire us as an organization devoted to caring for older adults and show what this work truly means.
Read their stories below.
Darla Amlong
Norfolk, Nebraska
Darla Amlong joined Home Instead in 2022 after moving back to West Point to be closer to her aging mother and seeing firsthand how much it matters to have the right support at home. A mother, grandmother, and small business owner, she brings creativity and follow-through to every shift. When one client wanted to spend a weekend with her daughter, Darla drove 181 miles round-trip to make it happen, turning the long drive into a weekend adventure. She has created hands-on tools to help clients overcome frustration and surprised farming families with practical harvest care packages. Darla looks for what will make the day lighter, easier, or more meaningful, and then she does it.
Margarita Arreola
San Juan Capistrano, California
Margarita Arreola has been caring for older adults since 1995, first supporting a husband and then choosing to continue caring for his wife after he passed. That decision shaped the way she works to this day. Since joining Home Instead in 2022, she has become the steady presence families rely on, especially in hospice and complex cases. Margarita reads moods quickly and responds with quiet, physical reassurance, calming anxious mornings, warming cold hands, and celebrating small wins like a client standing on their own for a few extra seconds. When one client worried aloud about dying, Margarita gently replied, “Not today.” For her, caregiving is simple. She treats every client like family.
Natalie Blizzard
Newport News, Virginia
Natalie Blizzard has spent more than 17 years caring for older adults in her community. She joined Home Instead in 2008, drawn to caregiving by her natural instinct to nurture, the same patience she brings to tending her garden. For more than six years, she has been a steady presence for one client, finding creative ways to stay connected as Alzheimer’s progressed through puzzles, conversation, drives around town, and ice cream by the water. With more than 25,000 hours of care given, Natalie is known for helping clients feel safe, valued, and truly seen.
Kathryn Bolissian
Markham, Ontario
Kathryn Bolissian brings lived experience to her role as a Care Pro with Home Instead. As a mother of three, including her youngest daughter who lives with Angelman Syndrome, she knows what it means to navigate medical appointments, long nights, and the quiet responsibility of being someone’s steady advocate. After 11 years as a daycare teacher, she joined Home Instead in 2022, drawn to work that felt personal. Clients value the calm she carries into their homes, whether she is preparing comforting homemade meals, creating routines that bring stability, or offering reassurance during uncertain moments. She shows up steady, patient, and ready to help.
Milagros Fernandez
Magnolia, Texas
Milagros Fernandez’s life has been shaped by courage and care. After leaving Cuba at 19 and later building a new life in the United States, she found her calling in caregiving, first in a nursing home and then while caring for her mother for eight years after a stroke. That experience still guides her. Milagros treats every client as she treated her own mother, with patience, dignity, and wholehearted presence. Families describe her as a blessing, known for thoughtful touches like homemade flan and for staying calm and capable in moments of crisis. In every home she enters, she carries the kind of steady care families hope for and remember long after she leaves.
Joy Karienye
Federal Way, Washington
Joy Karienye brings discipline and purpose to her work as a Care Pro. Before joining Home Instead, she was a professional marathon runner who competed in 23 countries and served as an Adidas ambassador, a routine of 4 a.m. runs that still centers her each day. After immigrating from Kenya, she felt called to caregiving and changed her name to Joy to reflect her mission to help others heal. That determination shows in her care, including helping a 98-year-old client regain strength after a serious injury and come off hospice. Joy helps clients rebuild confidence and connection one steady step at a time.
Barb McGee
Peterborough, Ontario
Barb McGee joined Home Instead in 2020 and quickly became known for her thoughtful, deeply personalized dementia care. She prepares for each visit with intention, creating activities that help clients reconnect with who they have always been. For one former biology professor, that meant picking up a paintbrush. With Barb’s encouragement, he began painting detailed trout and chickadees, rediscovering pride and confidence along the way. Barb later turned what she learned into a dementia activity toolkit now used across her office, extending her impact beyond her own clients. Whether sitting beside someone at end of life or stepping in to support her team, Barb brings steady presence and genuine connection to every home.
Marie Smith
Tucson, Arizona
Marie Smith joined Home Instead in 2020 after more than 40 years in human services, where she advocated for individuals with disabilities and helped families keep loved ones at home. Retirement did not last long. She missed the connection and was thrilled to return to hands-on care. Families now call her a “walking angel” for the calm, creativity, and gentle humor she brings to those living with dementia or Parkinson’s, using music, crafts, and movement to help each person feel understood and valued.
Francisca Uvah
Pensacola, Florida
Francisca Uvah’s life has been defined by service. Originally from Nigeria, she built a career as a psychology professor, raised four grandchildren, and mentored incarcerated individuals before joining Home Instead at the encouragement of her family. Caregiving, she says, is personal. Long before becoming a Care Pro, she volunteered driving seniors to meals and appointments simply to brighten their day. Today, she brings that same tenderness into every home, treating each client like family and creating moments of music, laughter, and connection that stay with families long after her shift ends.
Maureen Walsh
Norwell, Massachusetts
Maureen Walsh joined Home Instead in 2019 after the loss of her two children, an experience that called her toward work rooted in care. In the years that followed, she and her husband founded a support organization for families navigating complex medical diagnoses, building community in the face of grief. Advocacy and caregiving had long been part of her life, but with Home Instead it became her daily work. She has prevented choking incidents, caught a client mid-fall on a staircase, and sat through long, emotional afternoons with those facing Parkinson’s, dementia, or hospice. Maureen is the person families rely on when situations feel overwhelming, bringing steadiness, practical skill, and the kind of presence that makes people feel less alone.