Our Staff at BrightStar Care® Phoenix / Tempe

Making the shift from managing colleges to co-owning BrightStar Care Home Health Agency with my wife has been an incredible journey. After earning my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I spent two decades leading institutions focused on nursing and medical certifications. My deep respect for those who serve others comes from my caregiving grandmother, who cared for others into her late 70’s and  who inspired me with her dedication.

Our agency stands out in three important ways:

1. RN-Driven Care: Every plan of care is created and overseen by a Registered Nurse. This means your loved ones receive expert, personalized attention tailored to their unique needs.

2. No Minimum Hour Requirements: Many agencies require a minimum number of hours per day or week, but we believe in giving our clients the flexibility they deserve. BrightStar has no minimum hour requirements. We offer care that can be as brief as 0-2 hours and as frequent or infrequent as needed. We understand that accepting help can be a big change, so we strive to make the experience as comfortable as possible. 

3. Licensed and Accredited: We're licensed by the Arizona Department of Health and accredited by The Joint Commission. This ensures that your loved ones receive the highest standard of care, giving you peace of mind.

When my wife and I decided to acquire this agency, we asked ourselves a simple but crucial question: would we recommend these services to our own family? Brightstar’s dedication to quality, including a thorough verification system and highly trained professionals, assured us that they met our high standards. I am happy to say that since we made that decision, we have comfortably referred many of those close to us and successfully provided them care and comfort since 2018.

I am Molly Schliem, RN, BSN, and Director of Nursing and Clinical Compliance for BrightStar Care of Phoenix. I have been a nurse for over 20 years working in intervention cardiology, pediatric home health and case management and now with BrightStar Care of Phoenix/Tempe. 

I am most passionate about continuing to provide safe and quality care to our clients.  I really enjoy meeting with new and existing clients to let them know that BrightStar has nursing oversight on every client, and then showing them the care plans that the nurses create that are tailored specifically to them.  I will never tire of watching family members of the clients and the clients themselves understand the individualized care they will receive with BrightStar Care and seeing the relief and happiness come across their faces. I also enjoy competency testing and training our staff.  I try and make learning both fun and informative for our team.   In my free time, I enjoy hiking with my family and dogs, cooking something creative in the kitchen and watching old movies. 
 

My name is Ana Rivera, and I am the Branch Manager for BrightStar Care of Phoenix/Tempe.  I work with our team of nurses, schedulers, and caregivers to ensure all aspects of a client’s care exceed expectations.  I also work closely with our clinical compliance team to ensure we meet the high standards of our accreditor, the Joint Commission.  To ensure this happens I frequently go out into the field to meet with clients in their home and communicate with our in-home care team daily. I have been a Certified Nursing Assistant for 14 years and know first-hand what quality client care looks like.  I am passionate about ensuring our clients receive top-notch care and that our team receives the training and support they need to support our clients.  In my free time I enjoy spending time with my 4 children and my beautiful new granddaughter. 

I have worked in Home Care for over 10 years. My primary focus has always been Intake/Staffing Coordinator and Authorizations. I help facilitate communication between the staff and our clients. It is important that our staff has all of the information on the client and that the client knows about the person coming to their home. I love being a part of a team that is always looking to go above and beyond for our clients and our field-staff.

I also help our clients by proactively pursuing skilled professionals for our clients. During orientation I make sure all of our field staff are specially trained.  I make sure all of our Staff is experienced and is screened prior to working with BrightStar.  I complete the Employee onboarding process from start to finish. Although, on-boarding employees is one of the tasks I do here at BrightStar, my passion is building rapport with all employees and building trust with each and every one of our employees. I have 15 years’ experience as a caregiver/CNA, 4 years’ CPR instructor, 4 years’ DCW instructor, and 4 years’ DD intro to Autism (prevention and support).
 

As a Customer Care Manager, I am primarily responsible for engaging clients and our home-care team to ensure their needs are being met.  My job is to ensure that our clients have the right Home Health Aide and that they receive all of the services they need.  I also provide support to our caregivers by coordinating their schedules.  I do my best to answer any questions both our clients, their families and our staff may have. 

Every day when I come into work, I am grateful for the opportunity I have to assist clients and work with people who have a passion for caring.  I enjoy interacting with both our clients and care team and providing whatever support I can. I enjoy the team dynamic we have and the opportunity to acquire new skills daily at BrightStar.

Before becoming a part of the BrightStar team, I worked as a translator, aiding migrants in America who faced linguistic challenges and required help in bridging communication gaps.  I speak English, Arabic and Aramaic.