Our Staff at BrightStar Care Charlottesville

Our experienced and compassionate staff is dedicated to caring for your loved one as if they were family. Get to know our team.

  • Dr. Chad Hoyt

    Medical Director
  • Dr. Matthew Johnson

    Medical Director
  • Aaron Rivers

    Chief Executive Officer
    Aaron is a Veteran of The United States Marine Corp.  He is currently a proud active member of The Marine Corp League and The American Legion.  He works diligently in his role as CEO to insure that the needs of ALL BrightStar clients are met with a particular focus on Veteran's resources and benefits for Veterans, their spouses and dependents.  
    Aaron has utilized his desire to serve his community and his professional strengths of communication and understanding logistics to help build and operate a home care that provides the most flexible options in home care that clients can depend on.  He is always eager to participate in community fund raising events like A Butterfly to Remember, The Walk to End Alzheimer's, The Ronald McDonald House Golf Tournament and many, many more.  He also takes the time to learn about each client BrightStar Care of Charlottesville serves.
    Aaron is a Missouri native who found his true home in Central Virginia more than a decade ago with his wife and three daughters.  The only thing he enjoys more than helping his team and clients is being a family man.  He is the quintessential "girl dad" and his daughters have all the keys to his heart.  You find him most weekends grilling a delicious meal and cheering on Good Ole UVA!
    "I want people to have an option to stay in their home setting.  Its the most important reason why I do this"
    "My favorite thing is when people get better instead of worse because of the help the receive from BrightStar."
  • Malina Rivers, R.N.

    Community Outreach Director
    Malina is a Registered Nurse with more than two decades of experience.  Her nursing career has had a focus on community based nursing and compliance as well as facility leadership and Regional roles.  Her vast experience in Hospice and Home Health brings special insight into what it takes for an individual to be successful at home.  She is passionate about educating patients and families about care options and resources that not only make being at home safer, but stress-free and enjoyable.  Her understanding that patient outcomes are better from the home setting whether it be recovering from an illness or post procedure or aging in place, is what drives her clinical practice.  It is also what led her to Community Outreach.  In her role as Community Outreach Director, she brings her clinical knowledge and leadership as an expert in the industry to not only guide and inspire the outreach team, but the clinical team and the Charlottesville community.  Her ability to critically analyze each case has proven invaluable to finding clinically sound solutions to remove obstacles for clients and care teams.  She also spends hundreds of hours in the community providing education through seminars, community outreach events, Virtual Dementia Tours, and one to one learning sessions.  
    In her free time, she enjoys participating in local education and outreach events.  Through this pass time, she has met many amazing people in the community and discovered unlimited community resources.  She has three beautiful daughters that love to travel just like their mom and they love planning new adventures.  Discovering the road less traveled is their forte.  The best way to learn about a new city...a food tour!
     
  • Katie Kelton, R.N.

    Director of Nursing
    Katie has been providing care to patients for nearly 20 years.  She has always focused her clinical practice in Community Based Nursing where she can really get to know her patients and what makes them unique.  By getting to know not only the patient's history, but also learning their family history, how they met their spouse, what is the most important thing to them, and what matters to them in their health care journey, she can insure the client is always at the center of all care.  Katie believes in the importance of advocating for clients and families.  She has a great appreciation for the reality that she meets people when they are at their most vulnerable.  It is important to her to provide compassionate, clinically sounds care each day.  She often says that her clients may not remember her name but they will remember how she made them feel.
    Katie has shared this passion with her care team through education, mentorship, and supervision by serving in her role as an educator, a leader, and a director.  She expands her role as an educator beyond the BrightStar care team and works with clients and their families to discover sound strategies that create success stories and great clinical outcomes.  She also works dlilgnetly with Community Outreach building relationships with other health care professionals, bringing awareness to Alzheimer's and dementia through the Virtual Dementia Tour and charity events are just some of the things you'll see her doing around the Charlottesville area.

    Katie is a Virginia native that married her best friend from high school.  They live in Stuarts Draft with their three amazing boys.  Katie's free time is usually spent on the soccer field, or the basket ball court, or the track cheering one of her boys to victory!  
    "The most important thing I do is to help people reclaim thier moments by empowering primary caregivers the chance to step away from being a care giver and be a spouse, a son, a granddaughter, a friend, if only for a few hours."
    "I love being able to advocate for clients, being able to provide them care in their home as long as possible.  I love being able to make something that seems impossible...possible."
  • Casey Pazzalia

    Community Outreach Specialist
    Casey is a native of Upstate New York.  He found his forever home in Charlottesville alongside his wife, Victoria, and their three pets.  Casey uses his strengths of being a great active listener, a problem solver and a relationship builder to develop strong bonds with local partners and client resources to find out what the needs are of new clients to remove barriers and get to "yes" for his clients by finding the right solutions and resources at the right time.  While Casey is a Charlottesville transplant, he has his finger on the pulse of all things Central Virginia making him the best resource to assist you for everything from the best memory care resources to where to get a good burger.
    Casey is a lifetime sports guy, having played baseball at SUNY Sullivan in New York.  His articles have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers about local and national sports.  In the fall, you can hear Casey doing the play-by-play for Albemarle High School's Football team.  Casey loves spending time with his family and staying active with early morning basketball games at ACAC.
  • Anna Footman

    Branch Manager
    She moved to Central Virginia to be part of the BrightStar Care of Charlottesville team and we are so lucky that she did.  Anna has the heart and mind of a learner.  She holds two Bachelors Degrees from Radford University.  One in Psychology and one in Criminal Justice.  She then went to Arizona State where she earned her Master's Degree.  She brings a wonderful passion for customer service and amazing attention to detail.  She uses her knowledge and skills of intuitively understanding people and puzzle solving to resolve issues quickly and concisely keeping all of the moving parts in order and where they need to be to keep the great care running smoothly.  Anna is a strong leader with a very hands-on approach.  She is often the voice you hear on the 24 hour on-call line at 3AM or she may be the manager introducing a caregiver to a new client on a Saturday afternoon.  Clients and teammates alike, have all said they can feel that she really cares about them and loves her work.
    Anna loves to travel and has the goal of seeing as much of the world as possible.  She has a fur pal, Theo, who is an adorable ball of sas.  Anna spends her free time traveling, enjoying family and friends and shopping.  
  • Holly Pleasants

    Branch Manager
    Holly holds a Bachelor's's Degree in Business Management with a minor in Accounting from DeVry Institute Atlanta, GA.  She has worked in the health care industry for over 20 years supporting the people that care for the people.  She has vast experience and knowledge with insurance billing, human resources, and client customer service.  She uses her strengths of process management and her gift of finding the positive in every situation to masterfully manage both employee and client work flow.  She is a joyful addition to the team who truly feels what her team and clients feel making her a fantastic advocate.
    Holly is a Virginia girl born and raised in The Northern Neck.  She now resides in Crozet with her husband and son.  She has some tasty hidden talents as well.  She owned a catering business and a coffee shop and is an International Certified Barista.  Office coffee has never tasted so wonderful!!
    "I love helping people and I love what I do.  I enjoy giving to people and this work allows me to do that everyday."
    "BrightStar Care of Charlottesville feels like a family working as a team, all together, all in to reach a common goal...great customer care."
  • Sue Hoyt

    Community Outreach
    Sue grew up in Scotland, where she earned her degree in Occupational Therapy.  She spent her career working in the field of pediatrics and continued this after she married and moved to the United States.  Although her passion and experience has been with children with special needs both professionally and as a mother, she has always lived with the belief that at every stage of life, individuals should be valued and supported to live the most fulfilling life possible.  Maintaining the optimal level of independence and navigating limitations helps to promote our clients' wellbeing.  This passion and understanding is what makes Sue such a wonderful member of the BrightStar team.  She uses her gifts to help members of our community remain as active as possible for as long as possible.  She provides services to the community like Chair Yoga, Cardio Drumming and the Virtual Dementia Tour sharing wellness, longevity, and understanding.  She is a welcome sight at many Charlottesville area Senior Centers, Assisted Living Centers, and Facilities.  
    Sue loves spending time with her three lovely children and wonderful husband.  She is a master gardener and can frequently be found planting, weeding and watering.  She is an avid traveler hopping on planes to visit far away family and friends.  

Our Caregivers and Nurses

Our team of care professionals thoroughly screened and trained to provide the highest quality care to your family or your patients. Learn more about our compassionate and trustworthy nurses and caregivers.


Contact Us

Please contact us today to schedule a complimentary consultation or call BrightStar Care Charlottesville at 434.422.3600.

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