Each month All Care will be surveying one employee to spotlight their interests, abilities, and professional growth. Meet Keri Barada, our Operations Manager….
What brought you to All Care?
I’ve been at All Care for 17 years, it was after an internship I had that I realized I liked working the community. Right after I gave birth, I was part of a mother’s care at home program and Pam Ferrar was my nurse and I just loved her and it was so amazing that I would be able to come and work with her.
In your opinion, what is the most rewarding aspect of your position?
In my position, I am able to work with pretty much all the departments and learn about most of the day to day operations for all aspects of the agency as a whole; and the fact that I love my team, the people that I work with, that is really rewarding.
What is your best memory of working for All Care?
When I was pregnant, All Care threw me a baby shower where everyone from Shawn and senior management, the office staff, and even some home health aides came; it was this huge two-hour long shower and Jose and I had to make two trips home with all the gifts we got. My All Care family got me so much, they cleared my registry and my friends and family couldn’t get me anything because it was all already bought! We couldn’t even sleep that night thinking of the generosity of my coworkers and wondering what we were going to do with all that stuff!
In your opinion, what is the best part about working at, and for, All Care in your position?
The people. We are all like a big family, everyone comes together, focuses on the task to get it complete and achieves the goal but we also enjoy each other which makes a huge difference when working as a team.
What is the best advice you have ever gotten?
“Whatever you do whether work or pleasure do it to the best of your ability, giving 100% and at the end you can be proud because you did the absolute best you could!”
What is the best advice you have ever given?
‘Before you react, stop and think and the outcome will be so much better.’
What plays in your car?
On the radio, 96.9 and for cd’s… Mary J. Blige, Emily Sande, John Legend, lots of R&B
What do you never leave the house without?
Well like most people would say, my phone but also my parking pass! It’s always the one time I don’t have it that they ask to see it or there is a new woman working at the gate who doesn’t know me and asks for it.
If you could choose your last meal, what would it be?
My grandmother’s spaghetti and meatballs
What is something about you that might surprise your coworkers when they read it?
I was actually born handicapped. When my mother was eight months pregnant, she and my dad were at one of those shows where motorcycles jump over cars and one came right towards my mom and in all the confusion, my dad ended up pushing the wrong person out of the way so the motorcycle and its front wheel crashed right in between my mother’s legs. I was born with my feet completely backwards so for the first year of my life my legs were in casts from the thighs down and then for 6 months after that I was in leg braces. But now I walk fine and my feet are in the right direction. And ironically enough, years later, some guy put a ladder to my window to break into my house and my stepfather had to get him while the police were on their way and it turns out that the guy trying to break into my house was the same guy my father had pushed out of the way when the motorcycle crashed into my mother!
Keri has three children ages 20, 16, and 10 and she and her husband are finalizing the adoption of their 12 and 8 year old nieces.