Meet Our Phoenix Assisted Living Team

Brett Weisel co-founded Vista Living in 2015 and provides leadership, strategic direction and management to the Vista Living team. He brings over 30 years of experience to a business with tremendous social impact. Brett takes pride in his dedication, work ethic, knowledge, vision, expertise and attention to detail. He believes the most influential businesses are built on excellence and Vista Living is committed to this mission. Brett is driven by integrity, quality of service and focus on creating the best residential assisted living model.

Previously, Brett was a partner at two investment banking firms for 17 years and was the founder and general partner of a single-family home focused fund for eight years.  Brett learned how to build great teams from these careers and the details essential for creating well-run companies.

Brett started Vista Living because it was clear that boutique residential assisted living was a great opportunity to provide a better end-of-life experience for our seniors when done well. Having witnessed a less than perfect end-of-life experience for his grandmother, Brett envisioned a better model.

Founding Vista Living has allowed him to follow his entrepreneurial spirit and pursue a passion for creating exceptional homes with open floor plans that bring great people together in a joyful, social and connected community.

Brett enjoys skiing, tennis, reading, hiking and bringing friends together. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and he and his wife, are proud parents of three young adults.

Dean comes to Vista Living with over two decades of healthcare leadership experience spearheading multiple assisted living operations. He spent 15 years at Innovative House Corp as their Assisted Living Director. Dean started in the industry as a caregiver over twenty years ago and understood and appreciated all assisted living levels of care. With extensive experience in the fields of behavioral health, developmental disability, and working with seniors suffering from various forms of dementia, Dean has the veteran knowledge and training to ensure the very best quality of care is provided to our residents.

Recently, Dean returned to school and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Colorado State University with a master’s in healthcare administration. He learned the most current practices in areas such as quality and performance, strategic planning, risk management, and human resources in healthcare.

Dean brings proven success in operations, budget planning, recruiting, staff retention, scheduling, and coordinating food services. In addition, he understands special diet needs while implementing policies and goals that monitor facility compliance with all state regulations. Finally, Dean spent most of his career recognizing the value of engaging care teams. Effective coaching, training, and mentoring techniques equip staff with knowledge and/or skills related to teamwork, leadership, and responsiveness to residents and their family members’ needs while promoting a culture of “fun.”

Working full-time with seniors is Dean’s passion, as it genuinely brings him a sense of true fulfillment. Since he was raised by his grandmother, great-aunt, and great-uncle, he naturally learned ingrained love, respect, and appreciation for seniors. As Dean says, “Providing unparalleled services in exceptional home environments is a professional dream come true.” Also, “there is no greater honor than to care for those who once cared for us!”

Dean and his wife enjoy boating and hiking the beautiful Arizona trails with their golden retriever. He is also an avid fisherman and loves time spent on the various lakes surrounding the Phoenix area, searching for that ‘perfect spot.’

Originally from the Florida Keys, Lisa began her career 30 years ago in hotel and resort sales and marketing management with Marriott hotels in Miami, moving on to Chicago with Fairmont Hotels, and then to Arizona with several large resorts. She has a strong background in successful strategic planning, annual budget development, marketing plans and presentations.

Lisa played an integral role within organizations by providing collaboration, motivation and direction to the team. She thrives on providing an exceptionally high standard of service. As General Manager working at her last resort, she gained a vast knowledge of the operations side of the business as well.

With the desire to move on from the corporate world, but remain in the hospitality industry, she took a leap of faith and transitioned to senior living. Over the past six years, she has worked for large independent, assisted living and memory care communities before coming to Vista Living Senior Care. “I realized my passion for senior living when I experienced overwhelming gratification after helping families feel a sense of relief in knowing we helped change their loved one’s quality of life for the better.”

Lisa and her husband are parents to a daughter and grandparents to their first granddaughter. Her other passions include diving, golf, cooking and entertaining.

Ashley has 17 years of healthcare experience in assisted living and memory care. Ashley’s past experience consist of Certified Caregiver, Certified Medication Technician, Wellness Director, Life Enrichment Coordinator and Director of Memory Care.

Most recently Ashley was the Memory Care Director at Granite Gate Senior Living where she supervised the staff and looked after the safety and security of her residents. Her responsibilities also included hiring and training staff, scheduling, service plans, monthly and daily activity calendars, managing healthcare appointments, quarterly evaluations of residents, and following up with providers and families on resident needs. During her time at Granite Gate Senior Living, Ashley and her team received the award for Best Memory Care 2023-2024 by U.S News.

Before this Ashley was the house manager of an assisted living home in Prescott, AZ where she had similar responsibilities as Granite Gate Senior Living and was awarded Best Residential Assisted Living 2 years in a row for the tri city area.

Ashley’s compassion for senior living came to her as a child. She helped her mother take care of a family friend for years before he passed away. She loved spending quality time with him and his family, making his last moments meaningful and bright. Later, she cared for her grandmother and several other family friends.

Ashley was born and raised in Lebanon, Oregon. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Her favorite place to visit is Williams, AZ, especially during the holidays. Ashley motto in life is that ‘nothing is impossible, no target unachievable: you just have try harder and harder.’ Her favorite quote that she truly believes in: “everything happens for reason.” Ashley brings to the Vista Living team a fun, bright, energetic and stabilizing force.

Edwin is a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). He brings exceptional care and experience to our healthcare team. He has previous experience in long term care, assisted living, memory care and working in hospitals.

More specifically, Edwin has experience working with seniors, pediatrics, home health care and long-term care. He brings a strong presence in patient interaction and providing quality care. Importantly for Vista Living, he possesses the ability to listen and understand patient’s needs and concerns, and can relay what he learns to the rest of the Vista Living team.

Edwin’s thorough weekly assessments of our residents, allows the Vista Living team to pick up on early signs of potential problems.

He has aspirations of becoming an orthopedic specialist and cardiologist as he furthers his education.

Edwin enjoys having a healthy and active lifestyle, such as working out, hiking, biking and jogging. His favorite band is Coldplay. Favorite quote is by Mike Tyson: “Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it.” Edwin enjoy making the rounds between the four Vista Living homes and interacting with our “lovely residents”.

Gabriela has over 25 years of experience caring for seniors. Since 2001, Gabriela has owned and operated three Assisted Living Homes in the Phoenix area. Today, Gabriela is an acknowledged leader in the Arizona Assisted Living community. Gabriela is certified as both an Assisted Living Manager and a Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP). She is a Board Member of the Arizona Assisted Living Homes Association (AALHA) and past member of Professional Association of Senior Referral Specialists (PASRS) , AZ ALFA and HSP West, all of which are professional organizations for the senior living industry. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Women and participated on the Advisory Committee for the Arizona Department of Health Services, a committee dedicated to developing new rules and regulations for assisted living industry.

We love her passion for providing great care, strong managerial skills, years of experience owning and operating assisted living, advocacy for best practices in senior care, professional network, and hands-on/can- do attitude.

Chanece has a natural passion to make our residents’ day brighter with her enthusiastic, kind, nurturing and optimistic personality. She is driven to keep our residents motivated and positive every day.

Chanece is originally from Southern California and moved to Phoenix to be closer to her siblings and family in 2009.

Chanece has her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. She has over 17 years of experience providing professional customer service in all fields such as corporate, healthcare, retail and non-profits. She continually shows her true fire for life at Vista Living.

Chanece discovered a talent for creating unique art, which led her to teaching art to the youths and later to seniors. She enjoys hiking, painting, local events, and cooking. Chanece is a mother to one handsome boy who definitely keeps her active and young.

Kyle co-leads quality control for Vista Living.  He brings nearly 10 years of senior care experience to the helm. Kyle is a CPA and self-proclaimed “numbers guy” who realized in his early 20’s that he loved working with seniors after his dad suffered a stroke and developed dementia. Kyle was the primary caregiver for his father and his experience caused him to change directions and seek out opportunities in senior living.  Soon, he landed at AgeSong, a leading edge assisted living company where Kyle worked in both finance and operations. He even moved his dad into the community – a full-circle life experience for him.

Kyle dreamed of starting a senior care company based on his personal and professional experiences. He wanted to offer happiness as a standard to seniors in need of care and his dream came true when Vista Living opened its doors.  

Kyle has endless energy. He has worked at leading companies such as Deloitte, Prudential, and Greystar investing in $10 billion projects and served as a Board Member of Kimochi, a not-for-profit senior center in Hawaii.

We love his story and his experience, attention to detail, and passion for creating fun environments for seniors. Kyle spends most of his free time adventuring with his young children and incorporating a love for elders in their hearts.