About Us

AVIE was founded through personal experience with the struggles families face when caring for their aging loved ones. The overwhelm of navigating care options, the weight of the day-to-day, and the anxiety of being ready for future challenges — it’s a lot to handle. 

Our mission is to simplify the care process and to alleviate the stress families face in providing support for those we love. Our approach goes beyond the traditional health model to include the mental, emotional, and social support people need to truly thrive and create long lasting changes for years to come. 

No matter the challenge, we want the best possible care for our loved ones. Together we are committed to ensuring that living better starts here. 

"Our vision and intention at AVIE is for families and their loved ones to experience care and support as abundant, generative, loving, and meaningful."

Our Team

Rooted in compassion, empathy, and a desire to improve care for others, the AVIE team brings a diverse background in human centered design, neuropsychiatry, clinical psychology, gerontology, developmental disabilities, and high growth start up companies. 

Cassidy Smith

Cassidy is a Program Director for A Bright Future operating the company's Sacramento region office. Throughout the years she has worked with the elderly and disabled in a variety of settingswhich eventually led her to pursue a career in case management and program development for Supported Living Services. Cassidy enjoys helping those unable to help themselves and believes that the ultimate reward is cultivating meaningful relationships with clients and being able to improve their quality of life.

Ami Doshi

Ami Doshi brings over a decade of experience in healthcare and startups. She believes patient success stems from a company and team who will listen and educates their patients with tools to live a fulfilled life. Her goal is to help patients feel heard and cared for by obtaining resources and services they can trust. She has a personal interest and professional experience within the home care space, she knows every step of the process and that's why her approach leads to success. She is passionate about brain health, nutrition, and breaking the stigma around mental health and wellness. She firmly believes we have to create a culture of innovators and doers within the integrative healthcare field.

Marcus Kako

Marcus brings a background in marketing, design research and operations. He is the founder of Resiliency Collective, a non for profit clothing brand that promotes healthy masculinity with all proceeds going to organizations that help prevent sexual violence. Marcus has a deep rooted interest in human centered design and psychology.

Max Konan, MA

Max is the CEO of A Bright Future (ABF) where they help developmentally disabled adults live independent lives, as contributors to their communities. They serve ~200 clients across Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, Sacramento, and Yolo counties. An immigrant from the Ivory Coast in West Africa, Max started his career as a special education teacher where he became passionate about helping others. He is also the CEO of A Vie Transportation which specializes in transportation for the Elderly and movement impaired.

Ken Lakritz, Ph.D.

Ken is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of experience. He has devoted his clinical and academic life to adult developmental challenges with mid- and late life populations. Ken has a particular interest in eldering and late life development, both in supporting wellbeing and in cultivating the wisdom that naturally calls us during the second half of life. He is an author of books and articles about adult development, conscious aging, and elder wisdom.

Rahmin Sarabi

Rahmin brings a 15 year background in mission-driven consumer startups. His experience spans product management, design research, and people operations. As part of the early team at Good Eggs, he helped build an online grocer that delights thousands of people each week centered on a mission to grow and sustain local food systems. He also was the Head of People & Culture at Opendoor, where he helped the company scale from 80 to over 400 people across 5 markets in 18 months, redefining the process of buying and selling a home.

Advisors

We are guided by the collaborative input of experts in gerontology, palliative care, physical therapy, clinical social work, and mental health.

Hema Doshi Patel, NP
Gerontology
CEO of Aging Mastered
Douglas Wilson, MD, FAAFP
Hospice and Palliative Care
Medical Director at Queen of the Valley Medical Center
Janine Cohen, PT
Physical Therapy
Deborah Dado, LCSW
Clinical Social Work
Deborah Dado, LCSW, AA Practice