CareGrade™About the Founder
Built from experience.
Designed for clarity.
A platform founded on two decades of industry knowledge and a commitment to bringing clarity to senior living decisions.
About CareGrade™
Structured Intelligence for Senior Living Decisions
CareGrade™ combines industry experience, public data, and human-centered design to help families navigate senior living with greater confidence, transparency, and understanding.
CareGrade™ was designed and developed by a licensed Senior Living Executive with over 20 years of long-term care experience, a Master of Management in Library Information Science (MMLIS) from the USC Marshall School of Business. As a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society recognizing the world's top business graduates, the foundation of CareGrade™ is rooted in both academic excellence and real-world experience — bringing a structured, systems-based approach to one of the most complex decisions families face.
Our Mission
Built to Be Accessible
CareGrade™ was designed with one principle at its core: every family deserves access to clear, structured, trustworthy information — regardless of budget, geography, or technical comfort.
Equitable Access
Core tools are free and available to all families
Consumer-First
Families, not providers, are our primary audience
Reduced Barriers
Designed to simplify, not overwhelm
Informed Decisions
Empowering families with the context they deserve
Proprietary Intelligence
SeniorTrust™ Score
At the core of CareGrade™ is the SeniorTrust™ Score — a structured evaluation model designed to translate fragmented and often overwhelming information into a clear, consistent, and meaningful rating system. Through features like CompareWHY™, families can understand not only how communities score, but why those differences matter.
The SeniorTrust™ Score evaluates six weighted dimensions: Care Quality, Staffing & Engagement, Environment & Comfort, Reputation & Reviews, Value & Affordability, Transparency & Trust. Each dimension carries a distinct weight reflecting its relative importance — communities may excel in different areas, but the weighting ensures the score reflects what matters most in care quality.
Comparison Tools
CompareWHY™
CompareWHY™ helps families move beyond surface-level scores by showing what actually drives the differences between communities — category by category.
Family Decision Workspace
CareGrade™ Circle
CareGrade™ Circle was designed to help families navigate one of life's most important decisions together. By bringing community research, family discussions, shared documents, reminders, and decision tracking into a single workspace, CareGrade™ Circle creates clarity during a process that often feels overwhelming.
From the first conversation to the final decision, CareGrade™ Circle helps families stay connected, organized, and aligned on the go, no matter their location — ensuring every voice can be heard while keeping the focus on finding the right community for a loved one.
Clara — CareGrade™ Concierge
Clara helps families navigate senior living decisions with clarity, confidence, and guided support designed to feel thoughtful, natural, and accessible.
Clara is your CareGrade™ Concierge — designed to help you think through senior living decisions with clarity, confidence, and ease. Whether you're exploring options, trying to understand pricing, navigating levels of care, or simply unsure where to begin, Clara provides thoughtful, guided support in a way that feels natural and accessible.
With a focus on ease of use, Clara allows you to interact in the way that feels most comfortable — whether that's typing or using tap-to-speak. Clara helps simplify complex decisions by guiding you step by step, making it easier to ask questions, understand your options, and move forward with confidence.
*Clara is powered by the CareGrade™ Information Desk, which draws from publicly available government data, regulatory sources, academic research, and verified community information.
The CareGrade™ Information Desk
The CareGrade™ Information Desk is the structured knowledge layer behind the platform — designed to provide clear, consistent, and trustworthy guidance across every stage of the senior care journey. It brings together publicly available government data, regulatory frameworks, and verified community information to ensure that every answer reflects real-world standards — not opinion.
The Information Desk covers:
- • Care levels and transitions (Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care, Skilled Nursing)
- • Advanced directives and durable power of attorney
- • Resident rights, protections, and ombudsman resources
- • Licensing, compliance, and oversight frameworks
- • Hospice and end-of-life care guidance
Clara guides the conversation — the CareGrade™ Information Desk ensures every answer is grounded, structured, and built for informed decision-making.
Our Philosophy
CareGrade™ is built on a simple principle: we provide the structure, the data, and the insight — but you make the decision. Our role is not to choose for you, but to bring clarity to a process that too often feels uncertain.
Because when information is organized, transparent, and meaningful, it becomes something more powerful — it becomes confidence.
"When families are making decisions about care, they deserve more than listings — they deserve clarity."
Credentials & Background
USC Marshall School of Business Graduate
Beta Gamma Sigma Member
SeniorTrust™ Score
A structured evaluation model that turns fragmented data into a clear, consistent rating.
CompareWHY™
Goes beyond scores — explaining the reasoning behind every category-level difference.
6 Dimensions
Care quality, staffing, environment, reputation, value, and transparency — each carrying a distinct weight in the final score.
CareGrade™Not a listing directory. A decision platform.
Built on publicly available data and proprietary scoring methodology. CareGrade™ and SeniorTrust™ Score are proprietary systems.
Compensation Disclosure
CareGrade™ may receive compensation from participating providers when families engage with, tour, or move into certain communities. Compensation never affects SeniorTrust™ Scores, rankings, reviews, CompareWHY™ results, recommendations, safety assessments, quality assessments, or any other consumer-facing evaluation displayed within CareGrade™.