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Meet the Staff
A Supportive Community
Annie Spindler: Founder Executive Director
Annie's educational background is about as diverse as the elders she hopes to serve. After obtaining an Undergraduate Art degree from the University of Wisconsin, she moved to Seattle Washington where she found a passion for natural medicine. She graduated with an Acupuncture degree from Wu Hsing Tao School in 2013. Her growing family brought her back to Chicago where she owned and operated Serenity Acupuncture, a multidisciplinary wellness clinic. A love for the Blue Ridge Mountains eventually brought Annie to Asheville to finally put down her permanent roots with her husband of 11 years and their two daughters.
A graduate certificate in Aging, Health and Society from Appalachian State University has granted Annie the education and experience to own and operate an Assisted Living facility in the state of North Carolina and she will soon become a licensed Adult Care Administrator in this state.
A graduate certificate in Aging, Health and Society from Appalachian State University has granted Annie the education and experience to own and operate an Assisted Living facility in the state of North Carolina and she will soon become a licensed Adult Care Administrator in this state.
Demacy Monte-Parker: Business Manager
Demacy Monte-Parker is a doula and yoga teacher in the Brevard, NC area. She graduated from Western Carolina University in 2017 with a BA in Stage and Screen with a focus in stage management. Demacy has an extensive background in administrative work and recently served as the Client Care Coordinator at the Asheville Birth and Wellness Center. She is excited to deepen her skills by working with the amazing team at Elderflower Care Community. Her goal is to provide the best possible service to make sure every client feels heard and supported. Demacy enjoys spending time with her family, going for hikes, and cultivating connections within the communities she serves.
Renee Panter:
Head Nurse, Herbalist
Renee received a bachelor's of science in nursing from Western Carolina’s Accelerated Nursing Program. She currently works as a registered nurse in homecare and is in a case management position with Visiting Angels Caregiver service. Renee completed the Advanced Clinical Herbalist Program at the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in 2016 and has worked with several clients since then as a clinical herbalist. She has studied with herbalists Juliet Blankespoor, Rosemary Gladstar, Aviva Romm and several others she admires. It has been her dream to combine the worlds of allopathic and herbal medicine to create a more holistic approach to health. She is dedicated to preventative medicine and believes a good path to this is through educating and applying the art and science of herbal medicine, healthy diet, movement, community, and the arts. She enjoys finding creative and unique ways to make these things work in each individual life. Renee also holds a second bachelor's of Science in Anthropology from Appalachian State University. This degree is a testament to her love of studying and understanding societies, cultures, how they come to be, and can be transformed. She has worked as a professional gardener for over two decades and still currently does this part-time. She completed 220 hour yoga alliance certified teacher program in 2008 and taught for several years after. She is a proud and loving mother of one outstanding 13 year old kid and is dedicated to creating a better world for her to age and grow in.
Maripa Abella: Head Chef
Maripa Abella is the Head Chef at Elderflower. Her spiritual journey began in the Philippines, continued to Chicago and settled in beautiful Asheville. Her goal is to provide healing and nourishment to the Elderflower community. Maripa sources fresh produce for her creations, always grateful for the area's bountiful local harvest. In her past lives, she has owned two restaurants in Chicago, run a software consulting firm, taught Kundalini Yoga, and is a Reiki healer.
Clare Duplace:
Activities and Volunteer Coordinator
Clare Duplace has lived in and around Black Mountain for 20 years. She currently lives in Swannanoa, with her husband, two boys, a sweet pup named Rosie and a flock of chickens.
Clare received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Warren Wilson College. While living in Vermont after college, she worked as a Waldorf preschool teacher and a children’s librarian at a small library that still stamped books. Clare has received her level 1 & 2 Reiki training, a level 1 course in acupressure, graduated from a local herb school, and is a flower essence practitioner.
Clare makes flower essences for grief and bereavement support, end of life support, for caregivers, and for the cycles of the moon.
Clare is also trained as a children’s yoga teacher through Black Mountain Yoga, trained in girls rites of passage and was a teacher for 11 years at The Learning Community School.
Clare has been on her own grief journey since the death of her mama in the fall of 2017. Since that time, she has been studying, diving deep into, networking, practicing and training in all things grief and death related. She is a part of the positive grief and death movement and is a trained full spectrum doula- birth, postpartum, loss, abortion and end of life.
Clare is a grief consultant through The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. She is an end of life doula, lead of the grief team, after death care/home funeral team member, and story keeper, and is working to bring support for children through The Center for Conscious Living and Dying. She has been certified in numerous grief related trainings- Integrative Thanatology (the study of death), certified grief educator, and as a grief movement guide.
Writing has always been the greatest healing tool for Clare. She has taken both the “Poetry as a Tool for Wellness” facilitator course and a course on using poetry to support those with dementia and Alzheimer’s, through the Institute for Poetic Medicine. She created and facilitated “Writing Your Grief” circles, incorporating cherished poems and excerpts from authors on grief and prompts for writing and reflection, holds monthly poetic medicine and grief tea/story circles monthly at the Center for Conscious Living and Dying, and is currently enrolled in the Narrative Healthcare Certificate program at Lenoir Rhyne University.
Clare received an MA in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University, and focused on the intersection between mindfulness, grief and death, and supporting children. Clare is a certified creative grief practitioner at Be Well Black Mountain Wellness Collective and Boutique and a trained Yoga Nidra Teacher.
Clare wishes to continue this work of weaving stories, creative practices, healing, with bereavement and end of life support, supported with the use of mindful modalities, somatic and trauma-informed/aware practices through a social justice lens and rooted in the remembering of the old ways people would gather in community during all thresholds of life and in death.
Clare received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Warren Wilson College. While living in Vermont after college, she worked as a Waldorf preschool teacher and a children’s librarian at a small library that still stamped books. Clare has received her level 1 & 2 Reiki training, a level 1 course in acupressure, graduated from a local herb school, and is a flower essence practitioner.
Clare makes flower essences for grief and bereavement support, end of life support, for caregivers, and for the cycles of the moon.
Clare is also trained as a children’s yoga teacher through Black Mountain Yoga, trained in girls rites of passage and was a teacher for 11 years at The Learning Community School.
Clare has been on her own grief journey since the death of her mama in the fall of 2017. Since that time, she has been studying, diving deep into, networking, practicing and training in all things grief and death related. She is a part of the positive grief and death movement and is a trained full spectrum doula- birth, postpartum, loss, abortion and end of life.
Clare is a grief consultant through The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. She is an end of life doula, lead of the grief team, after death care/home funeral team member, and story keeper, and is working to bring support for children through The Center for Conscious Living and Dying. She has been certified in numerous grief related trainings- Integrative Thanatology (the study of death), certified grief educator, and as a grief movement guide.
Writing has always been the greatest healing tool for Clare. She has taken both the “Poetry as a Tool for Wellness” facilitator course and a course on using poetry to support those with dementia and Alzheimer’s, through the Institute for Poetic Medicine. She created and facilitated “Writing Your Grief” circles, incorporating cherished poems and excerpts from authors on grief and prompts for writing and reflection, holds monthly poetic medicine and grief tea/story circles monthly at the Center for Conscious Living and Dying, and is currently enrolled in the Narrative Healthcare Certificate program at Lenoir Rhyne University.
Clare received an MA in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University, and focused on the intersection between mindfulness, grief and death, and supporting children. Clare is a certified creative grief practitioner at Be Well Black Mountain Wellness Collective and Boutique and a trained Yoga Nidra Teacher.
Clare wishes to continue this work of weaving stories, creative practices, healing, with bereavement and end of life support, supported with the use of mindful modalities, somatic and trauma-informed/aware practices through a social justice lens and rooted in the remembering of the old ways people would gather in community during all thresholds of life and in death.
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Board of Directors
Brian Asbill, Vice President
Brian grew up in Columbia, SC which frankly always felt a bit like “half way to where [he] actually wanted to be” which was either the mountains or the beach! After graduating from Davidson College and then the Medical University of SC (MUSC), he completed his internal medicine training at the University of Virginia and cardiology fellowship at MUSC and moved to Asheville in the summer of 2001 to join Asheville Cardiology Associates as an invasive, non-interventional cardiologist.
Brian and his wife Sarah, an internal medicine doctor, have raised their two boys (Henry 21 and Jacob 17) here and love living in Asheville! Dr Asbill left Asheville Cardiology in 2020 and is now the Chief Medical Officer for a healthcare startup company out of Austin, TX called Love.Life. He believes in the power of lifestyle medicine – nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, toxin avoidance and social connection – to prevent, treat and even reverse the common chronic medical conditions that currently plague us.
He watched his mom slowly lose herself and ultimately succumb to Alzheimer’s at age 76, and the vision of Elderflower community resonates with Brian on a very personal level. He is honored to serve on the board to help make this vision a reality and he looks forward to the journey ahead!
Brian and his wife Sarah, an internal medicine doctor, have raised their two boys (Henry 21 and Jacob 17) here and love living in Asheville! Dr Asbill left Asheville Cardiology in 2020 and is now the Chief Medical Officer for a healthcare startup company out of Austin, TX called Love.Life. He believes in the power of lifestyle medicine – nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, toxin avoidance and social connection – to prevent, treat and even reverse the common chronic medical conditions that currently plague us.
He watched his mom slowly lose herself and ultimately succumb to Alzheimer’s at age 76, and the vision of Elderflower community resonates with Brian on a very personal level. He is honored to serve on the board to help make this vision a reality and he looks forward to the journey ahead!
James Fleming, Secretary
James is an estate planning and elder law attorney in Hendersonville, North Carolina, where he helps families navigate the complexities of government programs like Medicaid and Veterans Administration Benefits. While in college, James worked as a weekend event planner at a local nursing home where he was motivated to become an attorney after witnessing nursing home residents struggle to navigate through their Medicaid and Medicare issues.
James and his wife, Emily, reside in Hendersonville with their two children.
James and his wife, Emily, reside in Hendersonville with their two children.
Sarah Livingston, Treasurer
With a strong commitment to the success of small businesses, Sarah Livingston brings a wealth of
experience and dedication to her role as Treasurer and as a small business bookkeeper. Originally from
Wisconsin, she spent two decades in Phoenix, Arizona before making her home in Asheville, North
Carolina, in 2018. Her journey reflects a deep-rooted passion for supporting entrepreneurs and a unique
blend of professional expertise.
Before transitioning into owning her own bookkeeping & consulting company, Sarah was a key member
of the ownership team at an engineering and construction company in Phoenix, which was successfully
sold to a private equity firm. This experience provided her with invaluable insights into the financial and
operational needs of businesses, which she now leverages to help small businesses thrive across the
nation.
Holding a bachelor’s degree in business communications from Arizona State University, Sarah combines
her academic background with real-world experience to offer comprehensive financial support. She is
particularly drawn to Asheville’s vibrant community and enjoys contributing to its local spirit.
Outside of work, Sarah embraces an active lifestyle through hiking, yoga, and travel. She has been
called a “connector of people” by friends in Asheville. She shares life with her supportive husband,
Andrew, and a beloved cat, Dulce, finding balance and joy in both her personal and professional
pursuits.
experience and dedication to her role as Treasurer and as a small business bookkeeper. Originally from
Wisconsin, she spent two decades in Phoenix, Arizona before making her home in Asheville, North
Carolina, in 2018. Her journey reflects a deep-rooted passion for supporting entrepreneurs and a unique
blend of professional expertise.
Before transitioning into owning her own bookkeeping & consulting company, Sarah was a key member
of the ownership team at an engineering and construction company in Phoenix, which was successfully
sold to a private equity firm. This experience provided her with invaluable insights into the financial and
operational needs of businesses, which she now leverages to help small businesses thrive across the
nation.
Holding a bachelor’s degree in business communications from Arizona State University, Sarah combines
her academic background with real-world experience to offer comprehensive financial support. She is
particularly drawn to Asheville’s vibrant community and enjoys contributing to its local spirit.
Outside of work, Sarah embraces an active lifestyle through hiking, yoga, and travel. She has been
called a “connector of people” by friends in Asheville. She shares life with her supportive husband,
Andrew, and a beloved cat, Dulce, finding balance and joy in both her personal and professional
pursuits.
Sarah Lasswell, Board Member
Meet Sarah Lasswell…, artist, farmer, and the driving force behind Moss and Thistle Farm., Sarah is a casket maker and willow weaver, with a passion for green burial and a deep reverence for nature and community. Through her artistic vision and commitment to sustainability, she weaves a legacy of eco-conscious farewells, crafting exquisite willow caskets, burial trays, and shrouds and that embraceing the beauty of our natural world. With each creation, Sarah invites you to embark on a journey of heartfelt remembrance, celebrating and honoring our time here on Earth.
Rae Booth, Board Member
Rae Booth began her career in corporate America in the human resources field. 20+ years spent working for a Chemical Manufacturing company, Financial Services Company, and a Pharmaceutical Company where she played an active role as the Organizational Development Specialist. Her responsibilities led her to be sought as a change agent who sees people, processes, structures, training, tools used to get the job accomplished and re-engineer the organizational structure to be more proficient and profitable. In 2006, Rae stepped into the entrepreneurial world in the healthcare industry and launched a new brand in a new market in the Appalachian Mountains of NC. Rae is known for creating something out of a blank canvas. She developed a Senior Shelter System in DE, which removed folks from violating situations and into a safe place. Through collaboration and persistence, anything is possible. Outside of work, she loves to spend time with her grandson and family. The nature around the Asheville area brings vitality to her spirit through kayaking, hiking and picnics on the Blue Ridge parkway.
Debra Campbell, Board Member
Debra Campbell has been in Asheville since 2005 when she came to serve as the Executive
Director for Ardenwoods Retirement Community. She was there until 2013 when her first son,
Collin, was born. She and her husband, Ted, welcomed a second son, Kyle, in 2016.
Debra has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in sociology and
communications. She then earned a Master of Public Health from the University of North
Carolina Chapel Hill. Debra has spent her 30+ year professional career focused on serving older
adults and their families. She has served in leadership roles in hospice agencies and senior
living communities. She has been an assisted living administrator since 1996 in Georgia and
since 2005 in North Carolina. She is passionate about eliminating Ageism from society and
equally passionate about promoting the importance of elders to “tell their story”, leaving their
legacy for the next generations.
Debra has served on the Board of Directors of Four Seasons – The Care You Trust (hospice,
palliative care, and other support services), has volunteered delivering meals through Meals on
Wheels and currently serves on the Steering Committee for Dementia Friendly WNC. She and
her husband have studied and practiced yoga for many years and Debra has taught yoga to
elders and to persons living with dementia.
Most recently, in 2024 Debra founded her own elder services business, Elder Living Solutions,
serving as a guide for individuals and families as they navigate and plan for their elder years.
Debra facilitates a process of identifying goals as well as both short-term and long-term
priorities and empowers elders with resources and a roadmap for their journey.
Director for Ardenwoods Retirement Community. She was there until 2013 when her first son,
Collin, was born. She and her husband, Ted, welcomed a second son, Kyle, in 2016.
Debra has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in sociology and
communications. She then earned a Master of Public Health from the University of North
Carolina Chapel Hill. Debra has spent her 30+ year professional career focused on serving older
adults and their families. She has served in leadership roles in hospice agencies and senior
living communities. She has been an assisted living administrator since 1996 in Georgia and
since 2005 in North Carolina. She is passionate about eliminating Ageism from society and
equally passionate about promoting the importance of elders to “tell their story”, leaving their
legacy for the next generations.
Debra has served on the Board of Directors of Four Seasons – The Care You Trust (hospice,
palliative care, and other support services), has volunteered delivering meals through Meals on
Wheels and currently serves on the Steering Committee for Dementia Friendly WNC. She and
her husband have studied and practiced yoga for many years and Debra has taught yoga to
elders and to persons living with dementia.
Most recently, in 2024 Debra founded her own elder services business, Elder Living Solutions,
serving as a guide for individuals and families as they navigate and plan for their elder years.
Debra facilitates a process of identifying goals as well as both short-term and long-term
priorities and empowers elders with resources and a roadmap for their journey.
Ellen Raffel, Board Member
Ellen is a board certified speech and language pathologist. The heart of Ellen's work is helping clients more meaningfully communicate their ideas, basic needs and desires in their precious lives.
She believes strongly in a "whole person" approach as she gives them a “ voice” for more vibrancy in their communication with loved- ones. Ellen provides functionally-based therapy in each person’s comfortable and familiar setting, using nature, the arts and more.
With the last many years In this unique time of pandemic social isolation, confusion, and stress, Ellen is welcoming creative ways to reach each elder; with dignity and grace.
Ellen seeks to allow each person the opportunity to feel joyful and at peace with his or her true self, free of judgment.
She believes strongly in a "whole person" approach as she gives them a “ voice” for more vibrancy in their communication with loved- ones. Ellen provides functionally-based therapy in each person’s comfortable and familiar setting, using nature, the arts and more.
With the last many years In this unique time of pandemic social isolation, confusion, and stress, Ellen is welcoming creative ways to reach each elder; with dignity and grace.
Ellen seeks to allow each person the opportunity to feel joyful and at peace with his or her true self, free of judgment.
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