Who We Are

Ryan Simunovich

Chief Operating Officer

Ryan serves as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the company operations as well as mission, training, education, and support care including grief support and our volunteer program. He is a seasoned healthcare leader with deep expertise in hospice care. With a 20-year background spanning private duty nursing, public health, and recruitment, he is guided by the values of innovation, collaboration, efficiency, and compassion.

Ryan previously served as President of Hospice Operations for a large, national provider focusing on helping teams bridge strategy and execution, all while advocating for a quality patient and family experience.

He holds a master’s degree in healthcare administration and has led numerous initiatives—locally and nationally—that have expanded access to hospice across the care continuum.

Outside of work, Ryan enjoys fishing, traveling, and volunteering in his community. He lives in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ, with his wife, two children, and their yellow Labrador, Penny.

Cara Burns

Chief Commercial Officer

Cara Burns is the chief commercial officer at Agape Care Group, leading the organization’s sales and marketing teams. Cara is responsible for guiding the company’s strategy amid a highly competitive landscape and continuing a trajectory of strong growth.

She joined the Agape team after the organization expanded its geographic footprint across nine states in less than five years. From day one, she was tasked with developing strategies and systems that deepen the care coverage in all markets and for Agape Care Group’s network of care providers. As a highly collaborative leader, Cara is adept at building, training and motivating the company’s teams to take on tough obstacles and achieve their goals.

Before joining Agape Care Group, Cara served many years at Kindred Hospice in a mix of training and leadership roles. When the company formed into Gentiva, she moved into a more national-level leadership role and was ultimately appointed as senior vice president of business development.

Cara has spent her entire career in health care. After graduating from Indiana University with a bachelors in applied health science, she worked as an account executive, Trainer and Sales Manager at Apria Healthcare, a company she was with for seven years. She also served as the senior director of training and development at Harden Healthcare, which was later acquired by Gentiva.

Her experience and industry insight, along with her motivation and passion to mentor others, is what makes Cara the successful leader she is today and is crucial to achieving Agape Care’s vision to be recognized as one of the country’s premier care providers known for its superior patient-family experience, delivering the highest quality care, and building a culture of excellence. She is excited for any challenge that lies ahead.

Cara resides in Fishers, Indiana with her two children. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, being active outdoors, and attending her children’s many sporting events.

Carry vandenMaagdenberg

Chief Technology and Innovation Officer

Carry vandenMaagdenberg has over 25 years of experience in health care and has been an integral part of the Agape Care Group leadership team since 2019. As chief technology and innovation officer, she will focus on ensuring that all systems, resources and talent are aligned with the company’s mission and culture. vandenMaagdenberg will lead the company’s technology, human resources, innovation, marketing and customer relations departments as well as lead the Hands of Hope pediatric program.

Prior to joining Agape Care, vandenMaagdenberg served as the chief operating officer at Great Lakes Caring, where she was employed for 22 years and held a variety of leadership positions after working as a physical therapist.

Rhonda Hamilton

Chief Accounting Officer / Interim CFO

Rhonda Hamilton serves as chief accounting officer. Her deep expertise and well-honed financial leadership in the home health and hospice sectors is integral to Agape Care Group’s efforts to optimize quality and performance in ways that drive greater stakeholder satisfaction and profitability.

Rhonda is known for her keen ability to build consensus among diverse groups, insightfully interpret data, identify innovative solutions and transform operational processes to exceed critical benchmarks. Before her tenure at Agape Care Group, she served as vice president of forecasting and analytics at AccentCare, a national leader in home health and hospice services operating at more than 260 sites in 31 states.

Working closely with leadership at AccentCare, Rhonda spearheaded the acquisition of Sta-Home Health and Hospice, the largest privately owned home health and hospice company in Mississippi, where she was chief financial officer.

Rhonda’s early career days included financial posts at St. Dominic Hospital and Deloitte & Touche — both located in Jackson, Mississippi.

Rhonda earned both a Master of Professional Accountancy and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her professional credentials include CPA Licensure from the Mississippi Board of Accountancy.

Pamela Duncan Owens

Chief Compliance Officer

Pamela Duncan Owens is our chief compliance officer, a position she has held since March of 2019. In this position, Pamela oversees the Corporate Compliance and Ethics program, as well as the Health Information Management department. She is also responsible for conducting the annual risk assessment, creating internal audit plans, overseeing contracts and serving as the HIPAA privacy officer.

Prior to joining Agape Care, Pamela was the executive director of Post-Acute Compliance, overseeing the corporate compliance program for 13 different post-acute service lines at a hospital system in North Carolina. Some of her additional experience includes serving as the chief compliance officer for LTC Health Solutions and an administrator for several other post-acute care centers and hospice houses. Pamela is certified in health care compliance and also holds certifications as a health care internal audit professional and a hospice and palliative care administrator. Her experience in the health care industry allows her to translate complex statutes and regulations into simple operational systems and internal controls that maintain compliance.

Pamela received a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Taft Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in professional communications from Winthrop University. Having spent over 25 years in the industry, Pamela is passionate about post-acute care and public speaking as a means of educating others. Personally, Pamela loves spending time with her family, including her four grandchildren, and she is a huge NFL football fan.

Julie Judge

Chief Human Resources Officer

Chief Human Resources Officer Julie Judge leads the company’s HR team, including employee services, benefits and total rewards, onboarding, and compliance specialists, as well as the talent acquisition team. With a focus on people, she likes to keep the “human” in human resources and her extensive leadership experience aligns with the company mission to serve with love.

Julie has dedicated her career to creating engaging work environments in multiple industries. Her first foray into healthcare was serving as the Vice President of Human Resources for the Cleveland Clinic. She also has served as the Chief Human Resources Officer for Erickson Living and Foundation Partners Group. She was the first Chief Experience Officer in the In-Home healthcare industry when she served at Maxim Healthcare.

Julie earned her bachelor’s degree in business from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland.

She is excited to be part of the Agape Care Group team and will call Spartanburg, South Carolina home.

Alex Ferguson

Senior Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions

Alex Ferguson serves as the senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions for Agape Care Group. In this role Alex will prioritize M&A opportunities to match the company’s financial, timing and cultural objectives supporting the growth trajectory and vision for Agape Care’s expansion.

Prior to joining Agape Care, Alex served as the vice president of business development at Guardian Pharmacy, the country’s third largest long-term care pharmacy provider. Under his direct leadership, Guardian grew from 9 locations to 41 across the US.

Drawing from more than 20 years of experience, Alex has expertise successfully integrating organizations that are strategically joining together. He is adept at supporting founders and entrepreneurs in creating, growing and realizing value for their businesses. He enjoys all aspects of the process beginning with establishing fair valuation and thoughtful structure, as well as leading the due diligence process to support a smooth integration.

Alex graduated with honors from the University of Georgia, earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology before earning an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He currently lives in Atlanta with his wife, four (very busy) children, and lab-mix, Scout.

Amy Goddard

Senior Vice President of Financial Planning & Analysis

Amy Goddard plays a major role in Agape Care Group’s operational growth and profitability as the company’s senior vice president of financial planning and analysis. With more than a decade of expertise shepherding the strategic operations of home health and hospice networks across the United States, Amy’s keen eye for maximizing performance in the highly regulated and complex health care sector makes her ideally suited to champion Agape Care’s next chapters of success. Over the course of her career, her sharp analysis of key performance metrics and profitable trends have been the foundation of savvy action plans that played an integral role in guiding the strategic growth of companies such as AccentCare, Elara Caring, Amedisys, Kindred Healthcare and more.

Along with a talent for building actionable forecast models that drive organizational performance and visibility, Amy is known for a collaborative leadership style that engages and unifies business unit leaders from all corners of the company in ways that drive optimal performance. Before her tenure at Agape Care, she served as vice president of finance at AccentCare, a national leader in home health and hospice services operating at across 30 states with $1.6B+ in annual revenues.

As vice president of financial planning and analysis for Elara Caring, Amy supported the rigorous integration of acquisitions for home health, hospice and personal care service lines operating in 200 locations in 18 states across the Northeast, Midwest and Southwest.

Amy’s earliest career days included positions at CIT Group and Deloitte. She earned both a Master of Professional Accountancy and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. She holds a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license from the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.

DeeDee Henderson

Mission Officer

DeeDee Henderson is the mission officer, responsible for leading efforts regarding veterans, volunteers and grief support, as well as spearheading diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the company. DeeDee is also focused on cultivating and maintaining relationships within the communities the company serves.

Formerly the vice president of clinical operations, DeeDee has in-depth experience formulating strategic initiatives, developing lasting partnerships, implementing quality and compliance standards, and overseeing the care for hospice patients and their families. Prior to her positions as executive vice president of clinical operations and CEO for Agapé Hospice, DeeDee has also worked in various senior leadership roles within the Agape Care integrated network. Her experiences as COO, executive director, regional president, post-acute care administrator, and director of nursing have all worked to equip DeeDee to continue leading the company’s clinical operations with excellence.

Starting her career as a social worker with Lutheran Homes of South Carolina, DeeDee has been in the industry for over 25 years. The opportunities she has had to serve in cross-functional roles have provided DeeDee with a wealth of knowledge to deliver exceptional results and provide optimal care for patients and families.

DeeDee received a Bachelor of Social Work from Winthrop University, an Associate in Health Science with a major in nursing from York Technical College, and a Master of Business Administration from Pfeiffer University. She is extremely passionate about helping employees achieve their goals and making a difference every day. Outside of work, DeeDee is a die-hard Carolina Panthers fan, and she loves listening to audio books, traveling, and spending time with her daughters.