Lindsey Rehfeld ’86
Owner and Executive Director, Visiting Angels
Lindsey Rehfeld ’86 remembers the exact moment she felt the call to return to her alma mater as a professor. After graduating from Azusa Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems, Rehfeld knew she would return one day. During her time at APU, the professors she came to know as friends, mentors, and supporters were the driving force behind her decision to enter the business world, and her decision to teach.
“I saw myself in corporate America, I saw myself as a business owner, and I saw myself coming back and helping the students like I was helped,” says Lindsey. Her background in business and faith in God’s timing allowed her to do all three.
Lindsey discovered her passion for the elderly and the need for quality at-home care after assisting her grandmother during the years she battled Alzheimer’s disease and later, as she cared for her own aging parents.
After conducting research on at-home care opportunities in the San Gabriel Valley, Lindsey discovered that the market was nearly nonexistent. With the opportunity to break new ground, she weighed her options, but was reluctant to start an agency on her own. “I had a solid business background, but I wanted connections and training from an organization that brought the social work and nursing expertise that I lacked.” Visiting Angels, a growing at-home care corporation, gave her the opportunity she was looking for.
With just 70 franchises on the East Coast when she stepped in, Lindsey helped expand Visiting Angels to 500 across the nation. Much of the success can be attributed to her dedication to consistently pushed the corporation to adopt cutting-edge methods and technology.
However, Lindsey credits the success of the company and her heart for service to her years spent at APU. “When we are APU students, we are forced, in a way, to learn the discipline of serving others,” she says. “It’s about giving back what we’ve been given.””
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