About Us

Tim Otis is a healthcare marketing leader and the Founder and CEO of Empaira, an AI technology platform supporting long-term caregivers. He became a caregiver at age four when his mother was paralyzed and later supported his father through Parkinson’s disease. These experiences shaped his conviction that caregiving is one of the most overlooked and under-supported roles in healthcare.

Over the past 15+ years, Tim has led growth, digital transformation, and brand strategy across healthcare organizations and agencies, contributing to more than $30M in market-driven revenue through go-to-market strategy, demand generation, and digital innovation. He has supported organizations through multiple acquisitions and led multi-million dollar rebrands, building modern marketing and digital infrastructure in complex, regulated environments.

Tim’s work sits at the intersection of empathy, technology, and execution. He brings together lived experience and operational leadership to build systems that work in the real world. He has also served as an advisory board member for the CARE Fund, a non-profit providing financial support to families caring for children with serious medical conditions.

As “The Care-Led Innovator” on social media, Tim is building a growing platform focused on the caregiving experience, where he shares insights on the caregiving landscape, evaluates products that support caregivers in real life, and connects with advocates and voices across the space. This work has grown to more than 20,000 followers and serves as a direct channel for understanding and supporting caregiver needs at scale.

Tim is driven by a simple belief: that caregiving must be designed for, not endured.

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Sara Balter is a licensed psychotherapist and organizational leader whose career spans clinical practice and executive leadership. She brings a rare combination of perspectives to caregiving: the intimate insight of a trauma-informed therapist and the strategic discipline of a former Chief Human Resources Officer.

As a psychotherapist (LPC/MHSP-S) at Simply Being Therapy, Sara works with individuals, couples, and adolescents navigating anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, depression, impostor syndrome, and relationship difficulties. She is trained and certified in a range of trauma-informed modalities, including Internal Family Systems, hypnosis, attachment, and somatic practices, and is an ADHD-certified clinical practitioner. Her work often centers on helping people through major life transitions and on rebuilding trust and emotional safety so relationships feel more grounded and resilient.

Before her clinical career, Sara held senior HR and organizational development roles across major organizations. As CHRO at Results Physiotherapy, she helped guide the company through significant growth and acquisition. At Dollar General, she led talent and leadership development strategy across an organization of 110,000 employees. Earlier, as VP of Human Resources at NRT, she supported 8,000 employees and 56,000 real estate agents while leading talent integration for more than 30 acquisitions. She has also provided executive coaching, team development, and interim CHRO services across both corporate and creative industries.

As Founding Clinical Advisor to Empaira, Sara advises at the intersection of mental health, caregiving relationships, and ethical support design. Empaira is an early-stage, AI-driven caregiving platform built for those supporting loved ones with progressive neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, and MS. Sara's clinical depth and leadership experience help ensure the platform stays grounded in real clinical insight, prioritizes caregiver well-being, and approaches growth responsibly.

Sara is passionate about expanding access to support for caregivers. Having seen firsthand how emotional burnout and isolation can affect caregivers as deeply as the people receiving care, she believes community-based connection is a critical foundation for healthier, more sustainable caregiving systems.

Damian Rintelmann is an award-winning digital strategist and recognized authority in health technology, content strategy, and digital transformation, with two decades of experience at the intersection of creativity and digital innovation. His work in the health and life sciences space is shaped by a deep understanding of how technology can meaningfully improve patient outcomes, organizational efficiency, and the broader healthcare experience.

Most notably, Damian served as Head of Olive Agency at Olive AI, an innovative healthcare AI company, where he led efforts to translate complex AI-driven automation capabilities into compelling, accessible narratives and go-to-market strategies for health system clients. His work at Olive deepened his expertise in healthcare operations and the strategic deployment of AI across hospital and payer ecosystems. This also included building a remote patient monitoring application company inside the Olive Ventures Studio that brought patient data back to providers in post-operative care scenarios. 

Prior to his health tech focus, Damian held senior digital strategy and operations leadership roles at agencies and firms including Weber Shandwick, Delucchi Plus (as Chief Operating Officer), WebbMason Marketing, and Abel Communications (as Chief Digital Officer), where he shaped communication and digital strategies for globally recognized brands such as General Motors, American Airlines, Anheuser-Busch, Celgene, Samsung, PepsiCo, Unilever, ADP, and Best Buy.

A lifelong caregiver himself, Damian brings both personal perspective and professional expertise to Empaira’s mission of supporting caregivers through connection, advocacy, and innovation. His work with Empaira focuses on strategic positioning, brand development, product and community growth, and helping shape the organization’s long-term vision as it builds meaningful support systems for caregivers and families. 

Damian also brings a proven record as a technology advisor, having guided several high-growth startups — including one subsequently acquired by Meta — through pivotal strategic moments. He currently sits on the board of Betamore, a Baltimore-based nonprofit committed to cultivating entrepreneurship and innovation.

Today, Damian leads Catalyst Labs, the brand consulting agency he founded, where he channels his healthcare and health technology expertise alongside a singular talent for visual storytelling to help organizations find and communicate their most essential truths.

Jeanette Yates is Head of Community at Empaira, where she ensures trust sits at the center of everything the company builds for caregivers. In this role, she bridges the gap between caregiving reality and caregiver-focused innovation, making sure care technology is designed, communicated, and implemented in ways caregivers can actually use.

Drawing on lived caregiving experience that began at age nine, Jeanette understands the realities her work addresses: caregiver overwhelm, decision fatigue, trust barriers, and the hidden cost of carrying too much for too long. She brings those insights directly into tech and healthcare conversations, helping teams move beyond assumptions to design clearer, more supportive tools and experiences.

Jeanette is also an author, speaker, and podcast host. Her book, From Guilt to Good Enough: A Caregiver's Journey of Overcoming Burnout Through Healing Childhood Trauma, offers caregivers practical mindset shifts and boundary-building tools. She hosts the From Guilt to Good podcast and speaks at conferences, workshops, and webinars on caregiver-informed design, trust, and usability.

With a trust-first lens on privacy, safety, and the emotional reality of caregiving, Jeanette helps caregiver-serving organizations align their technology with what caregivers genuinely need: reducing friction, increasing adoption, and supporting families with both compassion and precision.

Mike Wold is the volunteer Arizona Regional Coordinator for the Institute for Healing of Memories, an organization that conducts weekend Healing of Memories Workshops throughout the world, providing healing to people who are suffering psychologically or spiritually from the painful memories of the past. He coordinates these workshops for veterans in Arizona. Mike is a US Navy veteran who is involved in organizations serving veterans and their families including being the leader of the Our Lady of Joy Military Veteran Ministry in Carefree, Arizona. In 2019 Mike was inducted into the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame for his volunteer work with veterans.

Mike was a successful organizational development consultant, leadership coach, teacher, and facilitator for more than 15 years. Prior to that he gained 25 years of experience in management and project management in the private and public sector.  He is a former Financial Director and Assistant Commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Economic Security. He is also a former Engineering and Program Management Director at Lockheed Martin Corporation where he led large engineering organizations and business units.