Our Patient Care Team
Meet the experienced and friendly staff who make Vision Source the leading provider of vision care products and services in Lakewood Ranch and Parrish, Florida.
Our staff delivers first-class service from the minute you call or walk in our office. Please do not hesitate to contact us if any questions or problems arise.
Shalease Stephan, Patient Care Coordinator
Shalease moved to Florida from Maine when she was only 10 years old. She has one son and they both love the outdoors and dancing. Most weekends you will find her catching the beautiful Florida sunsets and traveling the state with her boyfriend, who is also a dance instructor. Shalease has a deep passion for helping others absolutely loves learning new things in the medical eye care profession.
Angela LaPorte, Patient Care Coordinator
Angela is a proud mother of four and moved to Florida from Michigan. Angela has over 18 years of experience in the eye care and optical field. She enjoys camping, traveling and trying new restaurants with her husband, Jeff.
Liz Shore, Patient Care Coordinator
Elizabeth Shore fulfilled her dream of moving to Florida on New Year’s Eve 2020 from Ohio. Since moving she enjoys visiting all of the different beaches in the area. Elizabeth also has a passion for animals and is certified in Applied Animal Behavior, so in her free time Elizabeth can be found training dogs or catching some sun on the beach.
Amanda Flores, Patient Care Coordinator
Amanda was born and raised in Florida! She is the youngest of four children and is very close with her family. Amanda jokes that it is easy to connect with her family because most of them live on the same street! Amanda enjoys attending her favorite music artist’s concerts. From pop to Latin to country, Amanda really enjoys all music and you can often catching her singing her heart out at live shows.
Shea Novak, Patient Care Coordinator
Shea is a true Florida native and grew up in St. Augustine. Shea comes from a large Scottish family that established an area in north east Florida! She enjoys Florida’s Gulf Cost beaches, cooking, decorating and spending time with her finance, Rob. They have two dogs, Pre and Sheba. Shea also holds a degree in Kinesiology and is a licensed massage therapist. Her passion is being helpful and making a positive impact on others.
Benita Tillett, L.D.O., Licensed Dispensing Optician
Benita is a Licensed Dispensing Optician. She has lived in Florida since the age of seven and moved to the Bradenton/Sarasota area in 2004 after getting married. Benita enjoys shopping at the local outlet mall and her and her husband enjoy running at Disney events. They particularly enjoy learning every day how to live a healthier lifestyle. She became interested in becoming an optician when she received her first pair of eyeglasses at 13 years of age. Picking vision care as a trade was a natural choice after becoming so interested in how her eyes and eyeglasses worked. She received her associates degree in Opticianry at Hillsborough Community College and became a licensed optician in 2000. She enjoys working with technology so it was a natural fit for her to work as an optician at Vision Source of Lakewood Ranch since the practice is technology driven. After being fit with several styles of ill-fitting glasses as a teenager, she takes pride in assisting our patients to not only see better but also look fantastic in their new pair of eyeglasses.
Dawn Rosenfeld, Optical Technician
Dawn is originally from Michigan but moved to California in 1996. She finally made her way back to Sarasota, Florida. She has been married to her husband Greg for 18 years and they share a 10 year-old boy named Russell. She has been in the optical industry for 29 years and has great experience in both private practice and in the wholesale optical laboratory field. She absolutely loves working with patients and educating them on the best eye wear for them. In her spare time she enjoys fishing golfing and walking her bulldog Diesel.
Elyse Kersting, Optical Technician
Elyse is originally from New Jersey but moved to Delaware when she was only three years old. She visited Florida frequently to see relatives over the years and finally was able to achieve her goal of making Florida her permanent home! She really enjoys spending time at the beach, boating and spending quality time with family. Elyse enjoys living a healthy lifestyle, setting personal goals and inspiring others to do the same. She has been a part of the eye care industry for over ten years and her greatest reward has been the relationships she has built over time her colleagues and the fulfillment she gets helping patients receive the gift of sight.
Deana Bryner, L.D.O., Licensed Dispensing Optician
Deana has over 32 years of experience in the optical industry including retail sales, eye healthcare and eyewear manufacturing. She is not only a licensed optician, but she has national certifications from ABO-NCLE and NBCOT. She also has an associates degree in occupational therapy. Deana was born and raised in Ohio. She is married and has one son and also a Shih Tzo! She enjoys the warm weather, going to the batch and sitting on the lanai watching storms roll by.
Jaclyn Colella, L.D.O., Licensed Dispensing Optician
Jaclyn grew up in Pinellas county but relocated to Georgia in 2014. However, she recently moved back to Florida! She has been in the optical industry since 2008. She first mastered the position of optometric patient care coordinator. Soon after moving to Georgia, she became a licensed dispensing optician for a large, privately owned ophthalmology practice. She is super excited to be back in Florida and is looking forward to building her forever home with her fiancé’ in Parrish, Florida!
Wendy Bunten, Optical Technician
Wendy was born and raised in Marshfield, Massachusetts. She has been married for 35 years and has one daughter. She received her opticians license in Massachusetts in 1991. By 1995 she opened her own optical practice which she grew for 25 years before selling it and moving to Florida. Her daughter, Sam, currently works at Disney World which made Wendy’s move to Florida that much easier! The visit her at Disney often! During her spare time she and her husband can be found on their boat exploring native Florida trails.
Tiffany Mondo, Medical & Optical Technician
Tiffany was born and raised in Manatee county. She graduated high school at Manatee High in 2005 so she has witnessed the wonderful growth of Manatee county in the last 25 years. Tiffany has three children, Breanna, David and Paislee. She is a big animal lover and really enjoys family boat days! She has worked in optical profession previously and is multifaceted. She completed everything from front desk to sales to filling insurance both vision and medical insurance.
Kim Slivinski, Optical Technician
Kim grew up in Kansas and claims to be a “Kansas Farm Girl!” She is married to her husband Bill and has two children, Bill and Hannah. In her free time, she loves to work in the yard planting flowers. She also loves to ride bicycles for exercise. She has worked in the optical field for over a decade and loves to help patients look and feel their best!
Maria Brown, Medical Technician & Scribe
Maria few up in upstate New York. She was adopted from Seoul, Korea. Maria has always been very creative and enjoys making meaningful gifts. She actually engraves memorial gifts that include handwritten items, finger prints and paw prints. She studies Reiki, sound healing, energy healing and psychic studies. She really enjoys spending time with her German Shepherd, Jax!
Samantha Jones, Medical Technician & Scribe
Samantha was born and raised in Chicago. She graduated from cosmetology school and moved to Florida in 201. She soon fell in love with the optical field! She continually enjoys science and technology in the eye care profession absolutely loves meeting new patients. In her spare time, she enjoys painting, creating jewelry, going to the beach and spending time her husband and son at home.
Angie Pierce, Medical Technician & Scribe
Angie moved to Florida with her husband and two children from Maryland in 2019. When not spending quality time with her husband, Jeff and their two rescue dogs, she can be found cheering her son on playing basketball or joining in on team chants during her daughter’s softball games. They also love trying new restaurants.
Amanda Talbert, Medical Technician & Scribe
Amanda has been married to her best friend for 12 years and they have three children. She served in the US Air Force from 2005-2017. Her life mantra s “Live Your Dash.” Amanda loves breathwork and enjoys taking cold plunges! Interestingly, she also loves to grab the microphone and sing her heart out during karaoke.
Heather Hedel, Certified Ophthalmic Assistant, Medical Technician & Scribe
Heather is originally from New Jersey. She and her husband moved to Florida in 2015 to care for her family. Heather and Randal live in Parrish with their two dogs, Romeo and Samson. In her free time they love to explore different hiking trails with their two dogs. The love biking, kayaking and gardening. Heather has worked in the eye care profession since 2010 and received her certification as a certified ophthalmic assistant shortly thereafter. She is excited to be part of the Vision Source team and looks forward to meeting and caring for patients within and around the community of Parrish.
Alyah Gonzales, Medical Technician & Scribe
Alyah is a Florida native-born and raised right here in Bradenton. She lives in Parrish with her husband, Wyatt and her cat, Genghis. They love to spend free time exploring Florida and attending rock festivals. While she is new to the eye care profession, she has worked in health care before and real loves helping and meeting new people.