All About Nannies - Meet Our Staff

All About Nannies - Sonoran TV Interview

Cynthia "Cindy" Littwin
Director / Owner

Cynthia has over thirty years in the field of children's education and childcare. Her years of experience include mother of six, teaching assistant in elementary education, licensed owner of a Washington state daycare/preschool, Pre-K lead teacher for a private preschool, and as a nanny specializing in twins from newborn to 3 year old. Her business experiences include retail management and owner/operator of Best Buddies Learning Center. Cindy has 6 years in management with the Allied Corporation, starting as the youngest manager at the age of 19 years.

Cindy’s interest in child development and her experience in all levels of childcare have culminated in the unique opportunity to become the owner of All About Nannies, purchasing the company from founder Dianna Hughs.

Cindy, her husband Mike and their youngest child Rose have lived in Arizona for 3 ½ years. Mike is a professor with Maricopa Community Colleges specializing in language and communication. Having hired nannies for her own children Cindy knows first hand what a parent experiences going through the hiring process. Cindy is dedicated to screening and hiring the best nannies in the valley to provide excellent care for your children.

Dianna Hughs
Founder

Dianna is the founder of All About Nannies, Minding Multiples and All About Baby Nurses. She is also founder of Arizona 's only local nanny support group "Valley Professional Nanny Network".

Dianna was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona . When Dianna was only 21 years old she was hired by a prestigious financial services company as a due- diligence/compliance secretary in downtown Phoenix . She was promoted within to the trading department. Dianna left the downtown firm to work as the operations manager for an independent broker.

Dianna worked in corporate America for 11 years and concurrently worked as a nanny for over 15 years where she ended her corporate job and became a full-time nanny.

Dianna met and married her best friend Brad in 2001. Brad is Director of Investments for a financial services firm. They enjoy bike riding, going to the movies, volunteering for a non-kill shelter, attending black-tie events, and going on cruises.

Dianna has appeared on local newscasts from Channel 3, Good Evening Arizona and Channel 15, Sonoran Living providing families valuable information on how to hire and maintain a nanny in their home.

All About Nannies employs a placement counselor & recruiter to work with the nannies through the placement process. The staff actively screens nanny candidates to assure only the best are referred to our families.

Debi

Since 1984 Ms. Russell has owned and managed her own accounting and business-consulting firm. She started her career providing bookkeeping and payroll support to small businesses in and around the city of Phoenix, Arizona. Later, she expanded into the tax preparation and tax planning field. Ms. Russell is certified to support many accounting software packages. After many years of working with businesses her professional experience grew to encompass many other areas of expertise including Human Resource Management, Property Management, and Medical Practice Administration.

Seattle Staff:
Merrilea Formoso

Merrilea earned her Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of Washington. This degree enabled her to work in the public school system as a speech-language pathology assistant. In this field she has worked with the general and special education populations ages 3 to 21. Merrilea is educated in the use of American Sign Language. She in fact uses sign language with her own children as an alternate means of communication. Merrilea will be using her extensive child language development background to create an infant education program. She hopes to incorporate sign language, music and physical activities in a daily program for parents and their nannies to use.

Merrilea Formoso is the branch manager of our new Washington State branch. She has over 14 years of experience with children. She has worked in a daycare setting as a preschool teacher and assistant manager. She has also been a nanny in the cities of Seattle and Gig Harbor. Merrilea is married to Nick and they are the proud parents of two girls ages 6 and 5 months. They have been residing in Tacoma for 16 years.

Caroline Hoppe

Office Assistant

Caroline, a recent transplant from Boulder, Colorado; is currently attending Chandler/ Gilbert Community College for a degree in business. She has been working with children since the age of nine when she started helping in her mother's daycare. Her other experiences with children includes babysitting for a variety of ages, including twins and also overnight sitting. She has 5 years of experience as an office assistant and management in the service industry. In her free time she enjoys hiking, being with her loved ones and exploring the state of Arizona. She is very excited about joining the All About Nannies Team and working with all of you!

Gale Jostes

Office Assistant

A Chicago native, I raised my family of four children, including twins, along with being an active partner in three family businesses for twenty-two years. Phoenix has been my home since 1988, moving here after living and working in the Missoula, MT area for six years. Since leaving Chicago and eventually migrating to Phoenix, I have had a multitude of careers and work experiences namely: 10 years Human Resource background; Full-commissioned retail sales in furniture and accessories; Education as an Instructional Assistant in the ELL (English Language Learner) classroom. All of these experiences have been educational, life-changing and extremely rewarding. I thoroughly enjoy working with people, adult and adolescent as well. The retail experience allowed me to discover my creative side. The educational piece gave me the opportunity to give back to our community by working with the next generation. Human Resources nurtured my compassion to help in whatever capacity I was serving at the time.

All of the above is what I bring to All About Nannies. I am committed to being an integral part of this business by sharing my experiences and hard work to enhance, grow and be a part of its continued success. It’s going to be fun and exciting as the same time!