By Alison Stanton Growing up in a small ranching and farming town in Texas, Allison Kierman remembers often hearing the phrase, “You’d have to sell the farm to pay the taxes.” “This always resonated with me. So, I think I always knew I wanted to be an estate attorney,” says Kierman, managing partner at Kierman Law in Scottsdale. Kierman’s grandparents also helped influence her decision to get into estate pl ...

By Jordan Houston While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to womanhood, today’s “modern woman” is typically expected to strive to “have it all.” She is complex and juggles multiple hats, shifting roles as a mother, homemaker, daughter, successful entrepreneur and everything in between. But with the increasing pressure to balance motherhood with a healthy work-life balance, it begs the question, what do ...

By Jordan Houston Unlike many businesses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paris-Milan Home founder Nathalie Chianura saw a boost in sales. Boasting more 29 years of experience in high-end European furniture, the French native opened the Paris-Milan Home luxury showroom, located at 15551 N. Greenway Hayden Loop, Suite A110, at the beginning of 2019. She has since made waves in the Scottsdale inter ...

By Jordan Houston A Small World Pediatric Dentistry founder Daniela Vasquez-Bolduc is celebrating 15 years of her practice, all while balancing the most important job of all — being a mom. The Scottsdale-based dentistry, located at 5533 E. Bell Road, Suite 115, since its inception in 2007, has built a reputation for itself as a hub for family-friendly and patient-oriented care for infants through adolescenc ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Luke Van Wyhe spent 15 years shuttling the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Snoop Dogg and Britney Spears from show to show. He calls his life “something out of a dream.” “It’s a shock when (country singer) Miranda Lambert wants you to escort her out of a sold-out show so that she can wave to all the fans that make her career possible,” Van Wyhe says. But the late-night drives and the ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Music has embraced Ed Heisler’s life. A Marine City, Michigan, native, Heisler traveled south to the Detroit area to perform in clubs throughout his teens and early 20s. He stepped away from music to start a family and, after six years with Chrysler, packed up and moved his family to the Valley. “I started playing seriously when I moved out here,” Heisler says about the relocat ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski In 2022, North Valley buyers and sellers can expect to see more of what resulted from the pandemic-fueled housing market — skyrocketing home prices, increased competition between buyers, the speed of action necessary to snatch a property off the market, and the reasons people are moving to new cities and buying homes. Demand was high and supply was low, resulting in a hyper-com ...

By Sherri Plotke, Broker at Arizona Golf & Sun Properties Real estate was the hot dinner party topic in 2021, as the Valley led the country in population growth and annual appreciation increases.  Desert Ridge soon became Arizona’s largest master-planned lifestyle community. This multifaceted community includes single-family homes, luxury multifamily communities, residential golf estates, schools, high- ...

By Jordan Houston Barrett-Jackson in the last five decades has made a name for itself as a barometer of the car collector industry, attracting enthusiasts from across the globe to its World’s Greatest Collector Car Auctions and automotive lifestyle events. Dubbed America’s No. 1 Attraction for Car Lovers in the 2019 USA Today Readers’ Choice Contest, the Scottsdale Airpark-based auction company is revving u ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Kathy Colace Laurinaitis, with one side of her face drooping, struggles to relax and let her bright, natural smile shine through during a photo shoot in her luxurious condo. Interviews and photo shoots are important to Laurinaitis, as, for the last year, she had surgery for a blueberry-sized benign tumor on her brainstem and now deals with its aftereffects. She documented part ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski As a child, Laura Brockel often visited her great aunt, who fell deaf after a case of the measles. She watched her struggle with amplification devices and doctors. “She found it difficult to find someone who was reputable and had the qualifications to handle someone with the profound hearing loss she had,” the North Scottsdale resident says. “She had had cords running up her dr ...

By Connor Dziawura The COVID-19 pandemic came at an unfortunate time for Avery Lane, a consignment store that specializes in items on the high end, from furniture, antiques and fine art to other home accessories. After seeing steady growth and expansion over the first several years in the Scottsdale Airpark, owner Darlene Richert signed for yet another expansion in December 2019, pushing the showroom past 3 ...

By Bridgette M. Redman Prestige Cleaners has been committed to doing the right thing by its customers, employees and community since 1964. It wasn’t about to let a thing like the pandemic change that. President and CEO Denise Testori says she’ll never forget when the news of the pandemic and the lockdowns hit. “It was St. Patty’s Day and there were a lot of rumors swirling around of what was going on,” Test ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Kaylavon Middleton is a proud, card-carrying Medicare member and, as a licensed Certified Medicare Insurance Planner, she enjoys helping others navigate the system.  “I’m there as a bridge when people get ready to retire,” Middleton says. She’s a retiree herself, well, sort of. She left BlueCross BlueShield after 16 years and knew how to tread the Medicare waters herself. Five ...

By Jordan Houston When it comes to leadership, Dr. Sara Vizcarra sets the tone, not only as a professional but as a woman, Latina and mother as well. Dr. Vizcarra, an esteemed dentist at North Scottsdale’s Pinnacle Peak Family Dentistry, has built a reputation for herself as a knowledgeable, personable and compassionate doctor in a variety of services, including cosmetic dentistry, pediatric dentistry, orth ...