Natalya Corter was living in southern California with her husband and 9-month-old son when she learned she was pregnant with twins. Her in-laws, who live in West Chester, said that if the couple moved back to Pennsylvania, they would help.

“We’re now planting roots here,” says Natalya, who joined the Human Resources department at Simpson Meadows as a generalist in August 2022. She came to the position with HR experience in education, and wanted to stay in that field or move into senior services. “I wanted to work somewhere with a meaningful environment.” She found it here.

“In my first interview, it really hit me how well taken care of the residents appeared. It felt like a family environment,” says Natalya.

From hemlines to human resources

Natalya actually started her career in fashion. She had worked in fashion, and then studied fashion design and merchandising at California State University at Long Beach. Although she loved making clothing, she didn’t care for the industry environment—the deadline pressures, cutthroat competition and 80-hour workweeks. When she met her husband, she knew she wanted a family and reassessed her career path. She worked in benefits and pension planning and then worked as human resources coordinator at a private elementary school in Los Angeles until she started her family.

Her husband is director of multimedia for USA Today, so he was able to switch to remote work, and the family moved east where, among other things, the children have more space to run around and play. “As a family, we love to go to local farms,” she says. “We enjoy getting out in nature and parks—the things we didn’t have access to in LA.”

Today, Natalya is pursuing a master’s degree in human resources management at West Chester University. At Simpson Meadows, she handles a wide range of issues for prospective, new and long-term employees, from things as simple as time-clock problems to introducing prospects and new hires to the company.

“My day consists of juggling between onboarding and orienting new people, interviewing and working with existing staff,” Natalya explains. “I want them all to have a good experience.”

 Helping across the generations

Inspired by her mother, who died of brain cancer in 2016, Natalya is a helper. “She was a social worker who instilled in me the desire to give back. She was such a caring person,” Natalya says of her mother. “She was a therapist to drug addicts and alcoholics and was the most empathetic person you would ever meet. I looked to her for courage. She still inspires me to try to give back to people.”

Natalya has made high-visibility vests for a blind uncle in San Francisco. She taught her neurodiverse son sign language to help him communicate when he was non-verbal. And she is making a difference too, at Simpson Meadows, by helping ensure that the staff is strong, caring and committed.

“We want people who stay, and I want to stay so I can see that through,” she says.

Call 610-269-8400 or submit the form below to see for yourself how Natalya and the rest of our staff make Simpson Meadows the best in senior living.