Barry & Taffy Berger Bio

Barry Berger was born in Lincolnwood and is the youngest of 4 children born to Pearl and Jerome Berger. All four children graduated from Lincoln Hall and Niles West. Barry's brother, Howard, was in the first graduating class at Niles West. 

Upon graduation, Barry moved to Phoenix and attended Mesa Community College and later transferred to Arizona State University and graduated in 1976 with a BS degree in Business. Barry's interest in Business started at nine when he started working for his father's jewelry store in Chicago. After graduating from ASU, Barry moved to Los Angeles and worked for a radiology company that provided hospitals with nuclear medicine and ultrasound services. Barry saw the future of health care and, at age 26, ventured out on his own to open up a home health care company. Accredited Home Health was founded in 1980. Throughout the years, Accredited grew by providing skilled and unskilled home health care services to the senior and developmentally disabled population. Accredited developed a delivery system for the state of California that saved the state millions of dollars per year by providing a service that offered respite care to the developmentally disabled. Accredited provided skilled home health care, including nursing, physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Accredited maintained a census of over 1,000 patients per month while maintaining a 4.5-star rating as scored by Medicare. Accredited also provided caregivers throughout Southern California to assist individuals with their daily living activities. 

Taffy Steinfeld-Berger was born in the Bronx, NY. Taffy grew up in Oceanside, NY, and New Jersey. Taffy attended and graduated from Boston University. Taffy then moved to Los Angeles in 1974, where she met Barry in 1984 and married in 1985. Taffy left her job to join Barry in trying to grow the business that started five years earlier. She oversaw the weekly payroll of approximately 100 employees and managed the general operations of providing quality home healthcare services to the community. Her responsibilities increased as the company grew throughout the years. She assisted in public relations and marketing along with her other functions. She became a leader in Accredited's growth and was responsible for its success. Taffy's interests are music, art, and interior design. She is a rock and roll historian and an original Grateful Dead fan. She can recite the origin of many of the bands in the 60's and 70's, along with the lyrics to their songs. Her interior design skills will match any professional interior designer. Along with her design abilities, she has an eye for art. Our home has all the art pieces and accessories that personalize our taste.  The Berger's have no children but have two dogs Spanky, a mix breed rescue and Dudley, a Labradoodle.

The Bergers saw an opportunity to retire and sell the Business in 2021. Accredited was sold to a publicly traded company on November 30, 2021. Accredited serviced over 10,000 clients per month and employed 2,500 per week.

Taffy and Barry decided to set up a charitable foundation (Berger Family Foundation) upon their retirement. 

Personal Message from the Berger Family 

"Upon thinking who to donate to the first group were my roots.  We decided along with “paying it forward” we would “pay it backwards”.

"My memories growing up in Lincolnwood and attending Lincolnwood Schools and Niles West will bring up fond memories.  From being camper of the year at the $3.00 summer camp at Lincolnwood Parks and Recreation in 1963, to attending the bonfire at the Halloween Party at the park, to the friends I made in Lincolnwood and at Niles West, I could not imagine a better way to spend my youth. It is our sincere pleasure to be able to make this commitment."