Our staff
Catina O'Leary, PhD, LMSW
President and CEO
coleary@healthliteracymissouri.org
O'Leary oversees all core activities and works to set the strategic vision for the organization.
Michelle Roberts, MSJ
Director of Communications, Strategy and Market Research
mroberts@healthliteracymissouri.org
Roberts leads our communications and marketing strategy at the state and national level.
Pamela Kelly, MBA, MJ
Director of Partnerships and Initiatives
pkelly@healthliteracymissouri.org
Kelly leads our sales and relationship-building efforts through the creation of successful partnerships, programs and initiatives.
Megan Rooney, M.Ed
Plain Language Manager
mrooney@healthliteracymissouri.org
Rooney works as our webmaster and leads our plain language document translation team.
Kelly Kallaher, MA
Plain Language Specialist
kkallaher@healthliteracymissouri.org
Kallaher works on our plain language document translation team.
Sam Pettyjohn, MPH
Health Literacy Program Manager
spettyjohn@healthliteracymissouri.org
Pettyjohn oversees the clinical assessment team and works as a graphic designer.
Meghan O'Connell
Community Project Manager
moconnell@healthliteracymissouri.org
O’Connell oversees the coordination and evaluation of our trainings and assists with curriculum development.
Derek Collins
Business Office Manager
dcollins@healthliteracymissouri.org
Collins is responsible for HLM's administrative, operational and financial systems.
Ellen Baker
Executive Administrative Assistant
ebaker@healthliteracymissouri.org
Baker is responsible for office administration.
Phuc Gin
Data Coordinator
pgin@healthliteracymissouri.org
Gin assists with data analysis and evaluation of our trainings.
Karen Leonard, RN, MSN
Health Literacy Education Trainer
kleonard@healthliteracymissouri.org
Leonard, a nurse, serves as a health literacy education trainer and assists with training development and outreach.
Board of Directors
Maureen 'Mo' Bressett, RPh, MSHA
Bressett is a registered pharmacist residing in Gainesville, Mo. She is currently employed as a Cardiometabolic Medical Science Liasion with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals covering Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Arkansas. Bressett has served on the Community Advisory Council for the Missouri Foundation for Health since 2007. She also served on the Board of Directors for the BJP Youth Ranch in Gainesville from 2007 to 2008.
Martha Gragg, RN, MSN
Gragg is CEO of Sullivan County Memorial hospital. For 30 years, she has served in nursing and executive leadership positions at for-profit and non-profit health care organizations including vice president for programs and charter board member of the Missouri Foundation for Health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy and the Truman State University School of Nursing Advisory Council.
R. Stephen Griffith, MD
Griffith, a medical professor and expert on rural health issues, is board certified in family practice and currently serves as director of the rural preceptorship with the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine. He has been with the Department of Community and Family Medicine since 1984, initially working in a rural office in Oak Grove, Mo. He became residency program director in 1989 and was associate chair from 1998 until 2001, when he was named department chair serving from 2001 to 2010. He also served as the associate medical director at Truman Medical Center – Lakewood from 2002 to 2011. Dr. Griffith continues to see private patients in the Lakewood Medical Pavilion.
Timothy O’Dea
Treasurer
O’Dea develops innovative approaches to literacy-related issues through collaborative projects for the statewide, non-profit Literacy Investment for Tomorrow (LIFT). He leads LIFT’s efforts to implement research-based solutions by creating successful funding proposals, assembling effective teams and managing progress (budgets and personnel). O’Dea has established an entrepreneurial approach to nonprofit management at LIFT and has led LIFT’s health literacy projects.
Steve Pu, DO
Chairman
Dr. Pu is a surgeon in private practice in Kennett, MO. He is also the medical director of the Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in Kennett. He served on the Board of Directors for the Missouri Foundation for Health from 2002-2008 and as board chair in 2008.
Ellen Sherberg
Sherberg has been publisher of the St. Louis Business Journal since 1990. She has also served on the executive board of the United Way of Greater St. Louis and is the founder of the Women’s Leadership Initiative for United Way that has raised almost $35 million dollars for the St. Louis community.
Ingrid Taylor, MD
Secretary
Dr. Taylor is a board-certified family practice physician in St. Louis, MO, and the President and CEO of Allies in Healthcare LLC, which developed and publishes My Health Companion: A Portable Paper Health Organizer. With a grant from Missouri Foundation for Health, this health organizer was distributed to St. Louis ConnectCare patients to help them keep track their own health information and foster health empowerment. In addition, she is the recipient of the 2012 Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc, Unsung Heroine Award, and the National Medical Associations’ 2007 Women in Medicine Award. Taylor was recently elected Chairman of the National Medical Association's Board of Trustees.
David Walsh
Walsh served as HLM’s interim CEO from August 2011 to June 2012 and provided management and consulting services to the organization since its inception as a non-profit in 2009. Walsh has a wide breadth of experience in working with nonprofit cultural institutions and attractions throughout the country. He is president of his own management consulting firm and over the last 12 years has helped more more than 70 clients with the development of strategic plans, marketing studies, financial planning and feasibility analyses. He brings a deep understanding of business and financial models and metrics having spent 15 years in the corporate world working in the new venture development arena.
Michael Weaver, MD
Dr. Weaver is board certified in emergency medicine and served as director of emergency services at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City for 17 years. He continues as the hospital’s medical director of their forensic care program, caring for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, elderly and child abuse. In 2006, Dr. Weaver was named vice president of clinical diversity at Saint Luke’s 11-hospital health system, and in 2008 completed a cultural competency fellowship sponsored by the American Hospital Association, Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) and the Institute For Diversity. In 2009, he completed the first disparities leadership program sponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard School of Medicine.
