The Community Advisory Board (CAB) was established to help bridge the gap between university researchers and local communities. The CAB is comprised of a diverse group of individuals with strong ties to local communities within St. Louis and its surrounding counties.

The CAB advises research, activities, and programs within the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences and Institute for Public Health.

Community Advisory Board members and Center for Community Health Partnership & Research leadership at their 2024 annual retreat.

Pictured (left to right): Carlos Ruiz Martinez, Doug Lindsay, Rose Jackson-Beavers, Hilary Broughton, Melba Hale, Brett Maricque, Kathy Gardner, Meaghan Bailey, Shavanna Spratt, Nancy Spargo, Djuan Robinson, Angela Brown, Allison Kemner
Not pictured: Brandy Peoples, Ben Zeno, Jordan Braxton, Kelley Vollmar and Simone Minner

Reactive Barometer Sessions

Reactive Barometer Sessions are a service of the Community Advisory Board. Faculty and research teams across disciplines seeking feedback on patient and community engagement in the St. Louis region may request to meet with the CAB. 

The board supports:

  1. Centering health equity in St. Louis
  2. Making community connections and introductions
  3. Providing perspective on gaps in research

Contact Hilary Broughton at hilary.broughton@wustl.edu to schedule a session.

Learn more about session expectations >>

Current CAB Members

Co-Chair: Nancy D. Spargo, AM, LCSW

Clinical Director for the Hermann Center for Child and Family Development, WashU School of Medicine

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Nancy Spargo is the Clinical Director for the Hermann Center for Child and Family Development at WashU’s School of Medicine, which is revitalizing treatment of children and their families through empowering caregivers to nurture social, emotional, and neurodevelopmental foundations; strengthening parent-child relationships; utilizing multi-disciplinary teams to promote well-being; and continuing to research and develop interventions that set a new standard of care within the community.

She is a graduate of the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and excels at systems integration and program development for marginalized populations with a focus on trauma. Her career is characterized by a collaborative approach, innovative program design, quality service delivery, professional development, and advocacy.

Ms. Spargo’s commitment to mitigating the impact of trauma and working to strengthen families and their communities has led her to serve a variety of populations, including immigrants and refugees; foster and adoptive families; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations; and the homeless.

Co-Chair: Kelley Vollmar

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Kelley Vollmar has served in public health for over 20 years and is now the Director of the Jefferson County Health Department. Ms. Vollmar holds Bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science specializing in the social impact of government regulation of environmental issues and in conflict resolution specializing in multicultural conflict. She also hold a master’s degree in dispute resolution with a dual emphasis on corporate and environmental conflict.

Ms. Vollmar is the Chair of the Missouri Association of Local Public Health Agencies (MOALPHA) and serves as a member of the #HealthierMO – Transforming the Future of Public Health in Missouri Advisory Council and Hillsboro Rotary, and as a Board Member of the Missouri Institute for Community Health (MICH), Missouri Center for Public Health Excellence (MOCPHE), Jefferson County Health Network, Jefferson County Public Safety Commission, Jefferson County Community Partnership, and Get Healthy DeSoto.

Kathy Gardner

Senior Consultant, EMD Consulting

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Kathy Gardner is a senior consultant with EMD Consulting focused on helping nonprofits strengthen their organizational performance. She was previously a Senior Vice President at United Way for over 30 years, leading the Community Investment Division that distributed the funds raised in the annual campaign, provided agency training, and helped organizations implement sound volunteer management practices.

Ms. Gardner is regarded as a candid, results-driven community leader with strong interpersonal skills. She serves on several nonprofit boards and was named one of the 2011 Most Influential Business Women by the St. Louis Business Journal.

Melba Hale, MBA

Aging Consultant, BJC Home Care Services

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Melba Hale is a career health care clinician and leader who focuses on a comprehensive approach to healthcare. She promotes collaboration across health care continuums of care and community organizations to achieve optimal outcomes for those being served. Advocating for health equity and promoting overall health and wellness in the community is her passion.

Ms. Hale’s prior board experience steeped her in mission-driven work geared to help people with developmental disabilities and autism become an integral part of the community. She continues to work to empower and support older adults, persons with disabilities, and caregivers in her volunteer activities and private consulting.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from WashU and an MBA from Webster University. Melba is currently working to complete a graduate certificate in gerontology at the University of Wisconsin in 2024.

Rose Jackson-Beavers

Mental Health Consultant

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Dr. Rose Jackson-Beavers has dedicated her career to breaking down mental health stigmas in faith-based communities. She has spoken to over 4,000 congregants, empowering churches to establish behavioral health ministries. As a result of working with congregations for more than 10 years, she has authored several books on mental health issues.

With over thirty years of experience as a social service administrator, Rose has successfully directed more than five major programs throughout the metropolitan area while operating her business working with families. After retiring from a well-known local non-profit behavioral health organization in December 2022, Dr. Beavers planned to focus on family, cherishing moments with her only grandchild. However, the persistent need for mental health ministry prompted pastors to call her back to training churches as a consultant.

 Despite retirement, Rose’s commitment to mental health advocacy persisted. In January 2023, she launched her newest program, The BBB Faith Project (Breaking Behavioral-Health Barriers in Faith-based Communities), expanding her reach beyond St. Louis to train churches nationwide in more advanced topics. Through her unwavering dedication, Rose continues to make a profound impact in the field of mental health ministry as a mental health faith-based training consultant.

 Rose received her degrees from Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University and ATS Theological Seminary. She is also member of the WashU Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences Governing Council, Illume: The Behavioral Health Center of Excellence Advisory Board, and the St. Louis Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition. Additionally, she is a certified Christian mental health coach. 

Rose has been married for 40 years, and they have one daughter. She is also a fiction author of fourteen books across various genres.

Allison Kemner, MPH

Senior Vice President and Chief Research Officer
Parents as Teachers National Center

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Allison Kemner serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Research Officer for Parents as Teachers National Center. She also serves as adjunct professor for Saint Louis University in the College of Public Health and Social Justice. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from Saint Louis University with a focus on Epidemiology and Behavioral Science.

At Parents as Teachers National Center, Ms. Kemner oversees the research and learning activities for the organization, and she collaborates with a research network to advance the organizations research and learning agenda. For 15 years, she has supported national, state, and local research and evaluation projects in the areas of maternal and child health, childhood obesity, child abuse and neglect, family support, child development, and social determinants of health.

Ms. Kemner serves on several advisory groups including the Home Visiting Expert Consensus Panel through Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, the National Advisory Committee for the Home Visiting Applied Research Collaborative, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting COVID Health Equity Research project, Home Visiting Evaluation Advisory Council with Tufts University, and the Public Health Advisory Committee for Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice.

Doug Lindsay

Keynote Speaker, Workshop Designer, and Personal Medical Consultant

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Beginning at age 21, Mr. Lindsay suffered an 11-year illness that kept him bedbound during which time he worked with 35 senior faculty at 28 institutions to help resolve his illness. He won a first national court case that protected patients’ rights, and developed the concept for the two successful, innovative adrenal surgeries used to treat his case. Once fully recovered, Lindsay returned to Rockhurst University and finished his biology degree. Today he is a nationally-recognized speaker appearing at TEDx, Stanford Medicine X and the American Healthcare Association, among others.

Mr. Lindsay also provides an in-depth Personal Medical Consultant service to a small number of rare disease and complex condition patients who’ve found themselves trapped in the medical system.

Simone T. Minner, MSW

School Social Worker, Hazelwood School District

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Simone T. Minner, a native of St. Louis, is a graduate of Roosevelt High School and earned her Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work from University of MO-St. Louis (UMSL). She currently serves as a school social worker in the Hazelwood School District. For the past 17 years she has worked with middle school students, but will be working with high school students beginning in the 2023-24 school year. She also serves as the Bright Futures Coordinator for the district’s community partnership initiative.

Ms. Minner’s passion for her community is deep and whenever she is given an opportunity to be a voice or advocate, she eagerly accept the challenge. This passion was ignited as a sophomore in high school when she became a teenage health consultant with City of St. Louis Department of Health. She spent three years educating her peers on health-related topics. Later she learned of consultant opportunities throughout various networks such as UMSL School of Nursing, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation, and St. Louis County Library. These networks introduced her to the Community Research Fellows Training, where she graduated in 2017.

Ms. Minner married her husband of almost 25 years right out of undergraduate studies. They blended their families and added two for a total of five children (four sons and one daughter).

Brandy S. Peoples, PhD

Psychologist, Minister, Author, Consultant

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Brandy S. Peoples, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who is currently on staff at the St. Louis County Family Court where she works with juvenile offenders. A helper by nature, Dr. Peoples is also an ordained minister who firmly believes physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being is the key to experiencing “wholeness.” With these interests, Dr. Peoples frequently assists church leaders who are interested in mental health training for their congregants. She also serves on the advisory board and helps train churches that are affiliated with Bridges to Care and Recovery, a program designed to reduce mental health stigma in faith-based organizations through training. As a mental health advocate, Dr. Peoples serves as a volunteer, speaks to community organizations, engages in panel discussions, and offers consultation on mental health issues. 

Overall, Dr. Peoples is considered to be a highly-informed and engaging speaker who is extremely passionate about mental health awareness. She loves to inspire others to live a full and purposeful life which she does through writing as she is a self-published author and blogger.

Dr. Peoples holds a doctoral degree in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri – Kansas City.

Djuan L. Robinson

Reports Analyst, Better Family Life

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Djuan Robinson grew up in the inner city of St. Louis and attended DeAndreis and Mercy High Schools, where he was active in sports and societal issues. He earned a BS in sociology with a minor in social work and philosophy from Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

Mr. Robinson has worked in the social service sector for over 40 years and has a strong background in youth and adult development. He has worked at the Annie Malone Children’s Home, Marygroves Children’s Home, Urban League of Alton, On the Youth Side, and the Monsanto Family YMCA. He currently works for Better Family Life Inc. as a reports analyst. He has developed many youth programs emphasizing education, sports, and recreation. He accepted his call to the ministry in 2005, and is now a minister at Fresh Start Bible Church under the Leadership of Pastor Douglass Petty.

In August of 2023, Mr. Robinson was honored with the Living Legend Award, and in January 2024 received the YMCA Dr. Martin Luther King Tribute Award for service in the St. Louis Community.

In 2011, he underwent surgery for prostate cancer and is now twelve years cancer-free. He says early detection saved his life, and that God is more than worthy. Mr. Robinson is married and the father of three boys and three girls. He is committed to being a positive image in the community.

Carlos Ruiz Martinez

Director of Mission Integration and Strategy, Migrant and Immigrant Community Action (MICA) Project

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Carlos Ruiz Martinez is the director of client support Services at the MICA Project, a local nonprofit that provides immigration legal services. In this capacity, he leads a team that provides comprehensive case management to immigrant families in the St. Louis region.

Additionally, Mr. Ruiz Martinez is completing his doctoral dissertation in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Iowa. His research focuses on the relationship between federal immigration agencies and religious people and institutions in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

Shavanna Spratt

Doula, Advocate, Engagement Specialist

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Shavanna Spratt is the owner of Da Hood Talks Entertainment and also Da Hood Doula, LLC. Her show that launched December 12, 2020 addresses many topics that educate, inspire and represent the community that she has been a part of for years.

Ms. Spratt works full-time as a community engagement manager for Generate Health. Additionally, she is a certified doula and a great advocate for mothers and babies. She has over 10 years of working in some capacity in the health care field.

Ms. Spratt recently founded Da Hood Connect, a local nonprofit that strengthens support systems and reduces social and economic barriers with the aim of fostering the health and education of Black and under-resourced communities through media engagement and community events that celebrate Black culture and identity.

She spends her time between caring for her two daughters and working to improve her community.

Ben Zeno

Senior Strategist, Missouri Foundation for Health

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Ben Zeno currently works at Missouri Foundation for Health as a Strategist supporting the elimination of health inequities throughout Missouri. In his prior role, he helped to launch and grow the Mental Health Collaborative at Casa de Salud. Mr. Zeno collaborated with a diverse team of organizations to ensure access to quality mental healthcare for Casa patients—mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants—in the St. Louis region. During his tenure, the Collaborative quickly grew from four to eighteen partners.

Mr. Zeno came to St. Louis from Seattle to study Latin American Studies and Chemistry at WashU. He loves St. Louis, but misses the mountains and, yes, the Seattle rain.