Our Staff

Courtney Z. McCall joined Missouri Foundation for Health in 2014 as vice president of strategic communications. At MFH, she is responsible for leading Foundation-wide communications and providing direction and support for use of communications tools in program implementation. Before joining the Foundation, she served as associate vice president of university relations at Harris-Stowe State University. She’s also held the position of communications specialist for the Boeing Defense, Space, and Security division at The Boeing Company, where she supported internal and CEO communications, as well as supplier management. McCall has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Arts in communications management from Webster University.

Crystal Costello (they/them) is an experienced nonprofit human resources executive. 

Crystal’s passion for ethical, compassionate, and creative human resources has spanned over 10 years in nonprofit human resources leadership across multiple organizations. Through their time in this work, they have developed considerable experience in building, scaling, and modernizing human resources systems. 

In their role at MFH as the first VP of Talent and Culture, they oversee human resources, while fully developing and supporting an inclusive, empowering, and equitable work culture. As a strategic thought partner with other Foundation leaders, they develop and implement tools and approaches around internal policy, talent acquisition, retention, and diversity.  

 Before coming to the Foundation, they served as VP of Human Resources and Talent Management at the AIDS Foundation Chicago. Prior to the AIDS Foundation, they led human resources for the University of Chicago Law School and the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic.  

They received their MBA with concentrations in human resources management and training + development from Roosevelt University, and they are PHR and SHRM-CP certified. Additionally, they are a certified mediator and career coach. Beyond human resources, Crystal is a passionate sexual assault advocate and certified crisis responder, having previously worked on-call and in emergency rooms with UChicago, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and Resiliance. 

Deena Lauver Scotti joined Missouri Foundation for Health in 2002 and currently serves as the vice president of program administration. She is responsible for guiding the operational and financial aspects of the Foundation’s work and ensuring alignment and consistency of workflows and schedules across all strategic initiatives. Prior to being named a vice president, Deena held the position of director of grants management. She received her undergraduate degree and Master of Business Administration from Fontbonne University. She is an alumna of FOCUS St. Louis’ Leadership St. Louis class of 2011 and FOCUS St. Louis’ Diversity Leadership Fellowship inaugural class of 2014.

During his 20-plus years in philanthropy, Dr. Dwayne Proctor has always worked to ensure that American communities were healthy and thriving. He joined MFH as President and CEO in 2021. The Foundation works to improve health through collaboration, convening, knowledge sharing and strategic investment, never losing sight of the equity lens that shapes all its work.

Under his leadership, MFH strives to become an antiracist institution that fairly targets its resources to achieve health equity in Missouri by 2023. The Foundation recently launched a 20-year Food Justice strategic initiative to build collaborative efforts and galvanize shifts in current policies and practices that shape the way Missourians eat. MFH works to address a diverse mix of pressing issues across the state, including Medicaid expansion, childhood obesity, firearm violence and suicide prevention, crisis response, and behavioral health. The Foundation works on several strategic initiatives focused on women’s health, such as access to contraception, and infant health and vitality.

Before his time at MFH, he served in a variety of roles at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2005, Dr. Proctor was tapped to lead RWJF’s national strategies to reverse the rise in childhood obesity rates. In this role, he collaborated with his colleagues to promote effective changes to public policies and industry practices, test and demonstrate innovative community and school-based environmental changes and leverage sustainable changes using both “grassroots” and “treetops” advocacy approaches to educate local and national leaders on their roles and opportunities to prevent childhood obesity.

Dr. Proctor serves on the National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium, focused on advancing and supporting the learning health care system and through evidence mobilization, digital health, value incentives and systems, and culture inclusion and equity.

Dr. Proctor was an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine where he taught courses on health communication and marketing practices to reach multicultural populations. During his Fulbright Fellowship in Senegal, West Africa, his research team investigated how HIV prevention messages raised awareness of AIDS as a national health problem. Dr. Proctor received his doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees in marketing and communication science from the University of Connecticut. He is the former chairperson of the board of directors for the Association of Black Foundation Executives and currently is the chairperson of the board of trustees for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Foundation, as serves as an advisor to both the University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy and the Wisconsin Medical School.

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Ivory Clarke has spent more than a decade working to advance equity from multiple vantage points – the environment, education, and health – and brings to her roles a deep understanding and appreciation of the power of knowledge sharing, partnerships, and relationship building to advance equitable outcomes. 

Before joining MFH, she served as both the Director of the Culture of Health Program and inaugural Equity and Inclusion Officer at the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). In her role as Director, she led a multi-year, collaborative effort to identify strategies to create and sustain conditions that support equitable good health for everyone living in the United States.  

As the NAM’s Equity and Inclusion Officer, she developed and implemented an organizational strategy to embed principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism into the NAM’s programs, processes, and procedures. Throughout her tenure at the National Academies, Ivory supported a range of projects focusing on education, health, and the environment.  

Ivory earned a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering. 

Julie Russell brings over 25 years of experience in the philanthropic sector focused on strategic impact and equitable outcomes to the Foundation. A licensed behavioral health clinician, she is passionate about strategy development and deployment, system and program design, and quality and performance improvement.

Prior to joining the Foundation, she served as Executive Vice President, Head of Behavioral Health and Wellness for Concordance, a nonprofit focused on reducing reincarceration rates for justice-involved adults. Russell previously served as Executive Director of the Leap Ambassadors, a global community dedicated to high performance in the social sector; and as Chief Impact Officer for the United Way of Greater St. Louis, overseeing programmatic strategy in investments, initiatives, policy, and evaluation.

As Deputy Director of the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund, Julie worked on a ballot initiative to establish a $40 million taxpayer-supported fund dedicated to children’s behavioral health, developing a common outcomes framework to measure and communicate collective results.

Julie served as a judge for the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award in Missouri. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She subsequently attended the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, earning a master’s degree in social work and returning as an Adjunct Professor.

She serves on the Nine Network PBS Community Advisory Board and the Brown School Social Impact Leadership Advisory Committee.

Katherine joins MFH from the International Center for Research on Women in Washington, D.C. Her career has broadly focused on studying the underlying determinants of health, particularly how gender and economic inequality contribute to health vulnerabilities globally. Katherine’s academic training is in medical anthropology and epidemiology. For many years during the height of the global HIV epidemic, Katherine lived and worked in sub-Saharan Africa where she developed and tested community-based approaches for preventing HIV and increasing uptake of HIV-related health services. In addition to HIV, Katherine’s research has ranged across many topics such as adolescent health and wellbeing, alcohol abuse, and the prevention of gender-based violence. Her approach to research is shaped by her training in social science – always seeking to understand and respond to the priorities of community members, including those whose voices are least heard. She has served on the faculties of the University of California, San Francisco and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Katherine holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Yale University and a master’s in public health from University of California, Berkeley. She is a native Missourian, having grown up in St. Louis, and is thrilled to have returned to her home state.

Kathleen Holmes joined the Foundation in 2007, and was promoted to her current position in 2019. She previously spent four years as a research coordinator at the Saint Louis University Center for Cultural Cancer Communication Research. She began her career at Alton Memorial Hospital, working as a registered nurse, and coordinating a parish nurse program. She received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois, and a master’s of public health degree from Saint Louis University.

Mark leads the team responsible for accounting operations, financial reporting, investment portfolio oversight, budget development, information technology, risk management, and human resources. He also oversees cash management, internal controls, audit preparation, and operation of the Foundation’s facilities.

Mark joined Missouri Foundation for Health in 2002 as Controller and helped launch the Foundation’s initial finance operations. He became Senior Director of Finance and Administration in 2015, assuming his current role as CFAO in 2023. Over the last two decades, Mark has led improvements in financial reporting, information technology systems, and operational effectiveness. Before joining the Foundation, he worked in the for-profit sector, where his expertise included extensive analytical work, tax, business strategy, and risk management.

Mark earned his bachelor’s degree from Fontbonne University in business administration. He is a member of the Foundation Financial Officers Group.

Sheldon Weisgrau brings four decades of experience to his position leading the Foundation’s health policy, advocacy, and government affairs functions. In this role, he directs work focused on eliminating health inequities by addressing social determinants of health, enhancing access to care, and building capacity for advocacy and civic engagement.

Before joining the Foundation in 2020, Sheldon served in senior leadership positions with state-based policy and advocacy organizations, a rural health consulting firm, and both federal and state agencies. During that time, he worked to ensure the delivery of health care services in rural and underserved communities and to enhance the knowledge and engagement of community members, providers, and policymakers.

Sheldon earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. He has served on numerous boards and commissions focused on enhancing health and health care.