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Community Health Workers

Association of Missouri

President


Suzanne Smith is a CHW-C and the Director of Network Services for HCC Network.  She has worked diligently to develop the HCC Network for the past seven years and has engaged more than 75 organizations to cooperate and collaborate in the HCC Network. She has a strong leadership development background, having spent 18 years with the YMCA in Saline County as the CEO. Suzanne currently oversees the Network and has helped to develop the Community Health Worker Program, has expanded the network programs to include 20 Project Connect events that have taken place, has put together a resource guide for each county that is served, and started a warehouse to address the Social Determinants of Health Needs of our patients and network clients.  She also helped to implement the HCC Rides transportation initiative.  Suzanne is also the lead facilitator on the CHW HUB ECHO team through the Missouri Telehealth Network and has served on the CHW Advisory Committee and has been board member for the CHW Association for the State of Missouri since 2019.  Suzanne is excited to serve as the new Board Chair for the CHWAM Association. 

Suzanne has been married to her husband David for 32 years and they have two sons and two daughter-in-laws:  Andrew & Alicia and Alex and Ally.  Suzanne and her family like to camp at the lake, fish, and be in the outdoors!


Vice-President


Ciearra Walker serves as Project Coordinator with St. Louis Integrated Health Network’s Community Health Worker Workforce Partnership.

Her notable achievements and steadfast dedication throughout her undergraduate career gained her national recognition by President Barack Obama during his commencement address to the 2016 Howard University graduating class. Since the presidential recognition, Ciearra has been featured live on CNN, Detroit Deadline, Teen Vogue, the front page of the Detroit Free Press and was named Youth of the Year by Essence. Ciearra decided to expand her love for public health through a different lens, focusing now on the environmental influences of a youth’s upbringing. Using mentorship, academic empowerment and professional development as the main vehicles of service, Ciearra started her own initiative entitled, Cjs Corner.

Ciearra is on a mission to serve as a vehicle of opportunity for millennial’s and eager to get involved with those in her community. Ciearra received her Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Prevention Science from Emory University’s Executive Master’s of Public Health program. She is happily married to her long-term partner, Michael.


Treasurer


Hanna Oberg is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and a Community Health Worker-Credentialed. She is currently the Community Health Worker: Project Lead at Family Care Health Centers in St. Louis, Missouri. She is a 2020 graduate from Truman State University with a Bachelor of Science in Health Science with backgrounds in public health and interprofessional work. She currently serves on the Trauma Informed Care Committee at FCHC, the Truman State University Health Science/Health Education Advisory Board, is a member of the Society of Public Health Education (SOPHE), APHA, and NACHW. With experience as a CHW: Housing Specialist, she is passionate about collaborating with outside organizations to find safe, affordable, low-income housing options for the people she works with.


Secretary


Florence Adegoke is a Quality Analyst/Health Advocate Coordinator/Program Manager at University Health Truman Medical Center, Kansas City. She has been in Public Health for over 30 years.

Florence works with the Social Determinants of Health Team at TMC in screening patients for social needs and providing resources to those who screen positive.

Florence is currently an Adjunct Faculty at Metropolitan Community College, Institute for Workforce Innovation for the Community Health Worker course. She was part of the team that developed the Community Health Worker Course. She has been an instructor of the course since 2012. She is a member of the Kansas City Regional Community Health Worker Collaborative and serves on the Executive and Capacity Building Committees. She also serves on the Community Health Worker Association of Missouri Board.

Florence serves on the Board of Agape Pamoja, a not for profit organization in the Kansas City area that works with Congolese refugees in the metro area. She volunteers with Fishes and Loaves, an organization that feeds street institutionalized homeless people in the downtown Kansas City.

Florence earned a Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 1984, from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. Master of Public Health in 1993, from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Kansas in 2009.

SE Region Member-at-Large