Leadership

Arlene de Silva - Founder/CEO

Arlene was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Cincinnati over 40 years ago. She has over 30 years-experience in non-profit management and home and community-based care both nationally and internationally. She is the founder of Cincinnati Music & Wellness Coalition, the nation’s first community-wide recreational music-making coalition. Arlene majored in accounting from Aquinas University in Sri Lanka and holds a Licentiate from the Royal Schools of Music, London, England. She received her Executive Education in Non-Profit Management from Harvard Business School. She’s a Remo Inc., HealthRHYTHMS trainer.
Read Arlene’s Bio Here

Board of Directors

Jim Formal - Chair

Jim Formal has thirty-five years of executive level experience spanning the entire continuum of healthcare services. This includes acute care hospital and outpatient services management as well as retirement community and skilled nursing facility management. Further possesses entrepreneurial experience as the CEO of a hospital subsidiary corporation that operated several proprietary healthcare related businesses. Extensive strategic planning experience coupled with a strong history of board relations. He retired as President/CEO of Maple Knoll Communities in 2022.

Richard Batterberry, ret. CPA - Treasurer

Rich is a native of St. Louis who attended Washington University at St. Louis. In the mid-1970s, Rich and his wife Julia moved to Cincinnati where he became a CPA. From 1983 to 2015, Rich was a director (partner) at Barnes Dennig & Company Limited, a large regional CPA firm. Rich headed the firm’s Not-For-Profit industry group where he personally worked with a wide range of non-profit organizations. He served on the board and finance committees of several non-profit entities and was the treasury for an area municipality.

Connie Kingsbury - Secretary

Connie retired from Life Enriching Communities, a family of senior living communities and services in Cincinnati and Cleveland. She has an extensive career in serving older adults. A graduate of the University of Kentucky with a Bachelors in Education and a Masters in Social Work, her early career focused on developing and operating adult day programs in Greater Cincinnati, specifically the replication of the risk-based model of long term care know as PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly). She has served in leadership roles on many boards including, the Women’s Crisis Center of Northern Kentucky and the Zonta Club of Cincinnati.

Matt Frankland - Secretary

Matt is a Financial Center Manager at First Financial Bank. He is an experienced banker with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He is skilled in negotiation, retail sales, and team building and is strong in finance. He has a degree in Supply Chain & Operations Management with a focus in Business from Miami University. He was captain of Miami University’s Debate Team.

Carolyn Karageorges, CPA - Director

Carolyn has served as Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center since 2018. She holds a BBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Cincinnati and is a Certified Public Accountant. In addition, she serves on the Board of Trustees at the Summit Country Day School and the Executive Leadership Committee of the American Heart Association Ball.

Marcellus Harris - Director

Marcellus has been the Assistant Commodity Manager, Poultry for The Kroger Company since 2015. He holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University, respectively. In addition, as a Master Gardener Volunteer in good standing through the Ohio State University Master Gardener Volunteer program, he maintains a garden plot in Ault Park, Cincinnati, as part of their Adopt-a-Plot program.

Doreen Stanley - Director

Doreen has 30 years of strategic marketing and management experience with a special focus in the manufacturing and specialty chemical industries. She’s held senior leadership and management positions at Techsolve, a manufacturing process improvement firm, and Michelman, a specialty chemical manufacturer. She holds a BBA in Marketing & Management from the University of Cincinnati and a M.Ed. from Xavier University.

Hao Cong - Director

Hao Cong is one of the founding members of the Asian American Coalition of Ohio (AACO). She is the treasurer of AACO Ohio and leads the operation of AACO Cincinnati Chapter operation. In addition to her leadership role in AACO Ohio, she is a chair of her company’s AAPI associate group, in charge of local engagement. She has successfully led many large city, state and national level events such as Anti-Bully, Stop-Asian-Hate rallies, and hosted candidate forums, mental health and voter registration education seminars. Hao is passionate about youth leadership development and has spent a tremendous amount of time helping young generations engage in community services, cultural exchange and diversity and inclusion events. Currently she is an Advanced Analytics Consultant at Elevance Health (formerly known as Anthem).

Brad Martin - Director

Brad is a Cincinnati native, and Xavier University alumnus has worked as the Associate Director, Care Innovation and Community Improvement Program at UC Health since 2022. Prior to that, he served in the United States Army in multiple leadership positions as an aviation officer and helicopter pilot. He is also involved in his community as a member of the Board of Directors for Give Back Cincinnati and Commonwealth Artists Student Theater, (CAST) as well as a mentor for students and veterans through Xavier University and veterati.com.

Dave Wallace - Director

Dave Wallace worked as an attorney with the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati for over thirty years until his retirement in 2022. He is a long-time volunteer and participant in the Greater Cincinnati nonprofit and civic communities. Dave now serves as the vice-president of the Maple Knoll Communities Foundation Board of Directors. Dave currently is one of the facilitators for the Nonprofit Leadership Institute and, as a consultant with OneSource Center, he is an expert on issues involving board governance and operations.

Michael Leadbetter, MD - Director

Dr. Leadbetter is a graduate of Otterbein College where he graduated with honors in the Department of Biology with a minor in psychology. He received his Doctor of Medicine Degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine. During his medical school training, he completed a Rehabilitation Fellowship in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University. He was awarded the WH Meiling Radiology Fellowship at the University of Munich in Munich, Germany. After medical school, he was awarded a fellowship through the Royal College of Surgeons and Rotary International to study in London, England. Dr. Leadbetter was recognized with the Top Doctor Award by Cincinnati Magazine in Cosmetic Surgery in 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2007 through 2018. Dr. Leadbetter was a founding partner of The Plastic Surgery Group in Cincinnati.

Brenda R. Morand, ret. Pharm D - Ex-officio

Brenda was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Cincinnati to attend the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy. She was Cincinnati Music & Wellness Coalition’s first board chair and helped guide the early years of the organization. In 2018, she resigned from the position of chair and served as a director until September 2021. She currently serves as a member of the Grants Committee.

Ahmed Obeidat, MD, PhD - Director

Dr. Obeidat received his medical degree with honors from the Jordan University of Science and Technology in 2008. He then joined the graduate program in neuroscience and physiology at Wright State University (WSU), where he received a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences in 2013. He then joined the University of Cincinnati, where he completed neurology residency training in 2017 and a fellowship in Neuroimmunology & Multiple Sclerosis in 2018. Dr. Obeidat is currently an Assistant Professor in Neurology, Neuroimmunology, and Multiple Sclerosis at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the founding director of the neuroimmunology and MS fellowship program.