Hal Cato, President and CEO
hcato@oasiscenter.org

A Nashville native, Hal Cato is responsible for providing overall leadership and strategic direction for the organization, as well as leading all fundraising and community relations’ initiatives. Hal is one of Nashville’s leading youth development advocates, serving as Founding Chair of the Nashville Youth Alliance and co-chair of Metro Nashville Public Schools Alignment Nashville project. No stranger to community service, Hal has served on numerous non-profit boards, including Family & Children’s Services, Nashville CARES, Bethlehem Centers of Nashville, Association of Nonprofit Executives, NCCJ, and BookEm. In addition, Hal founded Hands on Nashville, a non-profit organization that has grown from 16 to more than 2,800 members. Prior to joining Oasis Center, Hal worked for Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the world’s largest developer and manager of employer-sponsored childcare programs and services. In this role, Hal created over 85 corporate-sponsored child care centers throughout the United States, England, Ireland, and Guam. Hal is also the founder and immediate past President of the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, where he developed a program that equips children’s play spaces in shelters throughout the United States.


Michael McSurdy, Vice President of Programs
mmcsurdy@oasiscenter.org

As Associate Executive Director, Michael McSurdy is responsible for all Oasis program services and program development. Following graduation from the University of the South and after earning his graduate degree from the University of Louisville, Michael began his career as a therapist in the community mental health system where he found that the children, youth and families who were most in need of support had the fewest resources and opportunities for participation. For the next 12 years, Michael worked to improve child welfare services in Tennessee—first as a consultant and program director at the University of Tennessee and then as Director of Foster Care Services for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. He is a past-president of the Davidson County Child Sexual Abuse Council and has also been elected to the executive committees of the National Foster Care Association and National Association of Foster Care Directors. Michael is also a member of the Foster Care Review Board and the Executive Board of the Southeastern Network for Youth Services.

Michael currently attends Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management where he is working on his Executive MBA. He was awarded this full-tuition sponsorship through a partnership between Owen and the Center for Nonprofit Management.


T. Allen Morgan, Vice President of Advancement
tmorgan@oasiscenter.org

T. Allen Morgan has more than a decade of experience in non profit fundraising and management. Prior to coming to Oasis Center, “T” was the Director of Development at Nashville CARES, where he introduced the highly successful Dining Out For Life event and launched the agency’s first ever capital campaign. In 2002, T came to Nashville from San Francisco, where he was Development Manager at Lindsay Wildlife Museum, the oldest environmental education and wildlife rehabilitation facility in the nation. During his stay there he raised the funding needed to purchase and outfit the very first mobile response unit for wildlife disasters in the Bay Area. Prior to that he worked as a fundraiser for Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Southern California.


Kim Reese, Vice President of Operations
kreese@oasiscenter.org

Kimberly Reese’s ­15 years of financial experience encompasses operational and financial management. She has served as VP of Operations for Oasis Center for the past 2 years. Prior to this role, she served as the Financial Services Director for 8 years. She holds a BBA with a concentration in Accounting from the University of Memphis and a Masters in Public Administration from Tennessee State University.

 

Kimberly’s business acumen instills funders’ trust while accomplishing Oasis Center’s mission of helping youth succeed.

Judy Freudenthal,  Senior Director - Youth Engagement and Action
jfreudenthal@oasiscenter.org

Dr. Judy Freudenthal is a Licensed Professional Counselor with more than 25 years experience working with youth and families, and directs Oasis Center’s prevention services. She attended Metro Nashville Public Schools, received her doctorate in Human Development Counseling at Vanderbilt University and is a respected trainer in the field. Under her leadership, Oasis Center was designated as a Model Prevention Program in Tennessee through the Southeastern Center for the Application of Prevention Technology; the Oasis Across Ages Program was awarded the Innovation Program of the Year by the Tennessee Association of Homes for the Aging, and Judy was named the 2002 Prevention Professional of the Year for Middle Tennessee by the Tennessee Department of Health. She serves on numerous community and statewide committees, and is on the board of Nashville Prevention Partnership and Homework Hotline. Judy also is a Vanderbilt Adjunct Professor, teaching multiculturalism and diversity to graduate counseling students.


Michelle Hall, Director - Transitional Living
mhall@oasiscenter.org

Michelle Hall, BSSW, has been working with youth as they transition to adulthood for over 11 years. She received her degree from Trevecca Nazarene University where she studied Social Work, Human Relations and Communications. Michelle specializes in working with youth in residential settings. She has worked with youth and families experiencing crisis in the Emergency Shelter, youth as they aged out of foster care, and youth who have experienced homelessness. Since 2004, she has served as director of Transitional Living Services. Currently, Michelle is focused on working with youth as they use their experience of injustice to develop their leadership skills and make change in their communities.


Cheryl Neville-Mendez, Senior Director – Clinical and Residential Services
cmendez@oasiscenter.org

Cheryl Mendez is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than twenty years experience working with youth and their families. She earned Bachelor’s Degrees from the University of Michigan in Psychology and Secondary Education and her Master of Science Degree in Social Work from the University of Tennessee. She has worked with youth as a teacher, coach, counselor, administrator and consultant.  Her experience spans from pre-schoolers to adults with an emphasis in adolescents, family therapy and group work.  Ms. Mendez is recognized for her leadership in innovative programming and curriculum development with juvenile justice involved youth and foster care families.  She has worked in residential, outpatient and home-based settings, and is a sought after trainer and group facilitator in such varied areas as advancing youth development, anger management, alcohol and drug prevention, teen court, domestic violence, and family preservation.   



Anderson Williams, Director - Director of Consulting
awilliams@oasiscenter.org

Anderson Williams received his B.A. from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.  In 2002 Anderson began working with Community IMPACT! Nashville, a nationally recognized youth organizing initiative, based in East Nashville.  He spent two years as the Director of Oasis Community IMPACT after a merger with Oasis Center and now serves as the Director of New Initiatives. His work with the youth of Community  IMPACT was recognized as a finalist for the 2006 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovations and is the subject of a documentary entitled "College on the Brain."  In addition to regional and national training and consulting work, Anderson co-authored "The Core Principles for Engaging Young People in Community Change" with the Forum for Youth Investment.

Jeff Dotts, Director- Nashville College Connection
jdotts@oasiscenter.org

Jeff Dotts is the coordinator of the Nashville College Connection. He began working with youth as an English teacher in Arizona after receiving his BA from Prescott College in 1993. Concerned that young people weren’t being fully engaged in their own education, Jeff started working with Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Association to develop social-emotional development programs for children and youth with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. The work led him around the world and expanded his definition of chronic illness to include the condition of poverty. After working in Botswana with youth orphaned by AIDS, Jeff went back to school to learn more about the why’s and how’s of youth in America. He received his M.Ed. in Foundations, Policy, and Leadership of Education from the University of Virginia in 2004. He’s married to Erin, a pediatric cardiology fellow at Vanderbilt University Children’s Hospital and still thinks he got the better part of that deal.