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.


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, Director - Community Based Counseling
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, Director – Clinical 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.  


Anne Pruett, Director - Crisis Services
apruett@oasiscenter.org

Anne Pruett began her work at the Oasis Center in 2004 as the Director of Crisis Services for Oasis Center, and as such is responsible for the Emergency Shelter Program, as well as its interface with the Project Safe Place Program. Anne has worked with people in crisis for over 20 years. She graduated from Jacksonville State University with a Bachelor’s of Social Work and began her work with families in crisis in the public child welfare field as a social worker. She has worked in child welfare systems in North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee. As a social worker in this field, she provided therapeutic services to families whose children were at risk of coming into state custody, completed assessments of reports of severe child abuse/neglect and engaged services for families. She also worked as the liaison between the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources and the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama providing training to hospital staff and consulting on child abuse cases involving patients at the hospital. In 2001, Anne received her Master’s of Science in Social Work from the University of Tennessee, and continued her work in public child welfare as the Coordinator of Planning and Evaluation for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. In this position, Anne provided direction for the implementation of the federal Child and Family Services Review for the State of Tennessee and developed the agency’s annual report. Anne’s career also includes experience as a social worker in two Nashville hospitals and experience with families delivering babies in her work as a doula. In addition to her role as Crisis Services Director at Oasis Center, Anne serves as a community partner member of the Davidson County Department of Children’s Services Self-Evaluation Team, and is a consultant re-viewer for the Child and Family Services Review assisting the federal government in reviewing state child welfare systems.