Kori Hall is the Chief Programs Officer at City Care. Kori has a background in social work and community advocacy, specializing in services to those in marginalized communities. Her main focuses are community development in Oklahoma City and providing wraparound services for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.  

Kori currently serves as the Board Chair for Restore OKC, an assets-based community development organization, and is working with other community-based initiatives like the City of OKC’s MAPS 4 projects. She is also a public speaker who uses creative arts and storytelling to advocate for local issues. 

She has lived in Oklahoma for over a decade and is glad to have planted roots here. She hopes to equip community members with the tools they need to bring change to their cities, one neighborhood at a time.

Learn more about City Care.

Michelle Lara

Michelle Lara is a community organizer, advocate, and mother committed to activating the power already present in her community. She is the Founding Executive Director of Padres Unidos de Tulsa, a parent-led movement organizing Latinx families to shape public education and confront systemic inequities.

Michelle serves her community through roles on the board of CAP Tulsa, an early learning organization dedicated to preparing children for lifelong success, and the HUD Community Development Committee representing District 3, where she advocates for housing initiatives guided by community needs. She also works as a Professional Development Instructor at Saint Francis Health System, supporting leadership development and fostering team resilience.

Her work is grounded in love for her community and a deep belief that organizing isn’t about giving people power, but about connecting and activating the power we already hold.

Learn more about Padres Unidos de Tulsa.

Amy McGehee, MS

Amy McGehee is the Project Director for the Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) at the City of Tulsa, where she leads a federally funded SAMHSA grant focused on transforming Tulsa’s children’s mental health system through cross-sector collaboration, youth and family engagement, and an emphasis on equity and trauma-informed care. 

A doctoral candidate in Human Development and Family Science at Oklahoma State University, Amy’s dissertation, Examining the Nexus of State Policies and Well-Being at the Intersection of Gender, Sexuality, and Disability, investigates how policy environments shape health outcomes for marginalized communities. An important aspect of her dissertation research is a qualitative analysis exploring the impact of Oklahoma’s medical gender-affirming care ban on families raising transgender and disabled youth, with a focus on family systems, stress, and resilience. 

Amy brings an interdisciplinary perspective to public health and policy, grounded in both biological and social sciences. She is the creator of TRANSformation for Family Growth and Connection, an evidence-based support program for families of gender-diverse youth. Amy also serves as Board President of PFLAG Tulsa and sits on the City of Tulsa LGBTQIA+ Committee, where she advocates for inclusive systems and supports for all families. 

Learn more about the City of Tulsa’s Children’s Mental Health Initiative.

Elana Newman, Ph.D.

Elana Newman, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and the McFarlin Professor of Psychology at The University of Tulsa, Research Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma, and Co-Director of The University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity, and Injustice. Newman has conducted research on a wide range of topics regarding traumatic life events: PTSD assessment in children and adults, journalism and trauma, disaster mental health, substance abuse, therapy, and trauma research ethics. Current major projects examine disaster mental health interventions, the occupational health of journalists who cover trauma, and the effects of journalistic practices upon consumers and individuals covered in the news.

Newman has been active in training initiatives (APA guidelines, APA trauma competencies, training) to raise the standard of trauma-informed clinical care among children and adults. She is also providing trauma-training to other professions, most notably journalists, journalist educators, lawyers, human-rights advocates, and recently archivists. Newman regularly provides training to journalists about trauma science, best psychological practice for interviewing survivors, self-care, and trauma-related newsroom practices. She has disseminated trauma-focused best practice in clinical, public health, disaster, educational and criminal justice settings. Newman is a past president of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies and the current Chair of the Psychology Department at The University of Tulsa. Newman has served as a consultant to many organizations in the Tulsa area (and beyond). 

Learn more about The University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity and Injustice.

Mary Ellen Solon, LCSW

Mary Ellen Solon is a licensed clinical social worker with a dynamic career spanning school-based, clinical, carceral, and policy-centered mental health care. She currently serves as the Clinical Director for the Justice Programs division at Family & Children’s Services in Tulsa, where she co-leads therapeutic programming for individuals impacted by the criminal legal system, including Women in Recovery. Mary Ellen also operates her private practice, Rooted Hearts Therapy, LLC, where she specializes in couples counseling, and provides LCSW licensure supervision.

Her work centers on gender-based violence, addiction, and trauma—especially at the intersections of care, justice, and equity. As a former school social worker, she served as the founding adviser of the Racial Justice Alliance, the first student group in the U.S. to raise the Black Lives Matter flag at a public high school, and established a peer-led framework for community conversations on consent and healthy relationships. In Tulsa, she developed the curriculum for a substance use recovery course currently taught in jails throughout the region, and she chairs the Community Response Protocol Working Group of the Tulsa Mayor’s Commission on Domestic Violence.

As a bisexual woman and proud parent of an LGBTQ child, Mary Ellen brings a lived and professional commitment to systems transformation, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and trauma responsive care. Mary Ellen believes in the radical potential of care—and in the power of people and communities to both offer and receive it.

Learn more about Family & Children’s Services.