Chrissy Bashore 

Coordinator of School Counseling and Student Wellness, DESE

Chrissy Bashore currently serves as the Coordinator of School Counseling and Student Wellness for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Additionally, she oversees Missouri Healthy Schools within her section. During her 11 year tenure with DESE, she has had the honor of working with school counselors, teachers, administrators and additional educational stakeholders to help guide school districts in their student wellness and school counseling efforts. She has a bachelor's degree in Human Services with a minor in Psychology. Her passion is building relationships and helping others.

Michelle Bockstruck, RN, CDCES

Clinical Care Coordinator,

Washington University

Endocrine & Diabetes Department

Michelle Bockstruck is the Clinical Care Coordinator for Washington University. She coordinates the School Nurse Education Program, IMPACT Program, The Healthy Kids Express Mobile Diabetes Unit, and the Diabetes Prevention in Youth Program. She made a career change from a political lobbyist to a diabetes specialist after her son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 7: 18 years ago. She has been with Washington University for 6 years and previously with St. Louis Children's Hospital. Michelle worked on the diabetes units before moving to the inpatient Diabetes Educator division and then on the outpatient side of diabetes management with Washington University. She has a passion for providing compassionate and quality care to the higher-risk population of youths with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time at her lake house on Kentucky Lake and visiting her mother in Florida. She has been married for 29 years and has two grown children and one grand dog!

Margaret W. Bultas,

PhD, RN, CNE, CNL 

Professor, Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing at St. Louis University

Margaret Bultas is a professor at the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing at Saint Louis University, where she teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs. She is a pediatric nurse with experience working with children with developmental delays and chronic illness. She continues to substitute as a school nurse in her spare time.

Elissa M. Brueggemann,

BSN, RN, NCSN

School Nurse, Rockwood School District

Elissa Brueggemann earned her bachelors degree from Northeast Missouri State University (Truman University) in 1995. She earned her national school nurse certification in 2018. She has a passion for nurse leadership, education and public speaking. Elissa volunteers her time as Vice-President & Education Chairperson of the St. Louis Suburban School Nurses' Association, where she develops educational speakers for the organization's professional speaker series. This speaker series supports the learning needs of St. Louis, MO county school nurses and the surrounding area. Elissa has also served for a number of years as President, Vice-President, and Bargain Chairperson for the Rockwood Association of Nurses. She currently works full time as an elementary school nurse for the Rockwood School District, where she has received three Rose Award nominations, the Above and Beyond Award in May 2021, and the Rockwood Board of Education Outstanding Achievement Award. In her spare time, Eli enjoys writing, cooking, cycling, and health & fitness.

Laurie Chappell, MSN, RN, CHC

St. Luke's Hospital

Laurie is a nurse community educator at St. Luke's Hospital. She has a Masters Degree in Nursing from Webster University and multiple recognized certifications in stress management, mindfulness, and health coaching. She spent the first 20 years of her career in clinical roles focused on cardiovascular disease...with learning the connection of chronic stress and illness, her energy and passion is geared towards helping other gain understanding and strategies to live healthier and happier lives by reducing the risk of numerous chronic conditions that greatly impact our health and wellbeing. She does this by presenting on various wellness and mindfulness topics to the community and various local organizations. Laurie understands life stressors simply by being a working adult, who is married and raising two college aged children. She enjoys walking regularly alone or with friends at her favorite Queeny Park, reading for her monthly book club, learning pickleball, and when time and budget allows, exploring other parts of our beautiful country. She is always stretching herself and has recently started a wellness business. Get Healthy with Laurie, where she offers health coaching services and wellness programs.

Marjorie Cole,

MSN, RN, FASHA

MO State School Nurse Consultant, DHSS

Marjorie Cole has been Missouri's State School Nurse Consultant since 1999. Ms. Cole practiced school nursing in St. Louis County for eleven years before joining the Missouri Department of Health. In the School Health Program, she has been a leader in the ongoing projects collecting important data on the health and chronic conditions of the students enrolled in Missouri public schools and sharing this data to support services for students to be safe and healthy learners. She is a founding member of the Step Up! Be Counted Standardized School Health Services Data Set collaboration between the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), the National Association of State School Nurse Consultants (NAASNC), and ALL school nurses. She participates as the school health chronic disease lead on the CDC 2302 grant.

Lisa Dierking

Coordinator of School-Based

Mental Health, DESE 

Lisa Dierking is a Licensed Master Social Worker and the Coordinator of School-Based Mental Health for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Her experience as a school social worker, school-based therapist and parent educator has brought immense value to this newly created position within the education department. She has a bachelor's degree in Psychology, a master's degree in Educational, School and Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Mental Health Practices in Schools. On a personal note, she shares, "I have an awesome husband and five rock star kids ages 9-17, and my youngest two were adopted through kinship/foster placement.

I am very passionate about school-based mental health!"

Dr. Adam Eaton, MD

Pediatrician, Cheif of Children's Hospital Community Pediatrics Sector

Dr. Eaton is a Board Certified Pediatrician with 22 years of experience. In addition to daily practice as a general pediatrician, he also serves as the Medical Staff President of St. Louis Children's Hospital and also the Chief of the Children's Hospital Community Pediatrics Section. He is a St. Louis native and attended medical school at Washington University School of Medicine.

Carmen Hill, RN

School Nurse, St. Louis Public Schools

Carmen Hill has been in nursing for 47 years, school nursing for 29 of those years. Her hospital experience has been in Cardiac Care. She retired from DePaul Medical Center after working 25 years in the Intensive Care Unit. Carmen presently works for St. Louis Public School District as a school nurse. Nurse Hill is a member or the Missouri National Education Association, where she serves as Vice-President for her local, NEA STL. She also served as lead negotiator for St. Louis Public's local. Carmen has served in many capacities on the local, state, and national levels. She states, "I am the mother of four terrific sons and a Jazzy MiMi of four wonderful grandchildren! I enjoy my job immensely. It is my desire to always advocate for those who don't have a voice."

Angie Midnight-Oest,

MSN, RN, NCSN

School Nurse, Rockwood School District

Angie earned her associate's degree in nursing in 2010 from Kishwaukee College. She entered the bridge program at Northern Illinois University, where she received her bachelor's degree in nursing in 2014. In 2023, she completed her Master's in nursing education from the University of Arkansas-Grantham. This is Angie's 9th year as a school nurse. She currently works at Westridge Elementary in Rockwood School District. Angie was honored as the Rising Star for SLSSNA and MASN in 2019. She was honored for Outstanding Service of a School Nurse by MASN in 2021. She is currently the School Nurse of the Year for SLSSNA. This is Angie's third consecutive year as the president of SLSSNA. Angie is, also, the current president-elect of MASN. Angie lives in Ballwin with her husband and two children. Angie enjoys watching her son play basketball, soccer, and select baseball in her free time.

Jacqueline Miller, DDS, MS, MPH

State Dental Director, DHSS

Dr. Miller became the State Dental Director for Missouri on August 1, 2022. Dr. Miller brings an extensive history of leadership, advocacy for dentistry and volunteerism both in Missouri and abroad. She has served multiple positions in the American Association of Orthodontists, most recently on its Council on Communication. In 2011, she was the first female to hold the office of president of the Midwestern Society of Orthodontists. She has made 24 dental mission trips and participated in Give Kids a Smile and Missouri Mission of Mercy. She is planning to continue her overseas mission trips in 2023.Dr. Miller earned her DDS degree with distinction from the UMKC School of Dentistry and then was accepted to the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry and graduated with a Master of Science and Certificate in Orthodontics. In July 2022, she earned her Master of Public Health degree from A.T. Still University of Health Sciences. She looks forward to using her experience and education to extend dental services to the underserved populations of Missouri, initiating programs to address these dental needs and increase dental education to all Missouri citizens, partners and stakeholders in improving dental health. Visit health.mo.gov/OralHealth to learn more about Missouri’s oral health programs. Contact Dr. Miller at jaqueline.miller@health.mo.gov or 573-751-5874.

Bridget Salberg, MS, CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist,

Special School District

Bridget Salberg has worked in the public education setting as a speech-language pathologist for more than a decade. She has supported Kindergarten through post-high school graduate students with various communication difficulties and all different school-aged identifications. Now, she supports educators primarily working with non, minimally, or unreliably speaking students. She has a passion for prioritizing and making communication fun and relevant to the individual students.

Jane Sykes, RN

School Nurse, St. Louis Public Schools

Jane Sykes has been a school nurse for the St. Louis Public School District and member of NEA and MNEA for many years. Her curiosity about how union membership and representation works for school nursing spurned her interest in the bargaining process. It was Jane's goal to follow her locals 'due dollars' and better understand this process. She states, "It has been the ride of a lifetime! Our progress was slow but steady it culminated with NEA St. Louis members receiving the biggest raise in it's history, MNEA, and the NEA! Join us for our session and hear our personal story of how We Have Come This Far by Faith and let us show you how we did it and how you can too!"

Lisa Ali

MNEA UniServ Director

Lisa Ali received her Master of Education, in Education, from Texas A&M University with a minor in Early Childhood Education. She went on to become an educator with the United States Department of Defense in Alexandria, VA and then made a move to the South Dakota Education Association as a UniServe Director. Lisa then held the position of Labor Relations Specialist for the New York State United Teachers Vestal in 2021. Her strong people skills in Human Relations and Organization, as well as her ability to take initiative with a collaborative mentality, landed Lisa with the Missouri NEA St. Louis as a UniServ Director in 2023, where she remains today.  Lisa has enjoyed a very successful thirty-year career where she works every day to maintain currency on trends in the field while keeping systems modernized and streamlined. Lisa Ali joins us today as a St. Louis, Missouri Uniserv Director, bringing her expertise to increase your knowledge about union membership as a school nurse.