Kim Hooper

Kim is a Founder and long-time medical director of the CFC. He has served over 20 years.

Summit Shah

Summit has a passion for public health, global health, and helping the underserved.

Courtney DuBois Shihabuddin

Courtney DuBois Shihabuddin is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. She has a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, a Master of Nursing as an Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner from Rutgers

University, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Seton Hall University and a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University. She worked for four years as a certified HIV Specialist at a Ryan White Grantee Clinic in Oklahoma City prior to relocating to the Columbus Area.

Cassandra Kessler

Cassandra is a family nurse practitioner, specializing in urology. She is a graduate of Ohio University. Cassandra is the director of the urology clinic and currently practices at a busy urologic office in Columbus, Ohio.

Robert Cooper

Dr. Cooper is a graduate of the OSU College of Medicine. He is an emergency physician at The Ohio State University. He has volunteered at the CFC for 10 years. He enjoys taking time during visits to get to know his patients as well as teach his students.

Abigail Oberla

Abby is a family nurse practitioner of primary care at OhioHealth. She is board-certified in lifestyle medicine, and enjoys empowering her patients to adopt healthy behavior changes surrounding diet, exercise, stress and sleep patterns.

Andre Fernandes

Andre Fernandes was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and raised in Orlando, FL. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of South Florida. Andre currently works at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center as a pharmacy manager overseeing sterile

compounding operations across the medical center. He has served at CFC since 2018. He is passionate about ensuring patients have access to much needed medications.

Caitlyn Hull

Caitlyn is a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner with almost ten years of experience in Breast Surgical Oncology. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, she.completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at The Ohio State University.

Jackiethia Saunders Butsch

Jackiethia Saunders Butsch began her professional career as Constituency Outreach Organizer for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. She also served as aide to Representative Tracy Maxwell-Heard, Executive Director of the Whitehall

Chamber of Commerce, and Development Manager for a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). She is currently the Senior Outreach Coordinator for Community and Civic Engagement at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Catherine Hechmer

Catherine is a Licensed Independent Social Worker and Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor. She is the Interprofessional Education and Practice Field Coordinator for OSU's College of Social Work.

She supervises Social Work students completing their field practicum at the Columbus Free Clinic. Catherine has worked in intergrated primary care settings at two local Federally Qualified Health Centers.

Rosalia Mahr

Dr. Rosalia Mahr is an emergency physician originally from Wisconsin where she completed her residency. Dr. Mahr completed her fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. She currently has a fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound.

Anne Botti

Anne Botti has volunteered at the Columbus Free Clinic since 2005 providing primary care. She received her medical degree from George Washington University, then completed an Internal Medicine residency at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio, TX.

Dr. Botti served in the military for 15 years then was selected as director of the pre-admission testing clinic at the Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center. In addition to providing primary care to patients, she is pursuing a master’s degree in public health through St. Louis University’s biosecurity and disaster preparedness program.

Julie Kennerly-Shah

Julie Kennerly-Shah is Associate Director of Pharmacy at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is responsible for pharmacy practice for the James Cancer Hospital and associated outpatient clinics and infusion centers, pain and palliative care, and

investigational drug services. She earned her PharmD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned dual master’s degrees from The Ohio State University in the areas of health system pharmacy administration and healthcare administration.

Susan Bowman Burpee

Susan Bowman Burpee has volunteered at CFC since 2017. She is the first nurse practitioner to be elected to the Board of Directors. She has worked as a clinical instructor at the OSU College of Nursing for 20 years, at a primary care clinic, and, for the past 10 years, at the OSU

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation caring for people with traumatic brain injuries, concussions, spinal cord injuries and other debilitating disorders.

Kandi Hughes

Kandi has been practicing as a registered nurse for over 14 years. She is licensed as a Certified Nurse Practitioner for MedOne and is the Director of Nursing for Gables of Westerville. She is a retired veteran who served as a Chief Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force for 24 years with

the last six years overseeing medical clinic operations. She received her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Ashland University and Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) from Saint Joseph of Maine.

Laura Barnett, DO

A physician, or doctor, is extensively trained to diagnose and treat complex medical problems. Often, physicians focus their practice on certain disease categories, treatment methods or patient types. Physicians can diagnose and treat

illness, prescribe medication, offer medical consultation and advice, perform surgery and more.
Professional Profile

Howard Werman

Howard began his residency at OSU Medical Center in 1981. He became a faculty member in 1984. He has volunteered at the CFC for about 15 years. Howard has participated in global health missions with medical students to Honduras, Ghana, and Haiti.

Thomas Mason

Thomas graduated from the University of Mount Union with a B.S. in Biochemistry. He is a recent volunteer with CFC. He serves as an Assistant Medical Director. Thomas is a resident in Ohio State and Nationwide Children's Internal Medicine-Pediatrics program.

Julie Stuart

Julie has been with the CFC GYN specialty clinic since 2018. She is an alumna of The Ohio State University and worked as a women's health nurse practitioner in various settings since 2013. Currently, she practices with OhioHealth providing OBGYN care in Hilliard, OH.