About Us
who we are
A Path to Hope came about on the encouragement of my dear friend, Carol. It had been a long 18-months of navigating the mental healthcare puzzle in search of help for a member of our family who was suffering in silence with anxiety and depression. As a nurse and a mother, I could not believe how difficult it was to find the help we needed. We did the best we could through trial and error and eventually formed an aggressive treatment plan to start the healing process. Our path was rough and bumpy and had finally smoothed out and the healing that we prayed for finally started to take place. It was then that I decided to do something to make the path of others a little easier to navigate.
Our mission is to offer support and guidance to jump start the process for parents who have a child who is suffering. In the past several years, the occurrence of suicide in our community has been staggering; our children are facing challenges that we cannot comprehend. They are reminded of their insecurities 24/7 by social media. I am not suggesting that these tragedies could have been prevented, I am simply offering to share what I have learned (the good, the bad, and the ugly).
If you know of someone who may not know where to turn, please share this page. I pray that I can help ease the stress of the process for someone.
Holly O’Connell
Founder and Executive Director, Holly O'Connell
Holly O’Connell is the founder and Executive Director of A Path To Hope nonprofit organization. Founded in 2018, the mission of A Path To Hope is to offer guidance and support to those navigating the mental health system. Holly recognized the need for improved access to information, increased knowledge of available resources, and a better understanding of mental health therapies and services. APTH accomplishes this through community presentations, support groups, and an annual resource fair bringing together the providers with the community. “Every family has a story; we chose to share ours to help others learn from our experience”.
Holly graduated from Salve Regina University in Newport, RI where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing.
Holly has spent most of her career focused on cardiology working in all aspects from ICU to outpatient. She recently started working in primary care. Holly, her husband and their 3 children have been residents of Uwchlan Township since 2004. They enjoy the outdoors, hiking and paddle boarding on March Creek, and spending time at the beach.
Assistant Director, Carmen Mulhern
“Parenting is the hardest job there is and watching your child or loved one struggle can feel so helpless”. You don’t have to do it alone. I’m excited to be a part of APTH’s mission because a little HOPE can make a big difference.” Carmen lives with her husband and 5 children in the Exton area. For the last twenty years she has mostly concentrated on being a stay-at-home mom with some part time work in events planning for her husbands company. When COVID shut down events, she was looking for a meaningful opportunity to use her skill set. They say timing is everything and the very week she started looking, Holly put out a call for a more permanent sidekick to meet the growing need for A Path To Hope’s services in the community. Carmen’s heart for families with a loved one on the mental health journey starts at home as she still travels it with her own children.
Chief Financial Officer, Suzy Koleseike
Suzy Koloseike earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Widener University. She began her career as a tax accountant at KPMG, LLP in Philadelphia. She worked on tax returns for high net worth individuals, trusts and large corporations. After 3 ½ years, she left KPMG to work with some former co-workers at Fairman Group Family Office in Berwyn, PA. She served as a manager/senior manager for 7 years. She concentrated on various tax returns and tax planning for high net worth individuals, foundations, trusts and estates.
In 2013, she started a family and left the professional world to be home with her children and step-children. Although her favorite job is being a mom, she misses some aspects of her professional career. She is very happy to be able to use her accounting skills to help A Path To Hope accomplish all of their financial goals. Mental health is such an important issue, especially in our local community today. She looks forward to being a part of a non-profit organization who is so passionate about this subject.
Suzy, her husband Kurt, and 7 total children live in Exton, PA. When they are not busy attending a sporting event, school activity or social event, they love spending time at the beach with their family.
Board member, Dr. Brian Rodgers
Dr. Rogers is a board-certified, Harvard-trained psychiatrist who treats children, adolescents, and young adults. He has been practicing in Pennsylvania since 2017 and has worked in a variety of treatment settings for multiple non-profit organizations. He is a faculty member for the University of Pennsylvania Psychiatry Residency Training Program. In September of 2021, he launched North Star Psychiatry, an outpatient mental health practice in Malvern, PA. His practice is currently accepting new patients for medication management and psychotherapy (www.mainlinepapsych.com). He is excited to join the board at A Path to Hope and its mission to help people who need mental health services find appropriate care.
Board Member, Wendy Wallace
Wendy Wallace, DO is a 1987 graduate of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic and completed her residency and chief residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in pediatrics. Her career has spanned the past 30 years with most of her clinical experience as a pediatrician for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In the past 8 years she has become keenly interested in mental health of her patients and has completed a fellowship with the REACH Institute in Pediatric Behavioral Health. She has been involved in the training of providers in the CHOP network with the CHOP psychiatry department for the past 4 years to improve evaluation, diagnosis and management of children with mental health disorders. She has been on the team that has published 3 clinical pathways: Depression Clinical Pathway – Outpatient Behavioral Health and Primary Care, Anxiety Disorder and OCD Clinical Pathway – Outpatient Behavioral Health and Primary Care, and Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviors Clinical Pathway – Primary Care. She is Director of CHOP Primary Care Behavioral Health and is working closely with providers for the consistent evaluation, management and treatment of behavioral/mental health concerns across the network. She is also a wife, mother, daughter, sibling, aunt to a large loving family with many dogs. In her spare time she runs a non profit in the WC Borough for support and outreach to families struggling to make ends meet in Chester County and travels to Lewes, Delaware to walk the beaches and enjoy the sunshine.
Contact Us
Address
347 N. Pottstown Pike Exton, PA, 19341, US
Mailing Address
256 Eagleview Blvd., #262 Exton, PA 19341