Professional Home Care Company Team

Here are some of our St. Louis home care team members.  Meet our Referral Specialists and Case Managers too!

Mitch Waks, CEO & Owner

Mitch is one of the founding family members of Cooperative Home Care. Mitch is married to Ruth and has two children, Arielle at UNC Chapel Hill, and Dylan at MICDS. Mitch practices yoga and serves on several non-profit boards working to better the community. Mitch plays guitar and rides bikes for fun.

Jim Guller, President & Owner

Jim Guller is currently President and Owner of All-Staff Nursing and Cooperative Home Care.  All-Staff Nursing provides temporary and contract nurses and other healthcare professionals to meet the staffing needs of hospitals, doctors’ offices, nursing homes, and other facilities.  Cooperative Home Care provides home care solutions, including nursing, therapies, personal care, household chores, and companionship.  The companies are based in

St. Louis with five offices in Missouri and Illinois.  Jim acquired Cooperative Home Care in 1998 (the company was formed in 1986).  He acquired All-Staff Nursing in 2001 (the company was formed in 1991).

Prior to owning his own company, Jim was Vice President of Marketing for Express Scripts and Director of Marketing and Business Planning for CITATION Computer Systems, both in

St. Louis.  Jim also spent nine years with IBM in New York in sales as an International Account Manager and in finance.  Jim has a Bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jim has daughters (Melissa, Jodie, and Emma) and lives in

St. Louis.  He is a member of EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) and Past-President of the Board of Trustees for the Solomon Schechter Day School of St. Louis.

Fran Sontag, Founder

Fran is the founder of our company. She started by doing in-home tutoring for people with developmental disabilities. Her background is in special education.

Karen Mason, Director of Medicaid

Karen Mason is from the Chicagoland area.  She has lived in North St. Louis County for the last 25-plus years.  Karen resides with her husband Greg; they have two children: Andrew and Sarah as well as their family dog, Rex.  Karen has been with Cooperative Home Care for 15-plus years; currently she is the Director of Operations for the Medicaid program.  Karen enjoys spending time with her family and friends, crafting, and working out with her trainer.

Lyn Thoma, Director of Human Resources

John DiPaolo, R.N., Director of Skilled Services

John is a Registered Nurse with 20-plus years of healthcare experience.  Prior to home care, John worked in Emergency Medicine for over 10 years in the St. Louis Metro and Tampa Bay areas.  Since John’s first day in nursing he fell in love with this career that challenges and inspires him to work harder every day.  In his spare time, he is an avid reader and is currently working on rehabbing his 120 year-old Victorian home in Illinois.  He is also very involved with his family and loves spending time with his seven nieces and nephews.

Cyrus Beckham, Controller

Ronald K. Finnan, R.N., M.B.A., Director of Private Services

Jessica Donaldson, L.P.N., Intake Nurse

Jessica is a 1999 graduate of Washington School of Nursing. She resides in

Washington, Missouri with her husband of 12-plus years, Kasey, and their three children, Jordan, Lauren and Trenton. She and her family are avid competitive softball players. Jessica’s expertise is available to you directly by calling 1-800-HOMECARE (in MO) or 1-618-HOMECARE (in IL).

KristyAnn Pfister, Special Projects Manager

KristyAnn has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia.  Her professional background includes neurorehabilitation program development and operations for 11 years in

St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Corpus Christi, Texas and Chicago, Illinois before returning to her hometown of St. Louis in 2005 and transitioning to Private Services with Cooperative Home Care.  Her present role at Cooperative is Special Projects Manager and her current projects include MO & IL hospice development, other program development projects for both Cooperative Home Care and All-Staff Nursing, internet marketing including website copy development/blog editor-in-chief, and strategic planning. KristyAnn resides in Crestwood with her husband, Scott and their two girls, Ally and Sydney. She enjoys volunteering at church/school, and swimming/biking/running.