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 – a freshman at MICDS and Dylan a 6th grader 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 services, including nursing, therapies, personal care, household chores, and companionship.  The companies are based in St. Louis with 5 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).

Jim has three teenage 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. She is currently semi-retired, and living in University City with her husband John. She is actively involved in many causes including the Coalition for the Environment. Fran still tutors as a volunteer at area schools.

Karen Mason, Director of Medicaid & Private Services

Karen Mason is from the Chicagoland area.  She has lived in North St. Louis County for the last 23 years.  Karen resides with her husband Greg, and their children Andrew and Sarah and their family dog Rex.  Karen has been with Cooperative Home Care for over 10 years; currently she is the Director of Operations for the Medicaid program.  Karen enjoys spending time with her family and friends, and crafting.

Susan Plemons, Director of Human Resources

Susan brings a wealth of human resource work experience, training, and industry involvement to our company.  She has worked in a human resource role the past 11 years, including 4 years at The Falcon Companies, 1+ year at Pulaski Bank, 2 years at Washington University, and the past 4 years as HR Director at UHY Advisors, an accounting firm.  Susan has certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources and has been active in the Human Resource Management Association’s St. Louis chapter.

John DiPaolo, RN Director of Skilled Service

John is a Registered Nurse with 18 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.

Diane Copithorne, RN, MS, Private Services Manager

Coming soon!

Jessica Donaldson, Intake Coordinator

Jessica is a 1999 graduate of Washington School of Nursing. She resides in Washington, Missouri with her husband of 10 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).

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 Consultant and her current projects include program development for Cooperative’s staffing counterpart, All-Staff Nursing in Fairview Heights, Illinois, and social media including website copy development and blog editor-in-chief.  KristyAnn resides in Crestwood with her husband, Scott and their two girls, Ally (6) and Sydney (4).  She volunteers at church and school, and swims/bikes/runs as much as her family, schedule and knee allow.