Our Team
Merritt Driscoll, Executive Director
Merritt Driscoll was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to moving to Klamath, she spent two years in Tanzania, East Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. At that time, she lived in the small coastal town of Mtwara where she taught community health at the local medical school and secured grant funding to build a pharmacy school and increase the number of books in the library. She moved to Klamath Falls in 2012 and began working for Klamath Tribal Health & Family Services, where she ran the programs for Tobacco Prevention and Maternal and Child Health. She then transitioned to Sky Lakes Medical Center as the Intake/Volunteer Coordinator and then the Development Coordinator and Grant Writer at Klamath-Lake CARES. Since 2015, Merritt has worked with Blue Zones Project, first as the Project Manager and now as the Executive Director of Healthy Klamath. Merritt holds a Master of Public Health and Master International Degree from Tulane University School of Public Health as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhodes College. In her free time, she enjoys being active, playing basketball, and spending time outdoors with her husband and two girls.
Kelsey Mueller Wendt, Project Manager
Kelsey was born and raised in Klamath Falls, she graduated with a bachelor of science in Population Health Management from Oregon Tech. She is currently attending Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for her Master’s in Public Health. Kelsey has been with Healthy Klamath as the Policy Manager since 2019 focusing on Food Systems and Built Environment. She also works with OHSU Moore Institute on the Nutrition Oregon Campaign as the Klamath Falls hub coordinator. Outside of work she serves on a variety of committees, advisory boards and policy councils. In her free time Kelsey enjoys spending time with her husband, David and their two dogs, Dot and Reggie. She can be found hiking, running, kayaking, biking and gardening. She is passionate about her work with Healthy Klamath and improving the overall health of Klamath.
Jessie Wilkie, PR & Marketing Manager
Jessie Wilkie brings a decade of marketing experience to the Healthy Klamath team. Ms. Wilkie has worked in technology and finance. She has extensive experience running marketing campaigns, supporting sales operations, setting up automations, and analyzing data.
Ms. Wilkie enjoys using her marketing skillset to help promote healthy living initiatives in the community. What better way to put her experience to good use than to help others live their best lives? She is especially passionate about the intersection of poverty and health.
Wilkie enjoys gardening, spending time with her pets, and painting in her free time. She serves on the ScreenWise Advisory Committee and the Klamath Basin Senior Citizens Center Board. She has her MBA from California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo and her BA in Global Economics from University of California Santa Cruz.
Jessica Kostick, Community Engagement Manager
Born into a military (Navy) family, Jessica Kostick found herself moving every three years as a child. This took her all over the world to places such as Guam and Cuba. Her father decided to retire while they were living in San Diego, CA, this is where Jessica graduated High School. She went on to attend Humboldt State University in Northern California and gain a Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology. From there Jessica’s sense of adventure took her to Alaska where she commercially fished for salmon and entertained cruise ship tourists with lumberjack shows. Ready to start using the degree she earned, she worked many years as a Physical Therapy Aid, then went on to become an ACE certified Personal Trainer and Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coach. These qualifications have given her the tools and qualifications to help Klamath County become a more healthy community. Jessica enjoys her family time, eating good food, volunteering with Chiloquin Fire and Rescue as an FF/EMT as well as riding her mountain bike at warp speeds and generally taking part in any activity that happens outside.
Hannah Zhang, Tobacco Prevention Coordinator
Hannah Zhang grew up in Beijing, China, and immigrated to the States in 2001. She graduated from Duke University with her Doctor of Physical Therapy in 2016, and has worked in a variety of clinical settings, most recently in a rural community in coastal North Carolina.
Drawing from her clinical experiences, where many physical ailments are preventable through lifestyle modifications and improved access to community resources, Hannah joined the Healthy Klamath team as the Tobacco Prevention Coordinator, to better serve the community through education, fostering community partnerships, and empowering people in making sustainable lifestyle changes to improve their health outcomes.
Prior to joining Healthy Klamath, Hannah served as Oregon Tech's Disability Services Coordinator, advocating for accessible and equitable education for students with disabilities. Hannah lives in Klamath Falls with her husband, their son, and a pair of orange tabbies. She has played the violin since she could hold one up, tries really hard to grow a home garden in the high desert, and always has more books than she has time to read.