Catina oversees Health Literacy Media’s core activities, including the C3T program, and works to set and maintain the strategic vision for the organization. Catina has steered the organization onto the course of becoming a true partner to a broad spectrum of health care organizations around the world. A primary goal is to empower people with health information they can use to make informed health decisions. 

Catina believes in the concept of changing health behaviors to improve quality of life. For more than a decade, she led research at Washington University School of Medicine focused on connecting people at-risk for health conditions, such as HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, with medical and social resources aimed at improving health behaviors, preventing illness, and improving overall health and well-being. Over the course of a decade, Catina led multi-site research trials in the U.S. and internationally. 

For over a decade, Catina was a member of Washington University’s Human Research Protection Office’s (HRPO) continuing review committee. Recently, she’s served as a member of Washington University’s HRPO consent task force, focused on adjustments to the University’s consent process and the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard’s Health Literacy Workgroup focused on health literate communication of clinical research information. Catina is a member of many other boards and committees, including the International Health Literacy Association’s Board of Directors, where she also is Chair of the Council of Affiliates, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy.

Since 2012, Dr. O’Leary has led the team at HLM, where her current research and practice focus is directed toward the implementation and evaluation of health literacy best evidence policy and practice in clinical trials and health care.