Team
Director
Dr. Sue Royappa, MD, MPH
Dr. Sue Royappa established the HealthSecure Foundation to fulfill a long-held dream of helping people prevent and treat chronic diseases through lifestyle modification. The Foundation is a natural extension of the HealthSecure EMR company that she co-owns with her husband, Dr. Andrew Royappa.
She is an internal medicine physician with extensive and diverse experience in clinical medicine, management, business and teaching. She works in global preventive health to integrate patient care, medical education and public health in the US and India. As a physician, she has been caring for complex patients with multiple chronic diseases in the US and in India for over 20 years; as a public health professional, she is passionate about using technology to increase awareness and improve access to health education.
Sue received her M.D. from the University of Mississippi in 2001 and completed her residency at the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas in 2004. After a decade in private practice, she assumed the position of Chief Medical Officer of Health Secure-EMR and received her MPH in Health Promotion and Behavioral Health from San Diego State University. In 2017, she had the privilege of going to India on a Fulbright research grant to study perceptions of obesity in the Indian medical student community. Upon her return to the US, she established the foundation to provide culturally competent preventive health programs based on what she learned during her stay in India. Seeing the great need for psychological support in health behavior modification, Sue chose to receive additional training in 2020 through Bryn Mawr College in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She also has a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Purdue University and worked as a high school and college mathematics teacher prior to her career in medicine and public health.
In her spare time, Sue enjoys cooking, traveling, reading mystery and fantasy novels, watching fantasy anime and learning Spanish. Please visit sueroyappamd.com for more about her.
Advisors
Dr. Sara Gleason, MD, MBA
Dr. Sara Gleason is professor and executive vice chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). She studied public policy as an undergraduate at Princeton University and earned a law degree from the University of Michigan. She worked as a teacher at Jackson Prep before pursuing a career in medicine.
She was 33 years old and the mother of two toddlers when she started medical school at UMMC. After completing residency in 2008, she worked as a staff psychiatrist at Mississippi State Hospital for several years and then at the VA Medical Center before returning to UMMC as faculty in 2016.
In her current practice Sara works with UMMC residents and medical students on the adult inpatient psychiatry ward, on the consultation-liaison service, and at the outpatient clinic. She is a core faculty member of UMMC’s Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities and is psychiatric consultant to the Asylum Hill Research Consortium. While serving as a clinician and educator at UMMC, Sara also earned an Executive MBA from the Else School of Management at MIllsaps College in 2019. She is particularly interested in the role of telehealth in providing psychiatric services in outpatient and emergency room settings. During her leisure time, she enjoys visiting modern art museums, traveling and dining out with family, and watching classic films.
Sara generously brings her wealth of experience in mental health, education and management to HealthSecure, providing vital guidance and direction to the Foundation’s programs.
Kalpana D’Brass
Kalpana D’Brass has an MA in Psychology from the University of Madras in India. She also has an MA in Marriage and Family Counseling from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas, USA. She is a licensed professional counselor who has been working for the past 21 years as a Special Education Counselor for students from K-12 with various mental health and learning disabilities.
Kalpana’s years of experience in adolescent mental health have proven invaluable to the Foundation’s development of the She COPES program. With her education and experience in both India and the US, she has been able to help the Foundation bridge the gap between the two cultures.
Donna Gatewood
Donna Gatewood has an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Texas at Tyler. She has worked as a therapist, research assistant, life skills trainer, and group facilitator in clinical, educational, and community settings. She is passionate about helping individuals find their unique pathways to healing, and enjoys using the expressive arts as a tool for personal transformation.
She is particularly interested in helping others who experience grief, trauma, and anxiety.
Donna studied theater and media, and has a Bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin. After a 20 year career in television and video production in Texas and California, her desire to explore innovative ways to help others find healthier, more fulfilling life experiences led to her decision to pursue a career in mental and behavioral health. Donna has also trained as a yoga teacher, and directed the documentary film, “Yogi in the Bible Belt.” Donna enjoys photography and spending time in nature when she’s not working.
Her unique experiences combining mental health and the creative arts have been crucial in developing support groups for emotional wellness in college students.
Dr. Andrew Royappa, PhD
Dr. Andrew Royappa received his Ph.D. in computer science from Purdue University in 1992 and co-founded SpiralFX in 2000 after nine years in academia, including a post as the chair of the Department of Computer Science at Millsaps College.
A highly experienced business software developer, Andrew also maintains an active Topcoder.com rating and has qualified for the Topcoder Open and Google Code Jam programming championships in many years, including 2020.
As CEO of HealthSecure EMR for over 20 years, his career goal has been to improve medical outcomes in the correctional environment through preventive mechanisms using cutting edge technology. As the technical advisor for the Foundation, he is now committed to using his skills to advance its mission of promoting preventive health programs for under-served populations in India.