Edmond business woman and state mental health advocate Cathy Costello will speak at Kingfisher County Republican Women’s monthly luncheon at noon Wednesday at Kingfisher County Farm Bureau.

Costello is an advisory board member for the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the state planning and advisory council to the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, National Council for Behavioral Health and Oklahoma Behavioral Health Association board member and a committee member for National Catholic Charities Partnership on Disabilities.

Costello’s interest in state and federal mental health reforms is driven by the decade-long challenge of trying to find services for her eldest son, who suffers from schizophrenia. That battle culminated in the tragic death of her husband, state Labor Commissioner Mark Costello, whom their son killed during a paranoid psychotic break in August 2015.

Since her husband’s death, Costello has become a state and national speaker on mental health issues and has been instrumental in passing landmark state and federal legislation to improve mental health services.

She was the keynote speaker at a 2016 Kingfisher mental health forum hosted by KCRW and featuring other state and local leaders in the field.

By invitation, she addressed the New Jersey legislature in 2017 to present her legislative reforms and discuss the impact of mental health on the workforce. She’s also appeared on local and national radio and TV programs and was a presenter at the 32nd annual Leadership Oklahoma 2018 Conference sponsored by the Chickasaw Nation.

A business woman and entrepreneur, Costello started her first business in high school to fund her college education and still operates family businesses she and her husband founded together during their nearly 34 years of marriage.

Costello also is the mother of five children.