Special to The Message
Four new members have been added to the Board of Overseers, the advisory board for St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Indiana.
The board advises President-Rector Benedictine Father Denis Robinson on matters related to the school’s programs and performance and addresses strategic questions regarding the future of the school.
New to the board are Robert Armbruster of Pittsboro, Indiana; Audra Douglas of Evansville, Indiana; Bennett Plessala of Tucker, Georgia; and Joy Roose of Moscow, Ohio.
New Board Members
Robert Armbruster is the director of payer relations and contracting at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital Indiana. He is a current member of the Einsiedeln Society at St. Meinrad and the St. Malachy Knights of Columbus Council #12540 and a past member of the Monsignor M. Downey Knights of Columbus Council #3660. He was the co-chair of the Cardinal Ritter High School Annual Fund Event.
Armbruster graduated from Roncalli High School in 1985. He received a bachelor’s degree in public health administration from Indiana University Indianapolis in 1993.
He and his wife, Marijane, live in Pittsboro, Indiana, and are the parents of three children, Father Anthony, Luke (wife, Barbara and daughter, Martha Anne), and Grace. They are members of St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg, Indiana, where Armbruster has served as a member and president of the Pastoral Council, chair of the parish festival and the chair of the capital campaign for a new school building. He currently serves as the co-chair of the Welcome Committee and helps with the parish festival.
Audra Douglas is a family nurse practitioner at Ascension Medical Group in Newburgh, Indiana.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of Evansville in 1997, a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Southern Indiana in 2005, a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Southern Indiana in 2008 and a master’s degree in theology in 2015 from St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.
Douglas resides in Evansville, Indiana, and is the mother of one child, Jack. She is a member of St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville where she is a lector, an extraordinary ministry of Holy Communion, an RCIA catechist and a women’s group leader.
Bennett Plessala is an AI operations associate at SuperAnnotate.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Loyola University, New Orleans, in 2020. He went on to earn a Master of Arts in philosophy from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium in 2021.
He and his wife, Sallie, reside in Atlanta, Georgia. Plessala is the son of former Overseer, Deneen Plessala, and a brother to Father Peyton and Father Connor, who are both alumni of St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.
Joy Roose is a retired nurse anesthesiologist and member of the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology.
Roose graduated from the University of Florida, Gainesville, with a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 1984. In 1993, she graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina with a Master of Health Science in anesthesia. She received a master’s in theological studies from St. Meinrad School of Theology in 2017.
She and her husband, Robert, reside in Moscow, Ohio, and have two daughters, Kelsey and Graylyn, and a son, Colin. They attend Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish where she is involved in Worship Commission, co-director of Adoration and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, director of Mass coordinators and bereavement ministry. She is also the director of volunteers for Mater Filius Queen City in Cincinnati, Ohio.