When Dawn Mayberry, D.O., a 1987 graduate of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, completed her internship at Tulsa Regional Medical Center, she headed off to Baylor for a pediatric residency and a fellowship in neonatology, but something happened along the way. She fell in love…with pediatrics.

Dawn Mayberry, D.O., Tulsa pediatrician, is passionate about children’s health and helped create the Tulsa Coalition for Children’s Health, Inc.

Now she’s a passionate advocate for quality health care for children, so much so that she says, “It has taken over my life.” It has taken over her office too, where boxes of newsletters, cards and information about the new Tulsa Coalition for Children’s Health, Inc. (TCCH) crowd a corner. She serves as the organization’s president.

TCCH started when a group of Tulsa pediatricians talking over coffee decided to try to make northeast Oklahoma’s fragmented children’s health care services more cohesive. They envisioned an integrated pediatric health system; a kind of hospital without walls. TCCH was incorporated in May 2001 as a nonprofit agency dedicated to improving access for all children to needed health care services.

TCCH has about 120 members including hospitals, physicians and related agencies dedicated to pulling children’s health care resources under an umbrella of advocacy, oversight, governance and philanthropy. It commissioned the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) to study regional demographics and explore the feasibility of such a project.

A recent $125,000 grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau will fund assessment of data and development of an agreement to submit to several local hospitals. TCCH’s concept makes sense, Mayberry says, because, “It provides an economy of scale that will mean more efficient, higher quality care.”

Other benefits she lists include pooled resources for equipment, a bigger political voice, improvements in medical education and recruitment of sub-specialists such as pediatric emergency room physicians. “It is a win-win situation,” Mayberry says.

Her family includes husband Brit, a pharmaceutical representative, and children Morgan, 7, and Kellen, 3. When she has time, the Broken Arrow native likes playing golf, traveling and reading and says she is hooked on Harry Potter epics.