This award, which is presented annually, is given to a University of Toledo College of Medicine graduate who has performed outstanding voluntary service to his/her community beyond normal business or professional obligations.
Dr. Oatis, a graduate of The University of Toledo College of Medicine & Life Sciences (formerly the Medical College of Ohio), has been a Pediatrician for almost 35 years and has been working with children and their families at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center Family Care Center in Toledo for most of her career. She heads the Mercy Family Care Team which provides multiple services to children and families including connecting families to a medical provider to care for them and their child, palliative care for children who are chronically ill and family counseling.
Dr. Oatis is also currently a Medical Ethics Specialist at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center; Chair, Adult Institutional Review Board; Medical Director, Pediatric Palliative Care and Ethics at Mercy Children's Hospital and a board member of the Ohio Pediatric Palliative Care Education Network and is Clinical Faculty at UT's College of Medicine & Life Sciences. She graduated from Maumee High School, Maumee, OH; attended Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; received her Bachelor's degree in Human Biology & Masters in Physical Therapy from Stanford University, Stanford, CA and received her Medical Degree at the former Medical College of Ohio in 1981. She then completed an internship at MCO, a pediatric residency at Pittsburgh Children's Hospital and the Harvard Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Dr. Oatis received the YWCA 2016 Milestones Award for Science for her work in Northwest Ohio as a pediatrician who embodies their mission to empower women and eliminate racism, the Research Excellence Award twice from Mercy St. Vincent Research Symposium, and was named the March of Dimes Physician of the Year in 2013. She is also the recipient of the Dr. Elizabeth Spencer Ruppert Outstanding Pediatrician Award by the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2011, which is the highest honor bestowed by the OAAP and recognizes a pediatrician's distinguished achievements and outstanding contributions to the advancement of pediatric care and education for patients and physicians of Ohio. She has also won numerous awards for research excellence.
Dr. Oatis has led several hundred workshops, support groups and classes and has presented at national and international conferences. She is a member of the Lay Review Board for the Catholic Diocese, serves on the CORE Clinical Faculty at Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine and has overseen multiple grants including two CATCH grants one of which was for a pediatric palliative care needs assessment for physicians in Northwest Ohio and parent focus groups in Toledo.
Her commitment to pediatric care is unequaled and she provides inspiration to all those who care for children.