Dr. Wendy Anderson-Willis is a pediatrician at Nationwide Children's Hospital and for the past eight years has provided free medical care on the Nationwide Children's Mobile Care Center. Anderson-Willis has worked with Columbus City School nurses to provide services at 16 Columbus city schools. She is dedicated to improving school health and was recently elected to the Executive Committee on School Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Locally, she has been featured on WBNS 10TV’s “Pediatric Health Source” to provide an expert opinion on school health concerns.

Anderson-Willis received her medical degree from Howard University and trained in pediatrics at Howard University Hospital.

Anderson-Willis was born and raised in the Buckeye state and is the wife of Jerome Willis and the mother of 7-year-old daughter, Katherine. Her hobbies include real estate investing, public speaking and creative writing.

Dr. Kimberly Bates is a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Ohio State University Medical Center.  She currently holds several positions in both institutions, including director of FACES, a family-centered program for patients and families affected by HIV.  Bates also serves as part of the teaching faculty for the Internal Medicine-Pediatrics (Med-Peds) residency program.  In addition, she maintains a part-time practice at the OSU Internal Medicine-Pediatrics faculty practice in Grandview.
 
Bates is very active in organized medicine, most recently serving as the chair of the American College of Physicians Council of Young Physicians (CYP).  She is currently the chair of the Ohio Chapter of the CYP.

Bates received her bachelor’s degree in human nutrition at The Ohio State University and her medical degree at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.  She completed her residency training in Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the Christiana Care/A.I. DuPont/TJU program in Newark, Del., serving as med-peds chief resident in her final year.
 
Kimberly and her husband, both Columbus natives, have a 22-month-old son. 

A champion for children and families, Yvette McGee Brown has a distinguished career focused on improving the lives of young people. As president of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy (CCFA) at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Yvette leads an effort that serves as a national model created to break the cycle of child abuse and family violence.

Prior to her role as president of CCFA, Yvette served as a judge in the domestic relations division and juvenile court of the Franklin County court of Common Please from 1993 to 2002. She was the first African American and the second female to be elected to the court.

She serves on the board of directors for Fifth Third Bank of Central Ohio, The Ohio State University Alumni Association, M/I Homes, African American Leadership Academy, Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence and the Ohio Network of Child Advocacy Centers.

Yvette writes a monthly column in Columbus Parent magazine and is featured weekly on Straight Talk on WBNS 10TV

Dr. Deena Chisolm is an investigator in the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor of pediatrics and public health at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on improving the health care of at-risk youth using clinical information technology. Her research has been published in journals including Pediatrics and International Journal of Medical Informatics. In 2008, she received a grant from the National Institute of Health to study health literacy and use of online health information.

Chisolm received a bachelor’s of science degree in education from Miami University and a masters of science degree in preventive medicine from The Ohio State University. In 2003, she became the first student to receive a doctoral degree from the Division of Health Services Management and Policy in The Ohio State University School of Public Health.

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Deena is the wife of Jerard R. Chisolm. She currently serves as the president of the Alpha Sigma Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and is active in several community organizations.

Natasha Davis is assistant counsel in the Legal Department for Nationwide Children's Hospital.  In this position, she handles contract negotiations, responds to legal issues pertaining to patient care, manages medical malpractice suits, trains employees including nurses and doctors on legal issues within the hospital, and manages legal compliance and health care law projects for the hospital.  Her primary focus at Nationwide Children’s is construction and real estate matters.
 
Natasha is the charter member of Rho Mu chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at University of Richmond.  She was the 2005 and 2006 winner of the National Urban League Rising Star Essay Contest, Midwestern Region and is a member of the Vineyard Church of Columbus.   

Natasha received a bachelor of arts and master’s in business from the University of Richmond.  She also received a law degree from the University of Cincinnati in 2001. 

A native of Baltimore, Md., Natasha is the wife of Scott Davis, a civil engineer and attorney at Bricker and Eckler, and the proud mother of Anderson Edward Davis.

Jolanda (Julie) Denham is an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, and an attending physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital.  Denham’s research on inflammatory bowel disease garnered a poster of distinction at Digestive Disease Week 2004.  Her clinical interests involve all aspects of pediatric gastroenterology, with a special interest in nutritional disorders.  She is actively involved in peer Continuing Medical Education, as well as the teaching of medical students and pediatric residents. 

Denham received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry at the University of Georgia, and obtained her medical degree at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine.  She completed pediatric residency and gastroenterology fellowship programs at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Denham is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and holds memberships in the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and the American Medical Association.

As vice president of operations at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Les Maginley is a leader who believes that his main responsibility is to help people develop. “If you can accomplish this primary objective as a leader then everything else will fall into place,” said Maginley. He is responsible for the daily operation of numerous hospital departments including biomedical engineering, environmental services, nutrition services, safety, security, patient transportation, hospitality, fitness center, Allergy Clinic, Myelo Clinic, Dermatology Clinic, Developmental Disabilities clinic, Immunodeficiency Clinic and the Central Ohio Poison Control Center. 

A member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Maginley is an advisory board member of the Urban Scouts for the Simon Kenton Council in Columbus. Additionally, he is a board member of Leadership Columbus and volunteers his time by serving meals at various homeless shelters throughout the Columbus community.

Maginley received his undergraduate degree in communications from the University of Central Missouri and earned his MBA from Ohio Dominican University.

Maginley is married and has three children. His hobbies include spending time with family, exercising, coaching youth sports and golfing.

Angela Mingo serves as the director of community relations for Nationwide Children’s Hospital.  Mingo has more than a decade of community relations and public affairs experience. She is responsible for developing and managing strategic partnerships with external organizations.  Mingo directs the community engagement efforts of the hospital and works closely with neighborhood and civic organizations.  Prior to her position with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Mingo served as community affairs director with Columbus City Council.

Mingo earned bachelor’s degrees in Portuguese and international relations as well as her master’s of city and regional planning degree from The Ohio State University.

Mingo currently serves on the Building Vibrant Neighborhoods Impact Council for the United Way of Central Ohio.  She is a mayoral appointed commissioner with the City of Columbus Community Relations Commission and serves on the commission’s executive board.  She is a past board member of KidsVoting-Ohio Central Region and is an active member of Genoa Baptist Church.

A native of Canton, Ohio, Mingo is married to attorney Clarence E. Mingo.  She and her husband are proud parents of two lovely daughters.

Dr. Benedict Nwomeh is a pediatric surgeon at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and serves as director of surgical education and surgical director for the Center for Adolescent and Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease. He is also an assistant professor of surgery at The Ohio State University.

Nwomeh specializes in neonatal and pediatric general and thoracic surgery. His expertise is in minimally invasive surgery and inflammatory bowel disease. He contributed to more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books. He is a member of several professional bodies, including the Society of Black Academic Surgeons (SBAS). He is currently chair of the Global Affairs Committee for the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS).

Nwomeh trained as a general surgeon at the Medical College of Virginia, where he spent an additional two years as a research fellow in the laboratory of tissue repair. Subsequently, he completed a pediatric surgery fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh before moving to Columbus in 2003.

Born in Ozara, Nigeria, Nwomeh and his wife, Henrietta, have one daughter, Chioma, and two sons, Chiedozie and Chukwuemeka.

Jamie Phillips is the vice president of The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She has over 13 years of diverse health care administration experience with leading-edge health care delivery systems and organizations. Phillips is responsible for direct operations, outreach, marketing, and business and planning development. She works with various administrative staff in fundraising, physician practice management, and payor relations to coordinate The Heart Center’s strategic vision and goals.

Phillips completed the United Way Project Diversity Leadership Program in 2007. She was the 2002 recipient of the YMCA Black Achiever Award in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Likewise, she completed the Greater Cincinnati Urban League Leadership Development Program in 2001. Jamie is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. 

Phillips received a bachelor’s of science degree from Ohio University and a master’s of health administration degree from The Ohio State University.

Phillips lives by the quote “Be the change you wish to see in the world…" by Mahatma Gandhi. She is the wife of Greg Phillips and the proud mother of Brista and Cameron.

Dr. Olivia W. Thomas manages one of the largest pediatric primary care networks in the country, as chief of the section of ambulatory pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital.  Dr. Thomas, a clinical professor of pediatrics also serves as chief of the division of ambulatory pediatrics in the department of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her clinical interests include improving access to care for uninsured and underinsured children, improving asthma care for all children, decreasing the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents, and eliminating domestic violence.

Dr. Thomas is active on several boards including the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, the Columbus Medical Association Foundation, the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence, Prevent Child Abuse Ohio, Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio, Access Health Columbus and The Ohio State University College of Medicine Alumni Board.

She is married, has two daughters and two grandsons. She received her bachelor’s degree from Kentucky State University and her medical degree from Creighton University.

Fred Wills, senior diversity and inclusion coordinator at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, leads efforts to build organizational capacity as it relates to diversity. As chair of the hospital’s diversity and inclusion council, he coordinates the assessment, development and implementation of organizational initiatives aimed at systemic change and accountability.

Before joining Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Wills served in the U.S. Peace Corps, where he provided technical and capacity-building services to a HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization in Malawi, Africa. He also led the country’s volunteer diversity committee and provided strategic input to Peace Corps leadership about training and curriculum development. Wills received his master’s in public administration, with a concentration in policy and urban affairs, from the Graduate Center of Public Policy and Administration at California State University Long Beach and his bachelor’s of arts in psychology from Wright State University.

Wills lives in Columbus with his wife, Alexandra, an ethnographer with the Kansas City-based firm, Ethnographic Research, Inc.