Tulsa
Improving Health
Developing Leaders
Creating Change
What Drives Our Work
Oklahoma ranks 48, 49 or 50 in almost every health indicator there is to measure. Health disparities based on zip code, diet, activity level, food access, rates of diabetes and other chronic illness, mental and physical health care access, childhood obesity, and incarceration rates, are immense in Tulsa and Oklahoma. Addressing the health and social determinants of these disparities drives our work.
The Tulsa Schweitzer Fellowship is one of thirteen Schweitzer program sites across the U.S. The Fellowship incubates solutions to health gaps in the community and develops a pipeline of leaders who have the skills and commitment necessary to address unmet health needs for the long haul.
Tulsa Schweitzer Fellows are competitively chosen from graduate and professional degree programs at any Tulsa-area university and from any discipline. Fellows demonstrate a passion for cultivating positive impact in Tulsa where the need is greatest.
Our Impact
Fellows For Life Spotlight
Emy Gore
Fellow 2019-2020
Emy Gore is a speech-language pathologist for Tulsa Public Schools, where she helps students find their voice. She does this in a variety of ways including support for speech sound mastery and using assistive technology to communicate. For her Schweitzer project, Emy addressed literacy and student success with children who were residents of St. Elizabeth Lodge, a transitional housing and support residence for women and their children.
Mayra Valdivia Carlisle
Fellow, 2017-18
Mayra is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UTHSCSA). She graduated from Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2020. As a medical student, Mayra was the Director for Health Disparities for the Student Osteopathic Medical Association, where she worked with medical schools across the US to reduce and eliminate disparities in access to health care, increase medical school diversity and represent the voice of marginalized communities.
Leslie Briggs
Fellow, 2017-18
Leslie is the Legal Director at Oklahoma Appleseed, an organization that focuses on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Education Justice and Election Justice.
Jim Scholl
Fellow, 2016-17
Jim Scholl holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Tulsa. He is the Prevention Programs Manager and Chair of the Transgender Health Team at Princeton University.
Olivia Shadid
Fellow, 2016-17
Olivia is a psychiatry resident at the University of New Mexico department of Psychiatry, where she is involved in conducting mental health evaluations of asylum-seekers and family members of deportees. Olivia is involved in research at OU-Tulsa and the Laureate Institute of Brain Research about the intersection of religious communities and mental health adherence, and perfectionism and eating disorders in young children.
Meredith Wyatt
Fellow, 2016-17
Meredith is a board certified occupational therapist, working with patients in the St. Francis health system.
Chris McNeil
Fellow, 2017-18
Dr. McNeil is an ER Resident at Oklahoma State University. He is a Union Public Schools Board member and the founder of the Oklahoma chapter of Black Men in White Coats.