69. Dr. Padmaja Mehta-D’souza
After completing her Ph.D. in biochemistry at Bombay University, Dr. Padmaja Mehta-D’souza received fellowship offers from Paris to Quebec. She chose OMRF, and she’s now made the foundation her scientific home for more than three decades. “I love my work, and I love the people,” says Padmaja, who’s served as a staff scientist in labs studying conditions ranging from blood disorders to arthritis. “I’ve built friendships with individuals from so many different cultures I never would have conceived of meeting elsewhere.”
70. Drs. Earl & James Mabry
Dr. Earl Mabry doesn’t recall why, exactly, he and his bandmates chose OMRF as the charity that would benefit whenever they performed in the 1950s. As dentists and physicians, the members of the Enid-based “Doctors’ Band” were accustomed to getting paid for their professional services; it was no different when they began moonlighting as a jazz ensemble. “We gave them a price and took their money,” says Earl, now 104 and retired from his dental practice. Earl’s son, Dr. James Mabry, believes the decision to give stemmed from OMRF’s founding campaign in the 1940s, when health professionals from around the state raised funds to build a new medical research foundation. “You decided to help out to get the place going,” James said to his dad during a recent visit. Earl smiled. “We charged what we could get. And when we got it, we gave it to the research foundation.”
72. Dr. Sarah Ocañas
As Oklahoma’s first recipient of the National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award, Dr. Sarah Ocañas took a leap most scientists only dream of. After earning her Ph.D., she bypassed a postdoctoral fellowship and moved straight to opening her own lab at OMRF. For someone unafraid to climb steep paths, it seems fitting she also decided to study one of medicine’s most challenging problems: Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, she’s interested in the differing ways the disease affects men and women. “If we’re going to find an effective intervention, it’s not going to be one-size-fits-all.” With a new grant from the Alzheimer’s Association, she’ll investigate whether the loss of the hormone estrogen in menopause could help explain why Alzheimer’s strikes women at both higher rates and with more severity.
73 & 74. Sonny Wilkinson & Kevin Henry
As OMRF fundraisers, both of the foundation’s senior directors of philanthropy draw on skills learned in other realms. Sonny Wilkinson served for three years as mayor of The Village, an incorporated community surrounded by Oklahoma City. The role, which often involved contentious situations, helped Sonny curb a tendency to try to make his voice ring out above all others. “Sometimes, people just need to be heard,” he says. “So, I’ve tried to develop more of a listening philosophy.” That approach, he says, helps him unite donors with programs at OMRF that connect to their lives and giving goals. For Kevin Henry, a career as a Division I basketball player provided a valuable template for fundraising. “You have to get your shots in every day,” says Kevin, who made over 100 3-pointers at the University of New Mexico and Baylor University. “If you want to be successful, you need to put in the work.” At OMRF, that’s meant planning key initiatives, then methodically reaching out to and following up with people who might be interested in supporting them. And like in sports, successful fundraisers must learn from experiences that at first might seem like failures. If someone says no, he doesn’t treat that as a defeat. Instead, he says, “I look to find what that donor is passionate about and align it with the needs of the organization.” When that happens, everybody wins.
75-77. Amy, Sarah & Sam Weyrich
As Dr. Andy Weyrich has traveled the state for the 77 for 77 campaign, that’s meant dozens of trips that often last three days and can cover more than 500 miles. Still, OMRF’s president rarely gets homesick, because on most of those journeys, his wife, Amy Weyrich, and son, Sam, join him. “It’s been fantastic,” says Amy, who arrived in Oklahoma when Andy took the helm of OMRF in 2022. Even though she’d spent the lion’s share of her life in her native New Jersey and then Utah, where Andy was a professor for three decades, Amy says she and her husband “now know more about Oklahoma than any place we’ve ever lived.” With Sam, who lives with a rare condition known as a leukodystrophy, they have enjoyed learning about Oklahoma’s rich history and seeing its geographical diversity. But for Amy, the best part has been the human connections they’ve made. “My favorite stops have been where we walk into a place and strike up a conversation,” she says. “People have been so friendly, and we’ve had interactions where they’ve said, ‘Oh, OMRF – I’m a patient there!’ Or, ‘My mom’s a patient there!’” The Weyrichs’ daughter, Sarah, joined them on the trip to Rogers County, where they toured the “Oklahoma!” museum in Claremore. “That was fun, because Sarah was about to play Laurey in a production of ‘Oklahoma!’” says Amy. Sam, she says, has loved the social interactions, including chances to meet collegiate mascots Pistol Pete (in Stillwater) and Sooner (in Norman). When the campaign comes to an end in the summer of 2024 with OMRF’s 78th anniversary, the Weyrich family will miss the many adventures that have come with their odyssey. But perhaps no one will miss the road trips more than Sam, who’s grown accustomed to a special treat on each one: a chocolate malt.
