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Alumni in Action
The Osteopathic Oprah

by K. Friday

When she is not in clinic, Marion Dunn, D.O. (Class of 1977) turns to television to promote children's health and well-being.

A psychiatrist and a proud mother of two, Dr. Dunn has built her career around helping children and young adults.

"I love the field of psychiatry," Dr. Dunn says. "I have been blessed and given the chance of doing much more than merely prescribing medications. I love the long-term promise and hope of psychiatry. What we do and learn now can affect a child's entire life and perhaps generations to come."

As the new medical director at Fulton County Health Center in Wauseon, Ohio, Dr. Dunn has plenty of opportunities to meet and work with young people. She says that her biggest challenge is to get her patients to trust her, and that must happen before the sharing and learning in a clinical setting can begin. She sees approximately 10-20 patients a day for a variety of disorders and behavioral problems, and she estimates that probably close to three-quarters of her young patients have attention deficit disorder and another quarter or so are depressed.

For many psychiatrists, Dr. Dunn's full-time responsibilities at the Fulton County Health Center would be more than enough, but she has remarkable energy and drive - and a good deal of media acumen.

For instance, Dr. Dunn has taken her interest and experience in children's health issues and created several related television programs for local markets near Flint, Michigan, and in the Toledo area.

Involved in television production since the early 1980s, Dr. Dunn created and produced "The Kid's Talk Show," which aired on an NBC affiliate in the Flint area from 1993-1997. Modeled on the format of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Dr. Dunn's show (which she also hosted) offered a talk show targeted to children and young adults. The program encouraged frank and open discussion on issues such as divorce, child-parent relationships, nutrition and peer pressure.

In 1995 Dr. Dunn created and produced another related program, entitled "The Young Roundtable." Modeled on CBS' "Face the Nation," Dr. Dunn's program gathered honor students from the Flint and Tri-City areas and brought them together for roundtable discussions on current social and political issues. The program aired locally on Saturdays in 1995, and Dr. Dunn said that the ratings were very good.

"Both programs allowed young people to speak out on a variety of issues," Dr. Dunn says. "And the programs showed, perhaps to some people's surprise, that we are in good hands with the next generation."

More recently, after moving to the Toledo area, Dr. Dunn has started another local television show. Although "The Herbal Medicine Show" is not specifically a children's program, it does have a regular "In the News" segment hosted by a young teen. The program, which currently airs on Saturdays and Sundays, showcases Dr. Dunn's interest in herbal medicine and health foods.

While Dr. Dunn says she enjoys her career as a pediatric psychiatrist, she hopes that her interest in health-related television will continue to bear fruit.

Since 1995 she has worked with the major networks, and this January she will attend a convention for the National Association of Television Program Executives in Las Vegas. There she will mingle with producers and television stars, hoping to pitch her programs to the major networks and their affiliates.

If she succeeds, children's health issues will have found a new, national voice.