Grace, Resilience and the Power to Be Seen

Dr. Tanya Baldwin on leadership, Black women’s health, faith, sisterhood and creating a pathway for those who come next.

At 13 or 14 years old, Dr. Tanya Baldwin already knew she wanted to work with children. “I love kids,” she told her mother. “I think I want to run a daycare.” Her mother, a professional woman who recognized her daughter’s strengths in math and science, offered another possibility: What about becoming a pediatrician?

Baldwin decided to investigate.

What began as a suggestion became a calling. “I was fascinated and fell in love with learning about the human body and how it works and what I can do to help heal people,” she recalls.

Today, Dr. Baldwin stands as a trailblazer in Toledo healthcare, serving as the first Black woman chief of staff at Mercy. But her journey to that position was not a straight line. It was shaped by moments of doubt, unexpected setbacks, faith, family, mentorship and a willingness to keep moving, even when the path changed. And perhaps that spirit of perseverance was modeled for her long before she entered medicine.

Baldwin’s mother, Judge Adele Riley, is now retired, but her career established a remarkable legacy of its own. Riley was the first African American female Common Pleas Judge elected in Montgomery County in Dayton, Ohio. For Baldwin, growing up with a mother who had broken a significant barrier provided an early example of what was possible when a woman was willing to step into a space where others like her had not been before.

That example would become part of Baldwin’s own story.

In a conversation with Dr. P, Baldwin spoke candidly about the experiences that shaped her leadership, the persistent disparities facing Black women in healthcare and the legacy she hopes to leave behind.

When the Path Changes, Keep Going

Baldwin excelled throughout her early education and entered an accelerated combined Bachelor of Medicine program. Then came organic chemistry. For perhaps the first time in her academic career, she struggled. “I knew while I was in the class that I was struggling,” she says. She sought guidance from her dean, hoping to understand what she needed to do differently. His advice was simple: finish the course and come back.

She did.

The result was a D.

It wasn’t an F, but it was enough to shake Baldwin’s confidence. When she returned to the dean, he asked a question that stayed with her: Are you sure medicine is what you want to do? Baldwin went home devastated. Her parents, however, saw the situation differently.

“They have always been supportive and always encouraged me to do whatever it is I want to do in life,” she says.

Rather than abandoning the dream, Baldwin changed the route. She slowed down, completed her bachelor’s degree in three years, pursued additional postgraduate studies and participated in a summer program at Cleveland State University to prepare for medical school.

Then she applied and was accepted. Looking back, the setback became one of the most important lessons of her life: the destination can remain the same even when the route changes.

What God Has for You Is for You

Baldwin’s ascent into healthcare leadership has also been deeply rooted in faith. Becoming Mercy’s first Black woman chief of staff was, she says, both reassuring and empowering.

“When you have a dream, something that you think is impossible or far attainable and that nobody has done before, and then to actually achieve it, it’s Grace and mercy,” she says. “But I believe wholeheartedly, and again this reaffirmed it: What God has for you is for you.”

That belief became especially meaningful because her leadership journey did not unfold according to the timetable she expected. Within the hospital’s medical staff hierarchy, Baldwin had been progressing through leadership roles. She was told that she was positioned to become chief of staff.

Then she wasn’t.

There was an election, a runoff and a result that did not go her way. For a moment, it could have felt like the dream had been delayed indefinitely. Instead, Baldwin listened to the advice of a former chief: Run again in two years. Then circumstances changed. The person who had won resigned. Another potential candidate did not complete the necessary process. Baldwin eventually ran unopposed. The lesson was unmistakable.

“Timing and preparation,” she says.

Had she allowed disappointment to make her impatient or aggressive, she acknowledges, she might have burned bridges that later became important. Sometimes the delay is part of the preparation.

Leadership That Allows People to Be Seen

Baldwin describes her leadership style in two words: openness and fairness. “I want everyone to feel seen and heard,” she explains, “but ultimately they need to be able to take on the responsibility of making the decision.” That approach reflects something deeper about Baldwin: she does not see leadership as a performance.

Her professional identity and personal identity are inseparable. “I cannot separate the two,” she says. She recalls filming a Mercy commercial in which other people were instructed to play patients and staff members. Baldwin was the only actual physician.

The videographer noticed that she smiled frequently and encouraged her to tone it down. But that isn’t who she is. “I can’t help it,” Baldwin says. “And my patients love me for that. They feel connected to me. They feel like I understand them and I’m relatable.” For Baldwin, authenticity isn’t something to turn on and off depending on the room. It is part of how she practices medicine and leads people.

Black Women Deserve to Be Heard

Perhaps the most powerful portion of the conversation centered on Black women’s health. Baldwin is direct about the challenge. “Black women in this country work some of the hardest things here, but are the least seen,” she says.

Black women, she explains, are often characterized as loud, aggressive or difficult when they advocate for themselves. That creates another burden: having to prove that their experiences are legitimate. “Why do we need male voices to qualify or corroborate what we’re saying?” she asks. “I know what’s happening with me.” For Baldwin, addressing health disparities requires more than access to care. It requires providers to genuinely listen to patients.

“I have studied human bodies. I know my science and know the practice of medicine, pharmacology, all of it,” she says. “But nobody knows your body better than you.” That principle is especially important when treating Black women, whose concerns can sometimes be dismissed or misinterpreted.

Baldwin describes medicine as detective work. Symptoms are clues. Patients provide information. Physicians have the responsibility to listen carefully enough to put the pieces together. “When they’re telling you what’s going on, you have to kind of like a puzzle,” she explains. The danger comes when providers become so certain of their own conclusions that they stop listening. “Some arrogant physicians say, ‘Yeah, that’s not what that is,’” Baldwin says. And when that happens, something important can be missed.

For Baldwin, better healthcare begins with humility.

A Message to the Next Generation

What would she tell a young girl who dreams of becoming a physician?

Find a mentor.

“Be serious about your studies,” Baldwin says. “Make that a priority.” She isn’t suggesting that young people give up their social lives or stop having fun. She is emphasizing intentionality. And she recognizes that not every young person has parents who can provide the guidance her parents gave her. That’s where mentors become essential.

“As soon as you decide what you want to pursue,” she says, “you find a mentor.” A mentor can help young people understand not only what they want to become, but how to get there.

The Power of Sisterhood

For Baldwin, leadership is sustained not only by professional accomplishment but by community. Her sisterhood has provided a place to laugh, vent, recharge and be understood. “I have the best support from my girlfriends and my sisters,” she says. “It is unlike anything else. It is encouraging and uplifting, consoling, fabulously fun. It is just all the things that you need to fill your cup back up and keep going.”

That support matters because leadership can be lonely. In a trusted circle, a leader can put down the title for a moment and simply be human. Baldwin also sees an opportunity to expand that spirit of connection throughout Toledo’s healthcare and community organizations.

Through her involvement with the revitalized Toledo area Black physicians’ organization, conversations are beginning about connecting physicians with historically Black fraternities, sororities and other community organizations. The vision is bigger than individual partnerships. Baldwin hopes to see a broader Northwest Ohio Black health initiative that brings these organizations together around a common purpose.

The goal is not simply to create more programs. It is to create a stronger ecosystem of health, advocacy and community.

Leaving a Pathway Behind

When Baldwin thinks about legacy, she does not begin with titles. She thinks about the women who came before her and the women who will come after her. Her mother’s example is an important part of that legacy.

Judge Adele Riley became the first African American female Common Pleas Judge elected in Montgomery County in Dayton, Ohio. She entered a position where there had not previously been an African American woman in that elected role and created a new image of what leadership could look like.

Now Baldwin is creating her own pathway in medicine. “I want other women to follow that leadership role in the medical staff,” she says, particularly women of color. She wants her legacy to represent strength, resilience, grace, maturity and sophistication. Those qualities, she believes, are earned, not purchased.

Her story demonstrates why.

The young girl who once imagined running a daycare became a physician. The student who struggled with organic chemistry became a leader. The candidate who lost an election became the first Black woman chief of staff at Mercy. And the daughter of a woman who broke a barrier in the courtroom is now breaking one in healthcare.

Baldwin sees herself not as the end of a journey, but as the beginning of a pathway. “I’m really excited to be the first face for this in medicine,” she says, “and looking forward to seeing more come after that, especially here in Toledo where it is so needed.” That may ultimately be Dr. Tanya Baldwin’s greatest contribution.

Not simply becoming the first.

But making sure she is not the last.