As nurse case manager of the comprehensive sickle cell program in the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Children’s Hospital of UPMC, Mary has gone above and beyond the call of duty in improving the care of patients, helping them navigate the system and improving outcomes. She has been instrumental in streamlining care of these patients in the ED through the use of individualized pain plans. Thus, every patient coming to Children’s ED with sickle cell disease has effective regimen for management of their severe pain crisis. Further, through the continued education of nurses in the ED, she has been able to bring about the acceptance of and implementation of this pain management strategy. Thus Mary’s effort has contributed to dramatic improvement of care, decrease of avoidable hospitalizations, duration of hospital stay and in high patient satisfaction. Currently, she is spearheading a major effort to further improve on this by leading a quality improvement project “Floor the pain,” which is designed to avoid setbacks in pain management during transition from ED to the floor. Select patients who are likely to require admission anyway will be brought directly to the floor instead of through the ED. Once they are on the floor, the sickle cell team will initiate aggressive pain management in collaboration with the inpatient hematology service. Through this innovative program patients can get immediate and aggressive management of their pain by expert staff that is familiar with the needs of these patients. Mary’s contribution included development of the concept, developing all policy and educational materials and outcomes instruments. Mary is a tireless worker in coordinating care of inpatients and outpatients with sickle cell disease. Several young people with sickle cell disease move away from their families to come to Pittsburgh for one of two reasons. One to go to one of the universities here or two, they are placed in a juvenile facility here. May has worked closely with both of these groups of patients to see that they make the transition to living away from home and receiving appropriate medical care. Mary has also gone above and beyond the call of duty to offer and enroll patients in clinical trials. She frequently stays late to answer a question by someone on a clinical trial or just to make sure that they are feeling OK. Through a combination of tireless energy, knowledge of the system and an unflagging commitment to patient care, Mary has greatly contributed to improvement of patient care, problem solving and serving a vulnerable underserved segment of our community.