Twenty years ago, Julia Van Domelen was visiting Grace Place for Children & Families when she met a woman taking one of the nonprofit’s English classes. The young mom was pregnant with her second child and full of joy. A few months later, Julia returned to find her unrecognizable, sitting alone in the back of the classroom, despondent and staring out a window. Her baby was in the NICU in Tampa, and she had to stay in town to take care of her eldest.
“I marched down [to the then NCH president’s office] and said, ‘We need these services. Why can’t we get these services here?’” At the time, she was told there weren’t enough births to warrant the specialty.
Today, the equation has reversed: population growth and family care needs are outpacing capacity. Since then, Julia has dedicated herself to healthcare initiatives, including contributing to the development of new Healthcare Network centers in underserved areas and to David Lawrence Centers’ expansion. She is still pushing for an answer for maternal healthcare. This time, she has a cadre by her side.
“Our community is growing, and along with this growth comes the responsibility to provide women and children dependable and readily available healthcare.” —Jerri Hoffmann
This is the Artemis Circle, an advocacy and philanthropy group created to shape the Van Domelen Institute & Pavilion for Women & Children. Alongside Julia are Patty Baker, Denise Cobb, Shelia Smith Davis, Heather Dockweiler, Ashley Gerry, Barbie Hills, Jerri Hoffmann, Simone Lutgert, Anne Welsh McNulty, Cindy Scalise and Julie Vanderboom. Together, they rally around NCH’s plans to expand women’s and children’s healthcare in Southwest Florida. They are mothers, grandmothers, a nurse and health advocates—all of whom have a proven track record for creative and effective fundraising. They also bring women’s voices to the forefront. “It’s taken so long for women to be recognized—for our intelligence, our abilities—to be heard,” Patty says. “Women can and should all stand together to support each other.”
At the center of their effort is the Institute’s Pavilion, a 156,000-square-foot facility, planned to rise four stories above the ER, with a $350 million campaign goal. The charge is formidable, even by Southwest Florida standards. NCH says it needs nearly 80%—$275 million—from private philanthropy committed before construction can begin. So far, they’re up to $38.7 million. “Extraordinary goals like this require an extraordinary endeavor,” NCH’s chief impact officer, Mara Hammond, says.
With the regional population ballooning and more families moving in, the women say there is no time to waste. “The current hospital was built for a different era,” Denise says. According to NCH’s records, maternal-fetal medicine visits have increased by 500% since 2019. Pregnancies have also become more complex as more women give birth later in life, use fertility treatments and arrive without sufficient prenatal care, Mara says. Half of NCH’s pediatric patients who needed specialty care from 2021 through 2024 had to leave Collier County to receive it. The current Level II NICU, where beds are separated by curtains, reached record capacity in July—the highest since current leadership began tracking the data.
“We are looking forward to 10 years down the road when NCH’s specialty hospitals will serve women’s and children’s health needs close to home—maybe those patients will be us, our friends, our neighbors and our loved ones.” —Barbie Hills
Shelia has spent around 1,250 hours in the NICU, volunteering multiple times a week for almost four years. Recently, she stood with a mother as the woman’s newborn daughter and husband left by helicopter for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. The mother, still hospitalized, had to stay behind. “She sat there in tears,” Shelia says. Another baby had been transferred the day before. “If we had our [new] hospital built, that baby would have stayed with us,” she adds.
Across the board, the women acknowledge a gap. Historically, decisions about women’s health care have been made without the female perspective. Artemis aims to change that. “As women, we share many of the same experiences, challenges and concerns as we venture through life—maturing, becoming mothers, caring for our most precious gifts, our children,” Jerri says. “Who better to lead the charge than those who can relate personally?”
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Photography by Omar Cruz
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Julia Van Domelen & Denise Cobb
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Photography by Omar Cruz
Jerri Hoffmann & Shelia Smith Davis
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Barbie Hills, Cindy Scalise & Ashley Gerry; Named for the Greek goddess who protects women and children, the Artemis Circle helps NCH Naples Comprehensive Health assess the community’s healthcare needs.
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Photography by Omar Cruz
Patty Baker & Anne Welsh McNulty
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Photography by Omar Cruz
Heather Dockweiler & Simone Lutgert
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Photography by Omar Cruz
Julie Vanderboom; The Circle’s members also strive to give women a stronger voice in healthcare decisions. Through roundtable conversations across churches, schools and other organizations, they’ll help more women’s voices reach NCH and improve routine care, from mammograms to bone density scans.
Their focus extends beyond maternity and pediatrics. The women point to the fragmentation in routine care—a bone density scan in one place, a mammogram in another, an MRI somewhere else—as well as the specialized issues that have long gone underserved. Since the hospital added gynecologic oncology last fall, providers have treated more than 500 women, many of whom previously traveled elsewhere, including out of state, for care. This summer, they also launched a pelvic health program. “It’s an exciting time where [globally], more dollars are being put into women’s health research than ever before,” Mara says. “NCH has an opportunity to translate that momentum into better care, better access right here in our community.”
“It doesn’t matter what your background is, where you came from, what your race or religion is, if we all stand together and support each other, I’m convinced we can achieve so much good in this world.” —Patty Baker
The planned Pavilion, developed with Nicklaus Children’s Health System, would add a Level III NICU, expanded labor and delivery suites, pediatric specialties—including neurology and cardiology—and advanced women’s services, such as pelvic floor therapy and menopause treatment. “That is going to be essential to our success—that our patients aren’t bouncing from one place to another and trying to do all this coordination on their own, but instead, there’s a team of people that stay with them through their life, through important milestones,” Mara says. NCH plans to work with its other growing departments, such as cardiology and oncology, and with outside partners to address complex yet prevalent issues women face. They’ll also be training doctors to recognize symptoms in women that are often missed or dismissed.
In forming Artemis, Julia focused on women with a record of rallying support for ambitious causes and with deep enough ties to healthcare to understand the stakes. Most have supported NCH for decades; some have experienced the gaps in local care firsthand. Ashley spent seven days unable to touch her first daughter while she was in NCH’s NICU 14 years ago. Another daughter’s rare condition later sent the family driving across Florida for specialists. “I hope parents facing a difficult diagnosis can focus entirely on their child instead of worrying about where they’ll have to travel or how far they’ll be from their support system,” she says.
Early on in the formation of the group, they bused to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital to see the kind of care they hoped to create at home. Shelia remembers family rooms that allow parents to remain with sick children and a volunteer-supported laundry service—details that seem mundane until a family finds itself living inside a hospital for weeks or months.
“If we’ve inspired others to invest in the future of women’s and children’s healthcare, then we’ve created something that will last far beyond any of us.” —Heather Dockweiler
Despite their reach, the 12 recognize they don’t speak for everyone NCH serves. “The community isn’t just us and our immediate friends and relatives,” NCH trustee Anne says. “We live in a much broader, more complex community, and we need to reach out to all of those people.”
Their role, therefore, is not only to speak from their own experience but to help more women’s voices reach NCH. The Circle plans to host roundtable conversations, working through churches, social groups and other organizations. Many also have longstanding roles with nonprofits serving families across Collier County. Mara says those relationships can help the healthcare system understand the biggest needs and which services are already in place, helping avoid duplication. In turn, the Artemis members will learn from NCH physicians and other healthcare experts so that they can carry information about new research and programs back out. “We’re all working together for the greater good. We’re not working in silos,” Julia says.
“Many health experts describe women’s and children’s health as the foundation of a healthy society.”—Julie Vanderboom
The model for coordinated, strategic nonprofit work is familiar to the women, many of whom serve as trustees for the Naples Children’s Foundation, which distributes resources based on ongoing assessments that identify the community’s most pressing needs and existing services. For now, the Circle consists of 12—meeting monthly, October through May—but, as the campaign progresses, memberships may also expand. NCH directs those who want to be involved to its call to action online, where it posts opportunities to donate or volunteer.
Simone sees the Artemis Circle like city planners. “It’s like we always say about the road system—they wait too late to build, to take care of the infrastructure,” she says.