We were lucky to catch up with Tamira Dunn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tamira, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

COVID was one of the most difficult yet eye opening time for most of us. I had so much time on my hands

Tamira, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

There’s so much about me and how I got to where I am today. I believe I have always had a passion for helping others since my undergrad years at thee Morgan State University. After graduation I remember starting my first non profit for pregnant and parenting teen moms because I noticed the need for services in my community. From there I have just always been innovative in finding solutions to issues that impact my community. In 2014, I suffered a miscarriage that completely rocked my world. It was the most devastating and traumatizing experience I have ever had. I just kept feeling like “why me”. To cope with that loss I created a pregnancy and infant loss walk in Baltimore City through the non profit organization I created. I also became a maternal interviewer for the Fetal Infant Mortality Review Board where I interview moms who have had a fetal loss. The purpose is to tell the story of what happened from the moms point of view in an attempt to make recommendations to prevent this from happening to other women.

DMC Empowering Health Services is an organization I created with my sister, Terry Cornish and my friend Mia Matthews. It happened one day over lunch during COVID. I bought us all together and said let’s take this downtime where the world is shut down to create our legacy. The goal has always been to never work for anyone else. I felt that with our experience, we could be leaders for our own company. Our organization is an outpatient mental health clinic where we are providing therapy services to children, adults, and families. Creating the organization allows me to still work with the populations I am passionate about which is teen parents and pregnant and postpartum women.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

This is actually a really good question. One of my business partners is my sister. We aren’t related by blood but what’s the saying? Blood couldn’t make us any closer…and thats who we are. I met her back when I was working for Department of Social Services in 2010. I remember having to go to court one day for a family and she was there. I am an introvert so I don’t just talk to random I people I don’t know; however, Terry made sure to talk to me while we were in the waiting area. From there we just became really close. She has been by my side during the good and some of the toughest moments of my life.

My other business partner Mia, I have known for awhile but we never really communicated until 2018. A mutual friend of ours had texted me and told me that Mia’s daughter had unfortunately passed away and asked if I could reach out to her to offer support. When she told me who it was I instantly got sad because again I knew of Mia but we never talked, I was friends with her sister so I would see her at different events and would always speak. I remember reaching out to just check on her from time to time and before I knew it, we had become friends. I wish that we would have became friends sooner but here we are, really good friends and business partners.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We know that Baltimore City is saturated with outpatient mental health clinics. One of the things that helped us to build our reputation within the industry is to always set ourselves apart by identifying our niche. Some of our core focuses are on perinatal and maternal mental health as well as teen parents. We also dive into other areas where we provide services to early childhood development programs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dmcehealth.com
• Instagram: dmcehealthservices
• Facebook: DMC Empowering Health Services
• Linkedin: DMC Empowering Health Services, LLC

Image Credits
@eyeimagery for the photo of the three founders