The Systems and Policy Research Network (SPRNetwork formally known as CYSHCNet) is proud to announce Cheri Scott as a recipient of the 2025 Pediatric Complex Care Lifetime Achievement Award. This honor celebrates Cheri’s exceptional, lasting contributions to improving the lives of children with medical complexity and their families.

About the Award

The Pediatric Complex Care Lifetime Achievement Award is supported by the Systems & Policy Research Network, Family Voices, the Academic Pediatrics Association Complex Care and Disability Special Interest Group, and the Children’s Hospital Association.

From Caring for Children to Championing Families

Cheri’s journey began with a simple truth: she loves babies.

When she could no longer have children of her own and her two birth children had grown up, she started babysitting for her husband’s coworkers. But as those children grew older and moved on to school, she realized she wanted to do more.

She trained as a childbirth educator and began contracting with a neighborhood health center, working with expectant mothers and those experiencing homelessness, poverty, domestic violence, or substance use. With such a diverse population, cultural differences and language barriers required creative teaching approaches. Cheri also knew basic needs had to be met before learning could happen, so she provided food and transportation vouchers behind the scenes, no questions asked and ensured expectant mothers were mentally and physically ready for what was to come.

Through this work, Cheri was invited to attend several births where mothers had no support system. Many of these babies were born prematurely and medically fragile and were always taken into state custody. Cheri began asking a question that would shape her life’s work, “what happens to these babies once they leave the hospital?”

Opening Her Home to Alaska’s Most Vulnerable Newborns

Cheri and her husband, an Alaska Native, became foster parents through the Alaska Native Medical Center. They cared for newborns with significant medical needs, often from rural villages without reliable electricity or water, keeping them close to specialized medical care until they could safely return home. Over time, because of Cheri’s and her husband’s exceptional skill and dedication in caring for medically fragile infants, the babies placed in their home became increasingly complex.

This is how she met her son Justin. Born at 26 weeks with a blood alcohol level of .237, Justin faced seizures, deaf-blindness, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, cleft palate, and fetal alcohol syndrome. Doctors didn’t expect him to live past his first birthday. Cheri’s immediate response was “we’ll see about that.”

Justin is now 38. Cheri describes him as “a teacher who pushed us to look beyond labels and see what’s possible,” a sentiment that she has carried throughout her work.

From Parent to Public Advocate

Cheri’s advocacy didn’t start in a classroom or boardroom, it started at home, raising three children, two of which experience disabilities, and later supporting grandchildren with complex medical needs. Her advocacy as a parent wanting to create a better system for her family by confronting systemic barriers and fighting for better services would grow into fighting for families throughout Alaska. When Justin was young, early intervention services visited several times a week. Those providers introduced Cheri to public advocacy.

When budget cuts threatened Alaska’s Infant Learning Program, she brought Justin to legislative hearings so policymakers could see firsthand the people impacted by their decisions. That work led to committee roles and, ultimately, becoming a founding member of Alaska’s first neurodevelopmental clinic for medically complex children. The initiative was named Stone Soup, after the fable where a village creates a nourishing meal by each member contributing what they have, a metaphor for the collaborative spirit at the heart of the organization.

Her work evolved when Cheri began part-time at Stone Soup as a parent navigator, job-sharing with another experienced parent and working from a mailroom with one shared computer among four staff members. She helped shape the organization’s mission from the start, ensuring programs honor each family’s unique experiences and services are offered at no cost.

“We all have a gift to bring to humanity. If we are the people that are able to communicate, our job is to make sure that those that have a harder time get their stories out there. That they are heard. That they’re acknowledged as just as valuable as anybody else.”

Cheri Scott

Expanding Stone Soup’s Impact Across Alaska

Two years in, Stone Soup’s data revealed a troubling trend that while many children had complex medical conditions, 90% were also brought in for significant behavioral challenges. While the board was already satisfied with the work that had been done with the clinic, Cheri and other staff pushed back saying there was more work to be done explaining that the clinic gave them the means to continue identifying issues that were not met yet.

Cheri and her colleagues pushed funders to expand services beyond the clinic, securing a multi-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Stone Soup grew to 15 employees, providing outreach to rural areas through traveling screening clinics, training parent navigators in hub communities, and supporting families at IEP meetings. Cheri overcame her early doubts about not having a college degree, realizing that the knowledge families shared was just as valuable and that it was the heart of Stone Soup’s success.

A Lasting Legacy of Systems Change and Education

For more than two decades, Cheri has been a steady voice for education, empathy, and action on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Since 2000, she has delivered training across Alaska, the Lower 48, and Canada teaching culturally responsive and practical tools to rural and underserved communities.

Her workshops have gone beyond FASD covering topics such as family-centered care, disability and sexuality education, deaf-blindness, and the art of building strong, respectful partnerships with families. Even after retiring in 2011, she remained a force for progress, returning to Stone Soup Group as a board member in 2019, where she continues to bring her wisdom, lived experience, and fierce advocacy to strategic leadership. Today, she co-teaches alongside her son, Justin, modeling the partnerships she has long championed showing providers and systems leaders how to work with families through respect, open communication, and shared purpose.