Holy Cross Pioneer and Leading Medical Expert to Give Talk about Healthcare

WORCESTER, Mass. – Marian F. Earls, a member of the class of 1976 and medical director of Guilford Child Health, Inc., a large, non-profit, private pediatric practice in Greensboro, N.C., will deliver the 10th annual Katherine A. Henry ’86 Memorial Lecture titled “Healthcare for Women and Children: Disparities and Advocacy” on Thursday, April 10 at 4 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center, room 304 at the College of the Holy Cross.  The event, sponsored by women's and gender studies and by the premedical/predental program, is free and open to the public.

“A pioneer at Holy Cross, Dr. Earls has been in the forefront of dealing with maternal and children's health issues from clinical, community, and policy standpoints, particularly in relation to low-income families,” says Shawn Lisa Maurer, director of women's and gender studies and organizer of the event. “We are fortunate to have her return to the College to speak about issues that don't often get enough attention in the broader debates surrounding women's health.”

Earls received her A.B. in 1976 from Holy Cross, among the first class of women admitted to the College. She and her daughter, Dr. Naomi Earls Leslie '00, are the College's first mother-daughter alumnae.

Earls is looking forward to her visit back to campus. “Holy Cross provides an excellent academic and premed preparation,” says Earls. “However, the more important factor for me was the Holy Cross mission to provide an education and environment that prepares a student to be a ‘person for others.’”

Earls earned her master’s of theological studies from Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, and her M.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She completed her pediatric residency at Moses Cone Hospital (UNC AHEC) in Greensboro.

In addition to holding the title of medial director, she is also a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at Guilford Child Health, Inc. and is an associate clinical professor at the University of North Carolina Medical School.

Vice president of the North Carolina Pediatric Society, Earls has recently been appointed to the Committee on the Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and is the liaison from the AAP to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). She is currently providing technical assistance to five states for the implementation of developmental and behavioral screening and surveillance through a grant titled “Setting the Stage for Success” awarded by the Commonwealth Fund.

The Katherine A. Henry ’86 Memorial Lecture Series, which is focused on women’s health issues, was endowed by Katherine Henry’s parents, in memory of their daughter who died in 1997.