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Mary Horton, MPH, MA

As a Co-Director of the MD/PhD Program, Mary Kollmer Horton works with the directorship of the Emory University MD/PhD Program to lead the academic and administrative missions of this program.  As Co-Director Mary is directly in charge of the advisement of all first and second year MD/PhD students and oversees the administrative unit of the program.  Mary has been involved with the Emory Medical Scientist Training Program as Administrative Director and Co-Director for the past 13 years, and has worked with the leadership of that program to grow and develop it to over 100% of its 1997 size when she began. With this academic growth came the need for additional administrative support, and Mary led the growth of the MD/PhD Program administration from a staff of one (Mary) in a clinical department to a staff of three full-time administrative staff members and several part-time student assistants in a formal MD/PhD Department in the School of Medicine. Mary has served on a number of academic committees including the AAMC GREAT Group MD/PhD Section Communications Committee for which she worked to develop educational materials which currently sit on the MD/PhD Section of the AAMC GREAT Group website.  She frequently gives presentations on MD/PhD training and has been invited locally and nationally to sit on panels related to science and health careers, MD/PhD training and academic administration.  In addition to her service to the MD/PhD Program at Emory and her national involvement with the MD/PhD Section of the GREAT Group, Mary is currently a second year graduate student in the Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory’s Laney Graduate School.  She is working on her doctorate in the history of medicine with a focus on the History of Medical Education in America and the importance of the humanities in medical education.

Originally Mary is a native of New York State.  In 1982 she received a degree in Biology from Russell Sage College in Troy, NY, and went on to do graduate training in Cell Biology at the State University of NY at Albany.  In 1984 she moved to New York City to join a research lab on the Columbia University Health Sciences Campus, and in 1989 earned a Masters in Public Health and a second Masters in Epidemiology from Columbia University’s School of Public Health.  Following these educational milestones, Mary worked from 1989-91 at the New York City Department of Health on a special task force under the Commissioner of Health directed at improving the efficiency and management of the various educational and clinical units of the Department.  In 1991, she and her husband moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where Mary took a position in the Grants Office as her husband started his postdoctoral training in structural biology.  Over the next 6 years, Mary’s position in the Grants Office grew to include extensive work in scientific grant writing, educational grants management and budget administration with the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Courses and Meetings Program.  While at Cold Spring Harbor Lab she worked with faculty at the State University of NY at Stony Brook to forward a model NSF sponsored program to encourage and mentor Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).  In 1997, Mary and her family moved to Emory University.  During her time at Emory, Mary has assisted in the development of several academic programs and initiatives including an inter-institutional relationship with the Georgia Institute of Technology Center for Bioengineering, development of a joint graduate program in Biomedical Engineering with the Georgia Institute of Technology, development of an interdisciplinary scholars program in the neurosciences and the growth of alternative dual degree options for MD/PhD students in such non-traditional areas as public health, the social sciences and the liberal arts. She and her husband are both active members of the Emory community, and are equally engaged in the activities of their four very interesting and different children.