Institutional Service Award
This award honors clinical faculty who consistently share time and expertise in service to internal committees, task forces, and other institutional activities that make a significant impact on the care delivered to UT Southwestern patients.
Mary Jane Pearson, M.D.
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
When it comes to supporting UT Southwestern Medical Center, Mary Jane Pearson, M.D., is all in.
Her nominator suggests that Dr. Pearson, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has not turned down a single request to serve on a committee, run a program, or in some other way advance the mission of UTSW.
Dr. Pearson is a proud UT Southwestern alumna, Class of 1980. Among the groups to which she has dedicated years of service are the Student Promotions Committee, the Employee Wellness Committee, and the Faculty Senate. She was also elected at large to serve on the Medical Education Curriculum Committee.
The provision of women’s health care is a top priority for Dr. Pearson. She has worked with students, residents, and patients at the Parkland Women’s Health clinics, has advocated for patients as a member of the Family Planning Coordinating Committee for UTSW/Parkland Hospital System from 2007 to the present, and encouraged all levels of learners to develop their talents in caring for female patients.
She is a member of the University of Texas System’s Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education and the UT Southwestern Academy of Teachers (SWAT), for which she was president in 2021.
Education is a high priority for Dr. Pearson, and she has served as an Academic Colleges mentor for Sprague College since the inception of the Colleges. She was the lead faculty adviser for fourth-year obstetrics and gynecology residency candidates from 2010-2016, and became the clerkship director in 2012, a role she continues to hold.
When major curriculum reform was being planned, she joined the Interprofessional Education Task Force. She has worked with learners and faculty in the School of Health Professions to develop better training for learners from both schools.
Dr. Pearson is a beloved teacher and has received many teaching awards for her work with students, residents, and faculty. For her work with medical students, she received the Clinical Teaching Award for Ambulatory Care in 2005, the Socrates Teaching Award in 2007, and the Core Clerkship Teaching Award in Ambulatory Care in 2011. She was elected by students into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 2014. One of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a faculty member by students is to be selected as a commencement marshal, and Dr. Pearson received that honor in 2014, 2018, 2020, and 2022.
One former student said it was the example of Dr. Pearson that led her to join a medical school faculty rather than going into private practice, as had been her original intention.
Said Dr. Pearson’s nominator, “She works tirelessly, balancing her institutional responsibilities with education and patient care. She sees patients at local women’s health clinics in the Parkland Health System. There, she both advocates for her patients and teaches preventive health care to third-year medical students. Dr. Pearson is a role model and inspiration to students because of her professionalism and enthusiasm for women’s health. The students who have learned from Dr. Pearson will go on to be exceptionally educated physicians who demonstrate compassion and kindness to their patients, because that is what Dr. Pearson has modeled for them.”
In her words: “Service to our institution at UT Southwestern is a piece of the job that we all provide every day. I thank Dr. [Daniel K.] Podolsky, M.D., and the awards committee for this Institutional Service Award. This award may have my name on it, but it carries the heart of everyone who has worked with me on any educational endeavor here at UT Southwestern. Every wonderful clinician who is here started, and continues to this day, as a learner. With our educational mission as a driving force, UT Southwestern will continue to produce the best providers of clinical care.”