Marion Babcock

Passionate about access to quality healthcare and education is what brought Marion Babcock to the Brookland neighborhood. Excellent dental care and a dedicated staff, is what brought her family to Mary’s Center. Suffering a major health incident and enduring a long recovery, resulted in gaps in her children’s dental care. Mary’s Center warmly welcomed four children for x-rays, exams, and cleanings, at a location that best suited their needs. As a member of Mary’s Center Community Engagement Council for the past two years, she has channeled her experience of parenting through health trauma into a broader role of civic engagement.

With Mary’s Center and the Mayor’s Office of Disability Rights, she co-created and co-facilitated a public health roundtable centered on the needs of the disabled community in a post-pandemic world. The benefit was a deeper understanding of the unique approaches necessary to address the variety of conditions and the time cost of the caregiver.

Marion has also worked at creating a positive social impact on DC public education in her role as organizer and moderator of the DC Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) Collective, a learning and support network for parents and teachers serving elected school leaders across DC Public Schools (DCPS). She currently serves on the Stakeholder Advisory Board for the Deputy Mayor of Education’s initiative: Education Through Employment Pathways, a public facing information effort about the impact of education and workforce programs on employment and economic mobility. Trained by the Sustained Dialogue Institute, Marion believes that the power of dialogue builds needs awareness among multi-stakeholders. She is excited about addressing the gap between what we know and the desired possibilities we want to achieve.

As a ceramic artist, Marion continually develops her creativity. Working with clay reminds her of the process and power of transformation.