Marion D’Lugoff, APRN, MA, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (SON) and a health care crusader for East Baltimore, died of lymphoma on Sunday, September 4, surrounded by her family and friends. She was 61.
D’Lugoff was known throughout Baltimore for her dedication to community-based care and her commitment to providing quality health care. When she joined the School of Nursing’s faculty in 1992, D’Lugoff found both a desperate need for community-based health care in East Baltimore and a lack of opportunities for nursing students to experience community health nursing in an urban setting. As a mechanism to address both problems simultaneously, D’Lugoff founded the Lillian D. Wald Community Nursing Center in 1994 to provide free health services to the poor, uninsured, or underinsured residents of East Baltimore. Today, the Wald Center at Rutland serves hundreds of families and each year offers SON students an opportunity to conduct clinical rotations and gain valuable experience among urban populations.
“Marion held an unwavering commitment to her clients…those in the direst circumstances, such as immigrants, impoverished, abused, homeless, mentally or emotionally ill, received the very best of health care and caring from Marion,” says Beth Sloand, an assistant professor and pediatric nurse practitioner who worked with D’Lugoff at the Wald Center.
“She was a maven, a mentor, and a marvelous motivator,” says Dean Martha Hill. Hill urges all to join her in ensuring that “the clinic remains a continuing memorial to Marion, our Divine Miss M.”
D’Lugoff is survived by her husband Dr. Burton C. D’Lugoff, a retired associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins; and children Daniel Raphael D’Lugoff and Sarah Rachel D’Lugoff.
The Marion Isaacs D’Lugoff Endowment Fund is being established to provide the necessary resources to continue her work serving the people of East Baltimore.
To send a contribution or for additional information:
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
525 N. Wolfe Street, Rm. 529; Baltimore, MD 21205
(410) 955-4284, [email protected].