Marla Oros was born and brought up in Randallstown, Maryland. Trained as a nurse and nurse administrator, at just 39, Oros currently serves as Associate Dean for Clinical Practice and Services at the University of Maryland, School of Nursing. In this capacity, she oversees several programs including four full service mobile health clinics know as "Wellmobiles", a nurse managed primary care community facility ("Open Gates"), a pediatric ambulatory center, 15 school based health centers, the Healthy Child Care Maryland Program and the Southwestern Family Support Center. Oros' work, both professional and voluntary, in the field of health care and educational access, has taken her into the poorest and most under-served areas of west and southwest Baltimore as well as across Maryland. Her work encompasses groups as diverse as children, low income families and prostitutes.
In 1993 she helped start a clinic called Open Gates Community Health Center with a grant from the Middendorf Foundation. This unit provides health services to under-served and uninsured Baltimoreans using nurses as primary health care practitioners with diagnostic and prescriptive powers. - Oros has helped champion this innovative idea. Now a thriving practice, the clinic will be housed in a new and larger facility in 2003 with the help of Oros' fundraising efforts and a personal contribution from Oros and her husband David Oros.
Marla Oros' commitment to healthcare access for all was the driving force behind the creation of Connect Maryland, a non-profit formed by Oros and her husband David. Supporting initiatives in health care across the state, particularly in places of social distress or geographic isolation, the organization has made a $600,000 annual donation to the Wellmobile initiative.
Seeing that the future of our cities and state lie in opportunities for children, Marla Oros co-founded and directs "Community Impact Baltimore," a youth development program for children and young adults from middle to high-school age and beyond. In 2000, this non-profit awarded college scholarships and plans to expand its activities in the coming years.
Oros was given community wide recognition by Baltimore Magazine for her numerous civic endeavors when she was named "Baltimorean of the Year" for 2001.
Marla Oros, with her husband David, has two children and resides in Owings Mills, Maryland.
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