Valued member of the HOPE community
The HOPE community mourns the passing of Mary Crane, PhD, MSW, a member of our National Advisory Board (NAB), on May 11, 2024. Mary was an invaluable thought partner and provided wise counsel on our work with pediatricians and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). We will miss her greatly.
My fondest memories of Mary involved how centered she was, always thinking about what we were trying to accomplish. After a particularly intense NAB meeting, she sent along a thoughtful note, concluding by writing, “We have to understand what families want, what capacities they have to accomplish what they want, and support them in that.”
Mary was a successful champion for improving the lives of children in foster care during her 21 years at the AAP. Tammy Hurley, Director of Child Welfare, Trauma & Resilience Services at the AAP, noted that Mary “led many significant advancements for children, youth, and families…to include enactment of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act; the Peds-21 Symposium on Foster Care; the Healthy Foster Care America project; and the Pediatric Approach to Trauma Treatment and Resilience initiative.” Read her obituary.
In this moment, the HOPE team joins our colleagues at the AAP in remembering Mary and in gratitude for her contributions to HOPE and to pediatrics. We extend our condolences to the AAP and to her family, who miss her deeply.
-Bob Sege
