Spirit of the County
Marilyn Pearson Sponsored By:
Spirit of the County honoree had her role change dramatically during the pandemic By RANDY CAPPS
B
eing director of public health for Johnston County has always been an important job, but not always one that came with much notoriety. Thanks to the pandemic, that’s no longer the case. During the past two years, Dr. Marilyn Pearson has become a bit of a public figure. Her response and handling of the crisis under unprecedented scrutiny makes her an ideal choice for the 2022 Johnston Now Honors Spirit of the County Award. Pearson came to Johnston County in 1998 after undergraduate work at Clemson and medical school at the University of North Carolina. “I finished my residency in Charlotte, and I always knew I wanted to work with under-served populations, so when I was looking for a job, I looked at places like health departments or community clinics,” she said. “My husband is from this area, so that’s one of the things that 22 | [ JOHNSTON NOW ]
brought me back this way. I actually did one of my rotations at the health department with Dr. (Leonard) Woodall. They weren’t in the new building, they were in the old building at the time. He said, ‘We’ve got a new building coming, so you really want to come.’ I enjoyed that rotation, and I felt like this was an area that I would enjoy and be able to serve the population I wanted to serve.” Her drive to help in those areas stems from her childhood in Manning, South Carolina “I grew up with not a lot,” she said. “My parents worked two jobs, and up until middle school, we didn’t have indoor plumbing. I tell people if you haven’t been to an outhouse, you have to use one to understand what they are. But my parents were ones who tried to set examples and help people when they could. So I always wanted to be one who could provide for and help people. I didn’t see the doctor much when I was younger, but I did (see
one) a few times. Dr. (Robert) Jackson was very nice, and when I saw what he did, I felt like it was something I could do.” She spent her first seven years at the health department getting to know her new community, and its doctors. “I came to the health department and I was the first physician they hired to run their primary care clinic,” she said. “At that time, I was seeing patients in the clinic, but also doing in-patient work, taking care of patients at the hospital. I shared call with a few physicians around the county, like Dr. Renee Watson. We’re close friends, having shared call all those years. ... As the only doctor in a practice, it’s hard to take call every day. “When Dr. Woodall decided to retire, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be health director. I didn’t know much about what the health director did. I did a little research and decided that, I could have a bigger impact than (I could) just one-onone seeing patients individually. I thought
