Spirit of the County honoree had her role change dramatically during the pandemic

By RANDY CAPPS

Being 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 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 I could really make some decisions that could help the community. So, I applied and I was the one they chose.”

She took the role in October 2005, a time in which Johnston County’s rapid population growth was just beginning.

“The population has boomed,” she said. “That’s been a big thing. The importance of partnerships has really come to the forefront. Not just in the pandemic. Even in 2005 when I became health director, and realizing the changing landscape in health care ... in behavioral health and medical care, looking at things that affected everyone’s health — and not just things at the doctor’s office.

“When I became health director we started thinking about those things. Do we have places for people to exercise? Where people work, and trying to get more involved with employers. It was really kind of an epiphany for me. Every decision that we make is a health decision. I tell the commissioners that now. Looking at the bigger picture, our population started changing some. Our businesses started changing, and I think that’s affected how our county is moving forward. ... The changes I’m seeing are not just in the population, but in the ways that people think about health and the way we deal with health.”

As much as the community changed in the first 15 years of her tenure, it pales in comparison to the impact that COVID-19 had.

“For years we did pandemic tabletop exercises (on pandemics), thinking ‘Ah, it’s not going to happen,’” she said. “As a matter of fact, we did one in January 2020 at JCC with all of our community partners — emergency management, the schools, all of us were there — talking about how we would respond to a pandemic, forming partnerships, etc. And then in March, wow, it happened. Nothing ever happens like you plan it, but the important thing was we had formed partnerships. When I needed something, I could call somebody and they knew who was calling. Or, if they needed something, they could call me and I would know who they were. ... People can’t always say yes to everything, but if you have a relationship with them, you can work things out and compromise.”

Those partnerships, and a fair amount of media interviews, changed the perception of public health as whole — and of her role in particular.

“I think one of the things about public health that I realized is we’ve always been in the background,” she said. “You can’t count how many people’s lives we’ve saved. You can’t count them. You don’t know. This put public health at the forefront. We were the face of everything, the good and the bad. People didn’t know who I was before the pandemic. Now? Everybody knows my face. Not that I wanted them to, but now everybody does. Which is good and bad. It gives me a platform to, at least, encourage people to do some things and work with people to try to improve the health of everybody in our county.”

Pearson and her husband, James McLean, have two children. Jadyn is a recent graduate of Corinth Holders while JR is a rising freshman.