Family medicine with obstetrics physician Marie Brown, M.D., joins Oaklawn

MARSHALL — It seemed that the medical field was all around Marie Brown as she was growing up in the Jackson County community of Clarklake,

“I come from a family of pharmacists,” she said. “My brother is a fourth-generation pharmacist and I grew up hearing stories about my grandfather, who had to deliver insulin in the snow. My grandmother also was a pharmacist in Jackson and for the old Trillium Hospital in Albion.”

That background placed Brown on a path that has led her to service as a family medicine physician with a focus in obstetrics. In that capacity, she is beginning work with the Oaklawn Medical Group at Marshall Primary Care as well as Oaklawn’s Albion location.

Marshall Primary Care is based in Suite 1E of the Wright Medical Building at 215 E. Mansion St. Appointments there may be made by calling (269) 781-3938. Oaklawn’s Albion site is in Suite A at 302 N. Monroe St. Appointments there may be made by calling (517) 629-2134.

Brown said it was typical for her family’s Christmas dinner to be planned around her relatives’ medical responsibilities.

As a result of such exposure, “I had a fondness for seeing the importance of community medicine and the role that health0 care plays in the community,” she said.

Brown said she always has had a passion for science and teaching. As a girl, she wanted to be a teacher but, through her love of science and having an influence on healthcare around her, she eventually drew back toward medicine. Her interests crystalized in the area of family medicine with a special focus in obstetrics and women’s health.

After graduation from Lumen Christi High School in Jackson, Brown went on to Albion College, from which she graduated in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She then when on to medical school at St. George’s University School of Medicine based in Grenada, West Indies.

Brown also studied at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, where in 2015 she received a diploma of higher education in biomedical sciences.

Earlier this year, Brown completed a residency program in family medicine at MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland, serving during that time as an associate professor at the Midland campus of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Brown is certified in advanced cardiac life support as well as advanced life support in obstetrics, fetal monitoring and pediatric advanced life support. She is credentialed in neonatal resuscitation. She is a member of the American Medical Association, the Michigan American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Brown recently was married to her husband, Keith, who is to graduate from medical school in May 2023. They met while she was living in Ann Arbor and he was a University of Michigan student.

“We enjoy golfing, traveling and cooking together,” she said, adding that the couple have purchased a house in Marshall.

Also in her spare time, Brown particularly enjoys water activities, especially in her hometown of Clarklake. She loves to be outdoors and participate in hiking and winter sports such as skiing, and while indoors she enjoys popular movies.

“I have a passion for traveling,” she said. Her past trips have included Ireland and Scotland as well as a two-year residence in the United Kingdom. Someday, she said, she hopes to travel to all seven continents.

For Brown, coming to work at Oaklawn feels a bit like coming home.

“It was a place where I felt that next puzzle piece fall into place, with the benefit of being close to home” as her relatives reside in Dexter and Clarklake, she said.

“Marshall has a fantastic reputation of being a great town and Oaklawn has the reputation of being an excellent community hospital,” she added. “It just felt like the perfect fit. The opportunity of being able to do family medicine with obstetrics is the perfect situation.”