Meet Mary Allen Staat, MD, MPH
Mary Allen Staat, MD, MPH, is the director of the International Adoption Center (IAC) and associate professor, Infectious Diseases, at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. She grew up in Erlanger, Kentucky, the fifth of six children, and graduated from Lloyd Memorial High School. Mary completed her undergraduate studies in physiology at George Williams College near Chicago. The college was very diverse and she found herself drawn to the Latin American community and their culture.
With an interest in international health, Mary went to Suriname (former Dutch Guyana) to study the food beliefs of pregnant women. While in medical school, she went to Ecuador with Partners of the Americas and during her residency made several mission trips to Bolivia while in the Army National Guard. It was during these trips when she encountered so many children in need of families that adoption personally came to mind.
Mary attended the University of Kentucky College of Medicine (Lexington, Kentucky), completed residencies in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas) and preventive medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, and received postgraduate training in pediatric infectious diseases. She received her Masters of Public Health (MPH) at Johns Hopkins and is board certified in pediatrics, pediatric infectious diseases and preventive medicine. Mary has been published in various scientific journals and textbooks in the areas of international adoption, diarrhea and vaccine-preventable diseases.
The International Adoption Center became a dream for Mary when she recognized the great need of families for medical support for their international adoptions. Her personal experience in Colombia with the adoption of her daughter motivated her to develop a comprehensive international adoption program. The International Adoption Center opened in 1999 and has helped more than 1,500 families with their preand post-adoption needs.
Mary lives in Northern Kentucky with her three beautiful children from Central and South America — George (El Salvador), Emily (Colombia) and Katie (Ecuador). Mary loves to dance, and enjoys watching her children play soccer.
