In the tiny, vulnerable patients, she saw herself - Harvard Gazette

"“I had been born very prematurely so I had this connection with the patients that we were serving,” said Farrar, who was born two months early after her mother developed sepsis. “I always heard stories growing up about being born so small. When I was born, I was really sick, my mom was really sick.”"

"“We took care of a lot of babies waiting to go into the foster care system,” Farrar said. “A lot of it was holding the babies and talking with the families. I got to practice my Spanish and support people going through that emotionally difficult time. I felt that was special work.”"

"“That special work launched Farrar onto a path that led to Alabama, Boston and Harvard Medical School, Oxford, and back. Along the way, she hasn't wavered in her vision of using medicine to help others, but has taken a broad view, one that embraces physics and math and saw her contributing to research into drug resistance while manning an overnight crisis hotline - and one that will have her marking her HMS graduation this spring with classmates as she anticipates a career in psychiatry.”"

Alison Farrar volunteered in a neonatal intensive care unit during high school and connected deeply with premature babies because she had been born two months early after her mother developed sepsis. She observed that families faced financial strain and that babies’ challenges often continued beyond prematurity, including situations involving foster care. Her work involved holding babies, talking with parents, and offering emotional support while using her Spanish. This early experience guided her through training and research across multiple institutions, including Harvard Medical School and Oxford. She broadened her approach to medicine by incorporating physics and math, contributing to research into drug resistance. During COVID, she manned an overnight crisis hotline, reinforcing her commitment to psychiatry and helping others.

Read at Harvard Gazette