Marion Downs (January 26, 1914 – November 13, 2014)[1] was an American audiologist and professor emerita at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.
[2] Her efforts were aimed at raising awareness within the medical community about the developmental challenges associated with childhood deafness.
Thanks to her initiatives, 95 percent of newborns born in America today undergo screening for hearing loss.
In 1949, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Denver (DU) and received her master's degree in audiology in 1951.
In 1959, she began working as an audiologist in a new ear-nose-and-throat (ENT, or otolaryngology) clinic at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
There, along with Doreen Pollack, she initiated the practice of fitting hearing aids on infants by the age of six months, on the theory that the earlier the remediation and prevention, the better the functioning would be.
She published two books and over 100 articles on the subject, and lectured and taught extensively throughout the United States and overseas.
She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2006, and in 2007 received the Secretary's Highest Recognition Award at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for her groundbreaking work and lifetime dedication promoting the early identification of hearing problems in children.
She received an Outstanding Service Recognition Award from the American Medical Association for her work in teaching audiology in Vietnam.