Alumnae Leadership Award
Dr. Marian Sassetti ’77 is deeply grateful for and gives credit to Trinity High School for first awakening and nurturing the very leadership qualities for which she is being recognized. She is known for her commitment to patients, especially those who have suffered violence or who have mental health needs, in her medical practice and throughout the community.
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Marian is a longtime advocate for universal health care and mental health parity. She is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Rush University Medical Center, where she volunteers at Rush’s free community clinic, teaching medical students who serve the poor and uninsured. Marian also mentors medical students in her Oak Park practice, Lake Street Family Physicians, where she has served the community for 25 years.
After graduation from Trinity, Marian attended Northwestern University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and earned Summa Cum Laude honors, with a degree in Psychology. She went on to Stanford University Medical School. There, as a student representative on the hospital ethics committee, she began to understand the challenges of delivering compassionate care in complex situations.
Marian chose Family Medicine as the conduit to provide comprehensive care for a diverse community. During her residency at Cook County Hospital, she learned to advocate for the marginalized. Marian completed a fellowship in Faculty Development and designed a curriculum to teach physicians to recognize and treat victims of domestic violence. She continues to write articles and lecture to physicians around the country about violence against women and girls and has served on the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Family Violence. Recently, she participated on panels to address sexual assault among high school students. She is especially excited to work on efforts that empower girls and women to self-advocate.
Marian is honored to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors at the Well Spirituality Center in LaGrange, where she works with Well CEO Bridget Romano Sperduto ‘77. Marian is passionate about The Well’s mission to work toward healing and wholeness for the individual, the community, and the planet. She also served for seven years on the board of Thrive Counseling Center in Oak Park, where she worked to make mental health services more accessible to those in need. In addition, Marian served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians.
Marian has lived in within walking distance to Trinity for most of her life, and now resides in Oak Park. Marian and her husband Robert Kent are the proud parents of three sons and a daughter, and were thrilled to welcome their first grandchild in 2017.
