Mary Ann Allen: My Friend Lovey

Crnic Institute Sie Post-Doctoral Fellow Mary Ann Allen shares how a childhood friendship inspired her to research Down syndrome and look for similarities rather than differences.

Mary Ann Allen is a Sie post-doctoral fellow at the Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome— a Global affiliate. In this 15 minute story Allen takes listeners through the journey that led her to studying Down syndrome today. The researcher shares how she was mainly inspired by her childhood friend, Lovey, who has Down syndrome. When the opportunity to study Down syndrome crossed Allen’s path a couple years back she said she jumped at the chance because she “loved Lovey.” But, once Allen started her research what she discovered wasn’t was she was expecting.