Mary Crow, MD

Dr. Mary Crow, a rheumatologist, is physician-in-chief emerita at Hospital for Special Surgery and a professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology of the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is also director of the Autoimmunity and Inflammation Research Program at HSS and co-director of the Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Research at the HSS Research Institute. Dr. Crow holds the Benjamin M. Rosen Chair in Immunology and Inflammation Research at HSS. She led the HSS Department of Medicine and the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell from 2010 to 2020.

Dr. Crow’s academic and research career has focused on unraveling the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the systemic autoimmune diseases, with a particular focus on systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. She has identified interferon-alpha, an immune system protein typically expressed in the setting of virus infection, as a key pathogenic mediator in lupus. Her laboratory continues to study the triggers of immune system activation in SLE, the molecular pathways associated with the clinical manifestations of lupus, and the mechanisms that result in disease flares. Dr. Crow’s research has identified therapeutic targets, providing the rationale for the development of novel therapeutic agents for patients with SLE.

In addition to her leadership roles at HSS and WCMC/NYPH, Dr. Crow has served as president of the American College of Rheumatology, as president of the Henry Kunkel Society, and as chair or co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Alliance for Lupus Research and the Lupus Research Alliance from 2008 to 2019. She has been honored as an “Arthritis Hero” of the Arthritis Foundation, and in 2010 she received the Margaret D. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthritis Foundation, New York Chapter. In 2018 she received the Presidential Gold Medal of the American College of Rheumatology, and in 2019 she was honored as a Notable Woman in Healthcare by Crain’s New York Business.