Mary Lawlor is known for her work in the areas of pediatric occupational therapy, maternal and child health, family-centered care, interdisciplinary models of service delivery, and ethnographic research. She graduated magna cum laude from Boston University in Occupational Therapy and received her master's degree in Education from Harvard University. She earned her Sc.D. in Therapeutic Studies from Boston University, and is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association. She is currently Principal Investigator for an interdisciplinary longitudinal ethnographic research project funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. The study involves African-American children with special health care needs, their families and the practitioners who serve them. She has also received grants from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education, and the American Occupational Therapy Foundation.