Barbara Barlow

Early life and education

Barlow was born in a rural town in Pennsylvania in 1938. Her mother returned to school and obtained a degree in Psychology in 1954 after her father's death in order to become a guidance counselor and assistant professor and support Barlow and her sister. From her mother, Barlow learned the importance of and found the inspiration to work hard in life. Barlow went on to study Psychology at Vassar College in New York and then attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and earned her M.D. degree in 1967. She then received a training fellowship at Babies Hospital Columbia University Medical Center, where she was the first woman to ever train in pediatric surgery there.

Career

While completing her residency in the Bronx, Barlow noticed the severe lack of quality pediatric care in the area. She was inspired to provide children living in lower socio-economic areas with the same care that middle- and upper-class children received. One thing she particularly noticed was the number of preventable accidents the children in the area suffered from. Upon researching, she found that the injury rate for the Bronx and surrounding area was twice the national average. She also found that the most severe accidents were caused by falls from windows. She was one of the key figures in a New York City ordinance that required landlords to install window guards and participated in the educational campaign "Children Can't Fly," which warned parents about the risk of children falling from high-rise building windows. Injuries due to children falling out of windows in the Washington Heights neighborhood decreased by 96 percent by 1981.

The conditions of community spaces, such as school playgrounds in the Harlem neighborhood and streets where young children frequently played after school, were also a concern of Barlow. In 1988 she began work on improving Harlem's playgrounds with the help of a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation by working with an architect to design low-cost playground equipment. Since 1991, Harlem has gotten 40 plus new playgrounds and numerous new after-school activities are offered through community organizations.

Barlow also founded "Injury Free Coalition for Kids," though which she has been able to ensure that similar programs are operating in cities across the nation, such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia. She continues her work through the National Association of Children's Hospitals.