A Servant’s Heart in Medicine, From Disaster Response to Daily Care
Dr. Margo Hudson sat on her couch in 2005 watching the devastation of Hurricane Katrina unfold on TV. Families were stranded on rooftops holding handwritten signs pleading for help. One message caught her attention and still sticks in her memory today: “I need insulin.”
As a practicing endocrinologist, this moment struck a deep chord, stirring an immediate desire to help.
“I have refrigerators full of insulin at the hospital. I can just get in a rowboat and row over to them,” she recalled thinking.
Of course, it wasn’t that simple. The logistics and safety realities of disaster response meant she couldn’t just show up and help. But that raw, urgent, and deeply human moment ignited something in her. Instead of letting the instinct pass, Dr. Hudson pursued a way to serve effectively. That determination ultimately led her to join the National Disaster Medical Service, where she would go on to serve in multiple disaster response efforts across the country.
That instinct to help wasn’t new. As a third-generation physician, Dr. Hudson grew up surrounded by medicine. As a child, her natural curiosity led her to explore, ask questions, and try to understand how things worked. That same curiosity eventually drew her to endocrinology, a specialty defined by balance, where hormones interact in intricate systems and even the smallest disruption can trigger a cascading chain reaction. She was captivated by the puzzle of identifying what’s out of balance, understanding the cause, and restoring it.
Over the course of her 40-year career, Dr. Hudson’s work unfolded in two distinct chapters. She spent her first 20 years practicing in Waltham, a diverse suburban clinic outside of Boston, where she provided a blend of primary care and specialty endocrinology. She later transitioned to an academic role at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she entered a highly specialized academic environment focused on complex cases, teaching, and research.
Today, Dr. Hudson serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, specializing in endocrinology with a focus on diabetes. She founded the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Fish Center and has dedicated much of her career to advancing care for conditions such as obesity, thyroid disease, and osteoporosis.
Her impact extends far beyond traditional clinical settings. Dr. Hudson has volunteered extensively in under-resourced communities both internationally and domestically—from working in Cambodia to supporting diabetes care at the Gallup Indian Medical Center in New Mexico, where limited resources and barriers to care are incredibly apparent.
“I remember going out to do home visits in Gallup, and the people live so far out that they have no running water. Their wood burning stove serves as their heat and oven,” she said. “Many of them live in settings that we don’t believe exist in the United States anymore, but they do.”
That same commitment to expanding access to care is what she brings to her work with MAVEN. Since joining as a volunteer in 2023, Dr. Hudson has become an invaluable resource to clinicians across the MAVEN network.
“I know that people are bravely taking care of patients in settings that are very difficult,” she said. “I admire people who are working in those settings… and I know that MAVEN helps the clinicians provide better care.”
Dr. Hudson regularly provides consults, mentors providers, and leads educational webinars, often speaking several times each month on a wide range of endocrinology topics.
With endocrinology ranking as one of the most in-demand specialties on the platform, Dr. Hudson has stepped in time and again to meet that need. Her consults are known by clinicians for being both prompt and highly actionable, equipping frontline providers to confidently care for patients who may otherwise face significant barriers to specialty access.
“My goal is to help other people and medicine is nice in that you see the results of your efforts very quickly,” she said.
Beyond the screen, Dr. Hudson takes her mentorships a step further, making intentional efforts to connect with mentees in person when possible, deepening relationships and reinforcing her commitment to those she serves.
At the heart of all these efforts is the same feeling she experienced while watching the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – a physician who saw a need, felt its weight, and chose to act. For Dr. Hudson, no matter where she is in the world, the challenges in healthcare may look different on the surface, but at their core, they are the same, and so is the opportunity to help.
For going above and beyond in advancing MAVEN Project’s mission through mentorship, education, and clinical expertise, Dr. Hudson is being honored with the 2026 Laurie Green MD Volunteer of the Year Award. This honor reflects not only her decades of experience in endocrinology, but also the depth and breadth of her service empowering clinicians, strengthening patient care, and expanding access.
