2026 Women’s History Month Spotlight
Marianne Price, Ph.D.
Cornea Research Foundation of America, Executive Director
2025 R. Townley Paton Award Recipient
Marianne Price, Ph.D. is the recipient of the 2025 R. Townley Paton Award, the Eye Bank Asociation of America’s highest honor for physicians. Her Paton Lecture, “Disruption in Cornea: Lessons from the Past, Vision for the Future” is available to watch for free on EyeLearn. For more on women in eye banking, ophthalmology, and EBAA, see our website.
Marianne Price, Ph.D. is a trailblazer, although she doesn’t think of herself that way, and she’d certainly never call herself that. However, some things are undeniable, and being the first woman (and Valedictorian) to graduate from the University of Notre Dame with an engineering degree – the only woman in her 400+ person chemistry class—is no small feat.
Marianne attended a small all-girls Catholic high school in Nashville, TN. When she was starting to consider college options, the school was visited by a representative from Vanderbilt University who encouraged the students to consider engineering. Since she was always good at science, this perked Marianne’s interest.
“At the time there were very few women in engineering,” Marianne says. “Women tended to gravitate more to people-focused sciences like biology.”
She graduated in 1970, and enrolled at Notre Dame because it was Catholic and in driving distance of home. One of only 325 women in the university’s first co-ed class, she describes her time at Notre Dame as “exciting” and part of the appeal was being a “pioneer” at a formerly all-male school.
While she doesn’t recall being intimidated by this situation, she describes varying reactions from male classmates. She says, “Some were encouraging, while others seemed to feel threatened.”
Overall, Marianne describes college as, “An amazing experience with great mentors and friends—a real positive.” Interestingly, her younger sister followed in her footsteps to Notre Dame six years later. Marianne thinks her sister faced more opposition than she did, because as the number of spots allocated for women increased over time, the available spots for men decreased, making it harder to get in.
Notably, Marianne met her husband of 51 years at Notre Dame, Francis W. Price, Jr. M.D. They married shortly after graduation, and over time had four children. Marianne worked 15 years as an engineer, working part-time while raising children, and leaving after the birth of her youngest. While deciding what to do when the youngest started kindergarten, she visited a career counselor who suggested that she pursue a career in human genetics or biotechnology.
Marianne enrolled back in school and earned a doctorate in Medical and Molecular Genetics from Indiana University. Her graduate experience included many more women than her undergrad, as it had a medical focus.
After earning her Ph.D. in 2001, her husband’s Cornea Research Foundation needed a director, so Marianne filled the role, as the timing was just right. When asked about working with her spouse, Marianne says, “We enjoy working and going to meetings together. We have complimentary skills – he’s the ‘risk taker’ and I’m a detail-oriented scientist who focuses on study design and execution to produce reliable outcomes.”
She drew upon her engineering background for her work in cornea. “The subject matter is different but both areas benefit from an analytical approach to solving problems,” she says.
Marianne and Frank’s youngest son is an ophthalmologist and joined their practice in July. Marianne is looking forward to hiring a new Director for the Foundation and would like to remain involved on the scientific side while spending more time with grandchildren and friends.
With so many ways to contribute in science available today, she encourages young people to “Get out and try new things to find out what you’re good at and what sparks your interest. Meet new people, participate in sports, a summer job, or shadowing experiences. Engaging in person is far more rewarding long-term than virtual experiences or scrolling the phone.”
Looking to the future of cornea, she’s excited to see better treatments being developed and new advances for difficult-to-treat conditions. The biggest challenge she sees is reimbursement, “What we’re spending on healthcare is not sustainable but change is difficult because the system is so complicated. Affordability is a big concern.”
We’re grateful to Marianne and all the women who blaze a trail for others, while juggling life’s complications and pursuing EBAA’s mission to restore sight worldwide.
