Marla Oros offered health care directly to poor and underserved populations in Baltimore through innovative programs that brought nurse practitioners out of hospitals and into the communities. As Associate Dean for Clinical Practice and Services for the University of Maryland School of Nursing, Oros oversaw several programs including four full-service mobile health clinics known as “Wellmobiles,” a pediatric ambulatory center, fifteen school-based health centers, the Healthy Child Care Maryland Program, and the Southwestern Family Support Center. In 1993 she started the innovative Open Gates Community Health Center, which provides health services to under-served and uninsured Baltimoreans using nurses as primary health care practitioners with diagnostic and prescriptive powers. With her husband David, Oros also created Connect Maryland, a nonprofit that brings heath care to poor or geographically isolated communities.

Marla Oros was honored at the 2002 Women Who Dared event in Baltimore.