Carola B. Eisenberg

Carola Blitzman Eisenberg (September 15, 1917 – March 11, 2021) was an Argentine-American psychiatrist who became the first woman to hold the position of dean of students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1978 to 1990, she was the dean of student affairs at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She has for a long time been lecturer in the newly renamed Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS (formerly the Department of Social Medicine). She was also both a founding member of Physicians for Human Rights and an honorary psychiatrist with the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, a longstanding position there.

Carola B. Eisenberg
Born
Carola Blitzman

(1917-09-15)September 15, 1917
Argentina
DiedMarch 11, 2021(2021-03-11) (aged 103)
Lincoln, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityArgentine
CitizenshipU.S. (naturalized 1949)
Occupation(s)Psychiatrist, child psychiatrist, medical educator
Known forPhysicians for Human Rights
Spouse(s)Manfred Guttmacher (deceased)
Leon Eisenberg (deceased)
ChildrenAlan Edward Guttmacher
Laurence Guttmacher

After retiring, she was involved in human rights work through Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and elsewhere. She turned 100 in September 2017[1] and died in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in March 2021 at the age of 103.[2]

Life and career

Eisenberg was a native Argentine, the daughter of Teodora (Kahan) and Bernardo Blitzman, Jewish emigrants from Ukraine and Russia, respectively.[3] She was a co-founder of Physicians for Human Rights and latterly its vice president and the Chair of its Asylum Committee. Her dissertation on "A Histological Study of Tay–Sachs disease" was presented in 1944 for her medical degree at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She was also a 1935 graduate of the School of Psychiatric Social Work in Hospicio De Las Mercedes (Hospice of the Virgin of Mercy),[4][5] Argentina. After receiving her medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires and taking her psychiatric training at the Hospicio De Las Mercedes, she emigrated to the U.S. and became Fellow in Child Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland.

She was licensed to practice medicine (psychiatry) in Maryland (1955) and Massachusetts (1971). Eisenberg served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1958 to 1967 before becoming a staff psychiatrist at the Student Health Service of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1972 to 1978, she served as dean of students at MIT, the first woman to occupy that position and the first to serve on the Academic Council, its highest academic governing authority. In 1978, after leaving MIT, she was appointed Dean for Student Affairs at Harvard Medical School, where she served for 12 years (1978–1990). From 1990 to 1992, she was director of the International Programs for Medical Students at HMS.

Throughout her career, she consulted with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (1979), Swarthmore College (1984), Mental Health Division of the World Health Organization (1985), Committee on Human Rights and Medical Practice, American College of Physicians (1989–1993), National Institutes of Health (1992), Office of the Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services (1992), National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering (1992–1996), and the National Institutes of Health (1995–1998).

She was a member of human rights missions to El Salvador, Chile, and Paraguay. She founded and served as Vice President of Physicians for Human Rights USA, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as President of the Examiners Club of Boston.[6] She served on the Committee on Women in Science and Engineering of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Office of Research on Women's Health of the National Institutes of Health.

Eisenberg was a member of Boston's Examiner Club and active in both The Cambridge-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement[7] and the Oral History Project of the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine.[8]

She was the widow of Leon Eisenberg, Presley Professor of Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of the Harvard Medical School of Boston.[9] As the widow of the late Manfred Guttmacher (brother of Alan Frank Guttmacher), she was also the mother of Laurence B. Guttmacher, MD,[10] who is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities and also Advisory Dean, University of Rochester School of Medicine (URMC), and Alan Edward Guttmacher, MD,[11] who succeeded Dr. Francis Sellers Collins (now National Institutes of Health Director) as Acting Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at NIH, but from Dec. 1, 2009, she was Acting Director,[12] then Director[13] of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), also at NIH.

Timeline of life and achievements

Prizes and awards

Other honors

Boards

Other affiliations

Bibliography

Presentations at professional meetings
  • "Juvenile Delinquency"—United Nations Conference on the Prevention of Delinquency, Tokyo, Japan, 1963
  • "Psychiatric Disturbances in Adolescence"—Argentinian Congress of Child Psychiatry, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1969
  • "Psychiatric Services for College Students"—Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece, 1969
  • "Sexual Problems in Adolescence"—Ciba Foundation Conference, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 1971
  • "Pediatric Psychiatry"—Tufts University Postgraduate Course, St. Maartens, 1971
  • "Epidemiology of Adolescent Psychiatric Disorder"—Venezuelan Congress of Psychiatry, Mérida, 1975
  • "Sexual Development"—Los Angeles County Pediatric Society, Palm Springs, California, 1975
  • "Student Health"—Presentation to Venezuelan Ministry of Health, Caracas, 1976
  • "Dual Career Marriages"—Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, 1977 (April)
  • "The Adjustment to College"—American Academy of Pediatrics, New York City, 1977 (November)
  • "College Life"—Presentations to Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni Clubs, Mexico, London, Paris, 1980
  • "Psychotherapy"—CIBA Foundation Conference, Glasgow University Medical School, 1978
  • "Reproductive Freedom: The Responsibility of the Medical Profession"—Annual Meeting of the *Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., San Diego, California, 1978
  • "Mental Health in Honduras: The Community Approach"—World Health Forum, Tegulcigalpa, Honduras, 1979
  • "Similarities and Differences Between Men and Women as Students"—Elizabeth Garrett Symposium at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1979
  • "Medical Student Life"—Presentation to Harvard Surgical Alumni Group—Chicago, Illinois, 1979
  • "The Response to Trauma"—CIBA Foundation Conference, Sheffield Medical School, UK, March 1980
  • Commencement Address, Harvard Medical School, June 1981
  • "Clinical Research Career for Women"—Chairwoman, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 1984
  • "Primary Health Care"—CIBA Foundation Conference, Nottingham Medical School, United Kingdom, November, 1984
  • "A Career in Medicine: Is It Still Worth It?"—A.O.A. Lecture, Case Western Reserve University, April 1986
  • Commencement Speech—Albert Einstein College of Medicine, May 1987
  • "Medicine and Dental Medicine as Vocations of Service to Others"—Convocation, The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, August, 1987
  • Commencement Speech—University of Vermont College of Medicine, May, 1988
  • "College Mental Health"—Massachusetts General Hospital, Postgraduate Course, April 1989
  • "The Pleasures of Medicine"—invited address, University of Rochester, March, 1990
  • Symposium on Women in Medicine—invited address, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, April, 1991
  • Participant, Women's Leadership Conference, Radcliffe College, Summer, 1991
  • Co-Chair, NIH Conference: "Women in Biomedical Careers" 11 June 1992
  • Plenary Speaker, Conference on Women in Math, Science and Engineering,
  • A.A.A.S. and Women's College Coalition, 14 November 1992
  • Keynote Speaker, 75th Anniversary of the Admission of Women
  • Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, 8 October 1993
  • Grand Rounds, Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont: Physicians and Human Rights, 12 April 1995
  • Plenary Address, Society for Behavioral Science and Medical Education, Naples, Florida, 7 October 1995
  • Plenary Address, Conference on Women in Medicine, University of Rochester, 26 April 1996
  • Keynote Speaker, White Coat Ceremony, New Jersey College of Medicine, Newark, 22 August 1996
  • Keynote Speaker, White Coat Ceremony, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York City, 23 August 1996
  • Plenary Speaker, Children and War, World Congress of Psychiatry, Madrid, 28 August 1996
  • Grand Rounds, Cambridge Hospital, 18 September 1996
  • Leadership Conference, Radcliffe College, 14 December 1996
  • Visiting Lecturer, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 17–28 March 1997: Human Rights and Health, War and Children, Women and Medicine
  • Women's Leadership Project, Radcliffe College, September 1997, September 1998: Sessions on: careers; race and gender; leadership roles
  • Speaker: The Effects of War on Children, XI International Congress of Pediatrics, The Netherlands, August 1998
  • Physicians and Women's Rights, Center for Psychological Health, Radcliffe
  • Grand Rounds Psychiatry, Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, February 1999
  • Keynote Speaker: "Without Struggle, There Is No Progress", Achieving XXcellence in Science, cosponsored by National Institutes of Health in conjunction with National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and The American Society for Cell Biology, Washington, D.C., December 1999. pp. 21–23.
  • Radcliffe Intellectual Renewal Conference: Protecting Human Rights: Whose Job Is It? Endicott Peabody Conference Center, June 15, 2001
  • Macy Conference on Psychiatry. Toronto, Canada. October 2001
  • Jonathan Mann Lecture, University of New Mexico School of Mexico, December 2001
  • Human Rights and the Physician, University of Rochester School of Medicine, April 2002
  • Rights and Responsibilities of Physicians, Bioethics Panel, 2004 Conference on International Health, MIT Hippocratic Society, Cambridge, MA, April 24–25, 2004.
  • Commencement Address, University of Rochester School of Medicine, May 15, 2004.

Other professional and academic lectures

Human rights missions (with PHR)
  • El Salvador, January 1983
  • Chile, July–August 1986
  • Paraguay, May 1988
  • El Salvador, June 1989

References
  1. Staff (2017-10-22). "Langlands turns 100". Dawn. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  2. Carola Eisenberg Dies at 103; Helped Start Physicians for Human Rights
  3. Who's Who of American Women 2004-2005. Marquis Whos Who. June 2004. ISBN 9780837904306.
  4. Men's Hospital of the Virgin of Mercy
  5. The limits of psychiatric reform in Argentina, 1890–1946 pp. 226–247
  6. "Literary Clubs in the US".
  7. "Home". ihi.org.
  8. "Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine (FHWIM) | Oral History Project". www.fhwim.org. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  9. "The Department of Global Health and Social Medicine". ghsm.hms.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  10. "Laurence B. Guttmacher, M.D. - University of Rochester Medical Center".
  11. "Alan Edward Guttmacher, M.D."
  12. "Alan Guttmacher Named Acting Director of NICHD". www.nichd.nih.gov. Archived from the original on 27 May 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  13. "NIH Enterprise Directory (NED) - National Institutes of Health (NIH)". Archived from the original on 2011-06-27.
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