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 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1978 to 1990, she was the dean of student affairs at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She was a long-time lecturer in the 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. After retiring, she was involved in human rights work through Physicians for Human Rights, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and elsewhere. She turned 100 in September 2017 and died in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in March 2021 at the age of 103.

Life and career Eisenberg was a native Argentine and the daughter of Teodora (née Kahan) and Bernardo Blitzman (Jewish emigrants from Ukraine and Russia, respectively). She was a co-founder of Physicians for Human Rights and latterly its vice president and chair of its Asylum Committee. Her dissertation, "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) in Argentina. After receiving her medical degree and completing her psychiatric training at the Hospicio De Las Mercedes, she emigrated to the United States and became fellow in child psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

She was licensed to practice 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 (MIT). From 1972 to 1978, she served as Dean of Students at MIT—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 until 1990. From 1990 to 1992, she was the director of the International Programs for Medical Students of the school.

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

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. 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 active in both the Cambridge-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Oral History Project of the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine.

She was the widow of Leon Eisenberg, the Presley Professor of Social Medicine and professor of psychiatry emeritus in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School. As the widow of Manfred Guttmacher (brother of Alan Frank Guttmacher), she was also the mother of Laurence Guttmacher, a clinical professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and Alan Guttmacher, who succeeded Francis Sellers Collins (a past Director of the National Institutes of Health) as Acting Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. From 1 December 2009, she was Acting Director, then Director, of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Timeline of life and achievements Born: Buenos Aires, Argentina Naturalized U.S. Citizen Johns Hopkins Hospital, Psychiatrist, Outpatient Department, July 1947 – June 1950 Dept. of Education, City of Baltimore, Consultant in Psychiatry, July 1951 – June 1953 University of Maryland, Instructor in Psychiatry, July 1955 – June 1959 Park School of Baltimore, Consultant in Psychiatry, Baltimore, July 1957 – June 1967 Johns Hopkins Medical School Instructor in Psychiatry and Pediatrics, July 1958 – June 1966 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, July 1966 – October 1967 Sheppard Pratt Hospital, Consultant in Psychiatry, July 1960 – August 1967 Private Practice of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Baltimore, July 1955 – August 1967 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Staff Psychiatrist, 1968 – June 1972 Dean for Student Affairs, July 1972 – June 1978 Massachusetts General Hospital, Consultant in Psychiatry, July 1968–? McLean Hospital, Consultant in Psychiatry, July 1969 – June 1992 Harvard Medical School, 1968–? Lecturer in Psychiatry, July 1968 – June 1996 Lecturer in Social Medicine, July 1996 – 2008 Dean for Student Affairs, July 1978 – June 1990 Director, International Programs for Medical Students, July 1990 – June 1992 Private Practice of Psychiatry, Boston, 1992–2006 Through PHR, Co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize for PHR's International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 1997 FHWIM Morani Renaissance Woman Award, 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award, Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, 2005 Human Rights Award, American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2005 George Eastman Award , University of Rochester, 2009 Distinguished Lifetime Service Award, American Psychiatric Association, 2009.

Prizes and awards Physicians for Human Rights, which she co-founded, was the 1997 co-recipient, with Jody Williams, of the Nobel Peace Prize for its International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Massachusetts Psychiatric Association – 2000 Morani Renaissance Woman Award to "honor an outstanding woman physician or scientist in North America", Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine, 2002. Current List of Award Winners Lifetime Achievement Award, Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, 2005. APA Human Rights Award, American Psychiatric Association, 2005. Current List of Award Winners George Eastman Award, University of Rochester (UR's highest Award, given annually – most years), 2009 Distinguished Lifetime Service Award “for contributions in addressing mental health in college and medical students and for distinguished leadership as an international human rights advocate”, American Psychiatric Association, San Francisco, 2009. The Leon and Carola Eisenberg Award from Physicians for Human Rights

Other honors HMS Mention of the $25,000 Prize in honor of Dr. Carola Eisenberg, former HMS Dean of Students. "Profiles of Remarkable Women" included in New dimensions in women's health By Linda Lewis Alexander, Judith H. Larosa, Helaine Bader, Susan Garfield. On April 28, 2010, Dr. Carola Eisenberg presented the first annual Leon Eisenberg Award for the Program in Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD), Children's Hospital Boston. She was a Guest of Honor each year at the annual Eisenberg Award presentation dinner, held at the MIT Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On October 10, 2010, A Tribute to Dr. Carola Eisenberg: Founding Board Member, Visionary Soul, Harvard Faculty Club, Cambridge, MA. Sponsored by Physicians for Human Rights, of which she was a Founding Member. Dr. Carola Eisenberg has been an Honorary Psychiatrist with the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), for a very long time. (start date uncertain)

Boards American Psychiatric Association (Life Fellow): Council on Emerging Issues, 1974–79; Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists, 1991–94; Committee on Human Rights, 1994; vice chair, Council on International Affairs, 1995–98 American Orthopsychiatric Association (Life Fellow); program committee, 1967–70 Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine, board of directors, dates? Center for the History of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Women's History Committee, dates? Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), where she was a Co-founder (not confounder): Vice President, 1990–1999; chair, Asylum Network, 2000–?

Other affiliations DRCLAS – the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies American Psychiatric Association (Life Fellow): Council on Emerging Issues, 1974–79; Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists, 1991–94; Committee on Human Rights, 1994; vice chair, Council on International Affairs, 1995–98 American Orthopsychiatric Association (Life Fellow): Program Committee, 1967–70 Association for Adolescent Psychiatry Association of American Medical Colleges Massachusetts Medical Society (Fellow) Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, Inc. (Council) Aesculapian Club of Harvard Medical School American Association of University Professors American Women's Medical Society American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association of University Women Association of Women in Science, Inc. Examiners Club, Boston; president, 1992–2001 Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Honorary Psychiatrist, 19??–20??) Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Cambridge, MA