Carol Nadelson, MD, ’61, keynote speaker at University of Rochester

‘It is a privilege to be accepted into the lives of your patients'

In 1900, women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, a resident of Rochester, N.Y., persuaded the University of Rochester to admit women.

More than a half century later, when Carol Cooperman Nadelson was applying to medical school, Rochester was the only school that accepted her.

“There was still prejudice, but I also found many supportive people who were apologetic,” Nadelson told the Rochester Medicine Blog in 2014. “I had an incredibly good experience there.”

Nadelson earned her M.D. in 1961 and set off on a successful career as a psychiatrist, advocate and mentor.

On May 17, she donned the traditional robes of blue and gold and returned to her alma mater, where she was the keynote speaker at the commencement of the university’s School of Medicine and Dentistry at Eastman Hall. More than half the 100 graduates in the Class of 2017 are women.

 “I am immeasurably grateful for my Rochester education, my lifelong intellectual and clinical North Star,” she said. “As I welcome you into this compassionate and honorable profession, always remember it is a privilege to be accepted into the lives of your patients and to serve them.”

Nadelson became the first woman president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), first woman editor-in-chief of the APA Press, and first director of Partners Office for Women's Careers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She pioneered women’s mental health as a new field of study.

Congratulations to the new graduates!