Celebrating the Life of Dr. Carola Eisenberg

Celebrating the Life of Dr. Carola Eisenberg.jpg

The first woman dean at both M.I.T. and Harvard Medical School

Alma Dea Morani awardee Carola B. Eisenberg, MD, passed away on March 11, 2021, at the age of 103.

Dr. Eisenberg, who was the 2002 recipient of the Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award, received her MD from the University of Buenos Aires in 1944, after which she completed a fellowship in Child Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She served as Dean of Students at both Harvard Medical School and M.I.T.—the first woman to do so at both institutions. Additionally, she was a co-founder of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in the campaign against landmines.

Dr. Eisenberg was a passionate advocate of equity for women in medicine. She believed women in medicine should see their compassion as a strength, and encouraged more male doctors to show their emotions: “Patients need the doctor’s strength, but strength is not incompatible with compassion.” 

She created support for women in academia by increasing women’s involvement in the sciences and providing money for women who had children but wanted to continue their medical education.

In addition to breaking gender barriers both in her adopted home of the US and her home country of Argentina, Dr. Eisenberg brought a sense of humanity to every patient interaction.