Growing up in Peru as the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, Raquel Eidelman Cohen studied public health and medicine in Boston. She was admitted to Harvard Medical School’s first class that admitted women. Graduating in 1949, she worked as a psychiatrist in several Boston mental health centers including the North Suffolk Mental Health Clinic. Her field was studying the social & psychological consequences for survivors of disasters and designing treatments & interviewing techniques. These events included hurricanes, the Mariel boatlift (Cuba in 1980), and the September 11 attacks. She stated that “I have always worked for opening doors to women and minorities at every level.”
