Raquel Eidelman Cohen (1922 – October 21, 2020) was a Peruvian-American

child psychiatrist Child and adolescent psychiatry (or pediatric psychiatry) is a branch of psychiatry that focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders in children, adolescents, and their families. It investigates the biopsychosocial fac ...

specialized in

disaster management Emergency management (also Disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actua ...

. She was a student in the first class including women to graduate from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

, in 1949. She went on to become an international authority on psychological and social consequences of disasters such as

Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch was an extremely deadly and catastrophic Atlantic hurricane, which became the second-deadliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin on record. Mitch caused 11,374 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately ...

in Central America, October 1998, and intervention methods for humanitarian workers, used in assisting survivors of the

Mariel boatlift The Mariel boatlift () was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980. The term "" is used to refer to these refugees in both Spanish and English. While the ex ...

of 1980 and victims of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Early life and education

Raquel Eidelman Cohen, a native of

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, was born in 1922 to Jewish Russian emigrants. Her parents emigrated to Lima in 1920 to avoid being drafted into the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

. Her father worked in the import and export business. She was raised in Lima's small Jewish community. She earned a M.S. in the sciences from the

National University of San Marcos The National University of San Marcos (, UNMSM) is a public university, public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. In the Americas, it is the first officially established (Privilege (legal ethics), privilege by Charles V, ...

in 1942. After earning a master of public health degree at

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

in 1945, she pursued an M.D. from

. She was a student in its first class including women to graduate in 1949.

Career

As a

, she was associate director of the laboratory of community psychiatry for Harvard's department of psychiatry, and psychiatric director at the North Suffolk Mental Health Center in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

from 1963 to 1967. She was also superintendent of the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center in Boston from 1977 to 1980. In 1976, she was given the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...

's Seymour D. Vestermark Award for excellence in teaching and in 1979 she earned the Massachusetts Public Health Association's Paul Revere Award. In 1992, she won the American Psychiatric Association's Simon Bolivar Award, in recognition of her dedicated efforts on behalf of Hispanic professionals. From 1979 to 1982, she was a member of the national advisory council of the National Institutes of Mental Health, and in 1980 she was senior consultant for the

Office of Refugee Resettlement The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is a program of the Administration for Children and Families, an office within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, created with the passing of the United States Refugee Act of 1980 ( ...

of the Cuban Youth Camp Program during the

, where she was responsible for developing programs for unaccompanied minors who traveled from Cuba to the United States. From 1981 to 1987, she was associate director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the

Miller School of Medicine The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, officially Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, is the University of Miami's graduate medical school in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1952, it is the oldest medical school in the state of Florida. ...

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

. She was also director of education and training for the Miami World Health Organization collaborating Center for Mental Health, Alcohol, and Drug Dependence at the University of Miami's Spanish Family Guidance Center. From 1990 to 2000, she served as director of the Children's Center at the

Florida Attorney General The Florida attorney general is an elected Florida Cabinet, cabinet official in the U.S. state of Florida. The attorney general serves as the chief legal officer of the state, and is head of the Florida Department of Legal Affairs. The office is ...

's office, where she was responsible for assessing and managing cases of child sexual abuse. Her work as an authority in psychological and social consequences of disasters and intervention methods has been published in both English and Spanish editions of , which has been used to train disaster workers throughout

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

and the Caribbean. She was a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization, the

Boston Public Schools Boston Public Schools (BPS) is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest public school district in the state of Massachusetts. Leadership The district is led by a superintendent, hired by t ...

, and was a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Following three decades of work in child psychiatry and

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...

cases, and training

disaster relief Emergency management (also Disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actu ...

workers, she consulted on the management of the

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

needs of disaster victims. Her later projects included developing a

distance-learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

program for use in training global disaster relief workers via the Internet and working with the department of public health at the University of Miami to develop a curriculum on terrorism for training health care personnel, clergy, and educators throughout Florida.

Personal life

Cohen met her husband, a trial lawyer, on a blind date in 1946. They married the next year and had three children. She died on October 21, 2020, in her home in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Raquel Eidelman National University of San Marcos alumni Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni Harvard Medical School alumni University of Miami faculty 1922 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American women physicians 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians American women psychiatrists Peruvian emigrants to the United States Physicians from Lima Peruvian people of Russian descent Peruvian Jews American people of Russian-Jewish descent 21st-century American Jews 20th-century American Jews Jewish physicians American child psychiatrists Peruvian psychiatrists Peruvian women physicians 20th-century Peruvian physicians 21st-century Peruvian physicians Hispanic and Latino American women physicians Jewish American scientists Jewish women scientists Physicians from Miami 20th-century Peruvian scientists