Raquel Eidelman Cohen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Raquel Eidelman Cohen
Born	Raquel Eidelman 1922 Lima, Peru
Died	October 21, 2020 (aged 98) Miami, Florida, U.S.
Alma mater	National University of San Marcos Harvard University
Children	3
Scientific career
Fields	Child and adolescent psychiatry, disaster management

Raquel Eidelman Cohen (1922 – October 21, 2020) was an important Peruvian-American doctor. She was a child psychiatrist, which means she helped children and teenagers with their mental health. She was also an expert in disaster management, helping people cope after big events like storms or accidents.

Dr. Cohen was part of the very first group of women to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1949. She became a world expert on how disasters affect people's minds and feelings. She also developed ways to help aid workers support survivors. Her work helped people after events like Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the September 11 attacks.

Early Life and Education

Raquel Eidelman Cohen was born in Lima, Peru, in 1922. Her parents were a Jewish family who moved to Lima from Russia in 1920. They came to Peru to avoid being forced into the Russian army. Her father worked in a business that bought and sold goods internationally. Raquel grew up in Lima's small Jewish community.

She was a very bright student. In 1942, she earned a master's degree in science from the National University of San Marcos in Peru. Later, she moved to the United States. In 1945, she earned another master's degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. After that, she went on to study medicine at Harvard Medical School. She was part of the first group of women to ever graduate from that famous medical school in 1949.

A Career Helping Others

As a child psychiatrist, Dr. Cohen held many important positions. From 1963 to 1967, she worked at Harvard's psychiatry department. She was also the psychiatric director at the North Suffolk Mental Health Center in Boston. Later, from 1977 to 1980, she was the superintendent of the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center in Boston.

Dr. Cohen received several awards for her excellent work. In 1976, she won the Seymour D. Vestermark Award from the American Psychiatric Association for her teaching skills. In 1979, she earned the Paul Revere Award from the Massachusetts Public Health Association. She also received the Simon Bolivar Award in 1992. This award recognized her dedication to helping Hispanic professionals.

From 1979 to 1982, she was a member of a national advisory group for the National Institutes of Mental Health. In 1980, she helped with the Cuban Youth Camp Program during the Mariel boatlift. She created programs for young people who came to the United States from Cuba without their parents.

From 1981 to 1987, she was an associate director at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She also led training programs for mental health workers at the University of Miami's Spanish Family Guidance Center. From 1990 to 2000, she directed the Children's Center for the Florida Attorney General's office.

Dr. Cohen became a leading expert on how disasters affect people's minds. She also developed ways to help people recover. Her work was published in books in both English and Spanish. These books were used to train disaster relief workers across Latin America and the Caribbean. She also advised organizations like the Pan American Health Organization. She was a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

After many years of working with children and training disaster relief workers, she focused on helping victims of disasters. She helped manage the mental health needs of people affected by these events. Her later projects included creating an online learning program. This program trained disaster relief workers around the world using the Internet. She also helped develop a special course at the University of Miami. This course taught health care workers, religious leaders, and teachers in Florida how to respond to terrorism.

Personal Life

Raquel Cohen met her husband, who was a lawyer, in 1946. They got married the next year and had three children. She passed away on October 21, 2020, at her home in Miami.