Charting a Course

Eisenberg traces her interest in the mental welfare of others to her own history and the fact that both her mother and grandparents immigrated to Argentina from Eastern Europe at a time when Jewish families were being actively persecuted.

"My maternal grandfather left Russia with only money for one ticket-to America," Eisenberg says.

However, Eisenberg's grandfather contracted conjunctivitis in steerage and immigration officials mistook the innocuous eye infection for a more serious illness and directed him elsewhere.

"The people at Ellis Island gave him a map and said 'pick,' so he chose Argentina-the only other country he knew, where, like America, the streets were said to be paved with gold and you could make a fortune for your family," she says.

Eisenberg was raised in an atmosphere of tolerance, without religious obligations or academic limitations enforced at home.

"My parents convinced us that the most you can do is give to others," she says, recalling how hard work at Liceon Nacionale de Senoritas and then the School for Social work paid off when she was admitted to the University of Buenos Aires, where she spent eight years obtaining her doctorate in child psychiatry.

Soon after, Eisenberg arrived to the U.S. by way of the same troubled immigration process that-decades before-drove her grandfather away.

In order to accept a post-doctoral fellowship to study with Anna Freud in London, Eisenberg attempted to travel to England but was redirected due to housing shortages and logistical difficulties. In the end, Eisenberg turned to the world map, just as her grandfather had, choosing the best child psychiatry program available at the time as her destination-Johns Hopkins University.

There she worked for several years in the field of infant autism, married and had two children-both sons-who have pursued careers in psychiatry and pediatrics. She eventually chose to take time off to spend with her family.

Although Eisenberg managed part-time medical work, private practice and home life, she said female medical or pre-med students should plan their futures-and families-more carefully.

"In my days the usual answer when people would compliment us was 'Oh, I was in the right place at the right time,' but women today are much better planners," she says, urging female students to select medical schools or programs that will provide adequate mentors and room for creative thought.

"It's not so hard to coordinate once you find the time. However, if you don't begin now it only gets harder. If you want to rebel, to question, you must begin now because you only become more complacent with time," she says.

A Dean and a Confidant

After a second marriage, Eisenberg followed husband Leon Eisenberg to Cambridge where he accepted a position as a professor at the Medical School and Chief of Child Psychiatry at Children's Hospital.