MEET LOCAL LEGEND: Lynn C. Epstein, M.D.

BIOGRAPHY

For as long as she can remember, Lynn Epstein wanted to be a doctor. Education, psychiatry, and medicine were overlapping passions in her youth, and today they are at the heart of a multifaceted career that encompasses vision, leadership, and team building.

"I think of myself as a 'possibility pointer'," Lynn Epstein said. "My life has been devoted to helping people learn and work together. I tell students that you need to bring a wide angel lens to life and focus on the whole landscape in order to see the big picture with all its possibilities."

The big picture in advocacy, outreach, and education are goals Lynn Epstein has striven for in a series of careers remarkable for their broad reach, creativity, and interdisciplinary skills. Nominated by Rhode Island Senators Lincoln Chafee, (R), Jack Reed (D), and Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI-1st), Lynn Epstein was the 86th President of the American Medical Women's Association, and is currently Professor Emerita at Brown University. Her career has spanned clinical practice, research, medical teaching and education to pioneering work in community outreach and organizational leadership.

As a leader and advocate, Lynn Epstein created or helped initiate numerous programs that expand opportunities for others, including the Leah J. Dickstein, MD Student Creativity and Leadership Award in 1991, a national award given every year thereafter to a woman medical student by the Association of Women Psychiatrists.

Her commitment to the personal and professional development of students and faculty is far reaching. She helped establish an Office of Women in Medicine at Brown in 1993, and helped create the Harriet W. Sheridan Literature and Medicine Lectureship (which was dedicated to her in 2004).

Lynn Epstein began her career in Baltimore where she trained at Johns Hopkins in Adult and Child Psychiatry. She was honored for work that examined the role of informed consent when she graduated from the Johns Hopkins Medical School as a Henry Strong Dennison Scholar for Medical Research.

She came to Brown University ultimately becoming an Associate Dean of Medicine and Professor of Community Health and Psychiatry. She was nominated by Brown for an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship, and spent the 1998-99 academic year as one of two physicians among the 33 Fellows participating in the National Leadership Program. She left Brown in 2002 to become Dean and Professor of Health Sciences at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. In 2005, she was elected a Distinguished Life Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association.

She has published numerous articles and reviews, serves on the editorial board of several journals, and continues to be a sought after speaker

A career highlight came in 2003 when she received the Women in Medicine Leadership Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges in recognition of her many achievements.

The award said of Lynn Epstein: "With clarity of vision, charity of spirit, and gentle sureness of voice... Dr. Epstein has not only found her way to the inner circle, but through her leadership style she has shown the way to the inner circle to others who would follow her."