Carol Nadelson

Early life and education

Cooperman Nadelson was born on October 13, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents Herman and Diana Cooperman. Her father worked for the United States Post Office while her mother was a secretary before child-rearing. Growing up, Cooperman Nadelson said her mother's clear resentment of being a housewife inspired her to pursue a career outside of the home. Upon graduating from high school, she enrolled as a pre-med student at Brooklyn College where she was usually the only female student in her advanced level courses. In spite of this, she became the first woman president of the college's Bio-Med Society, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated magna cum laude.

After graduating near the top of her class, Cooperman Nadelson enrolled at the only medical school to accept her, Albert Einstein Medical School. However, after marrying her boyfriend David Shander in 1958, who attended University of Rochester Medical Center, she persuaded the faculty to accept her there the following term. During her time at the University of Rochester, Cooperman Nadelson experienced sexual harassment by faculty and students and what she felt was a sexist dress code of skirts for women. She later said that the university spent years apologizing to her for having rejected her initial application. Cooperman Nadelson eventually chose to specialize in psychiatry after receiving the Benjamin Rush Prize in Psychiatry during her psychiatry rotation in medical school.

She originally remained at Rochester for her first year of residency before moving on to Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Upon entering her fourth year of residency, the head of the institute wanted her to stay and be the chief resident but she chose to transfer to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where the chair of psychiatry was a woman. Once she started her residency, however, she and her husband divorced.