Ronnie Lichtman
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Ronnie Lichtman | |
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| Born | Ronnie Sue Lichtman February 10, 1950 |
| Education | Columbia University (MS, PhD) |
| Relatives | Allan Lichtman (brother) |
Ronnie Sue Lichtman (born February 10, 1950) is an American midwife,[1][2] educator, writer and advocate for women's health. She has published widely for both lay and professional audiences.[3] The Chair of the Midwifery Education Program at The State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center[4] in New York City, she earned a Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and her MS in Maternity Nursing with a specialization in midwifery from Columbia University School of Nursing. She previously directed the midwifery programs at Columbia University[5] and Stony Brook University.[3][6][7]
Ronnie Lichtman was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Her late father, Emanuel Lichtman, was an optometrist and her late mother, Gertrude Lichtman, was a bookkeeper.[8] Her parents moved Lichtman and her two brothers, Allan and Steven, to the Bronx when she was 14 years old where Lichtman attended Christopher Columbus High School.[8]
After graduating as valedictorian from Christopher Columbus High School, Lichtman attended Brandeis University for a year, leaving to join an anti-war group in New York City called The Resistance.[8] This was in the late 1960s during the height of the Vietnam War.
Anti-war issues led Lichtman to become involved with the Women's Liberation Movement. She started a "small consciousness-raising group" of women who worked with The Resistance. Lichtman co-founded a woman's magazine titled Up from Under. She both wrote and edited articles for Up from Under[8] Her article on the small group in women's liberation was widely reproduced and appeared in Gerda Lerner's anthology, The Female Experience: An American Documentary.[9]
Lichtman would go on to become a childbirth educator and earn a registered nursing degree from Bronx Community College in 1974 and eventually her master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia University.[8]
