Seventy years ago, the remarkable physician Margaret Morgan Lawrence added to a lifetime of firsts by becoming the first Black candidate at our Center and the first Black psychoanalyst in America. This holiday season, one year following her death at the age of 105, the Center is pleased to announce the creation of the Margaret Morgan Lawrence, MD Psychoanalytic Training Scholarship, in memory and celebration of Dr. Lawrence's extraordinary accomplishments.
Earlier this year, the Center resolved to take a focused, in-depth look at structural racism in psychoanalysis and within our walls, a humbling and challenging task. Director Susan Vaughan MD tasked all Center committees with developing actionable targets for addressing systemic racism within the organization and at large, to which they will hold themselves and each other accountable.
In building capacity for fundamental change, the Center has secured a large donation to kick off an endowed fund to offer financial support to an African-American candidate – paving the way for a trainee to participate in psychoanalytic study without undue financial hardship. This donation establishes the Fund for Margaret Morgan Lawrence, MD (Physicians & Surgeons '40 and Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research '51), named for the first African American candidate and graduate of the Center's psychoanalytic program.
Please consider joining the Center and its psychoanalytic community in this effort by making your tax-deductible donation to the Fund for Margaret Morgan Lawrence, MD. Please email Madrid Poultney at mp3903@cumc.columbia.edu for more information.
To view the Fund’s launch event on December 8, 2020, featuring Dr. Lawrence’s family, please click here.