Caroline Augusta Chandler (1906–1979[1]) was an American pediatrician and child mental health specialist. Her efforts to recruit more young women into the field of medicine included writing books for young girls about the profession.
During World War II, Chandler left the laboratory to carry out a special project for the Children's Bureau in Washington, D.C.[2][3][7] She was commissioned Surgeon in the United States Public Health Service,[2][3][4] and certified as a specialist by the American Board of Pediatrics.[11] After the war, she returned to Johns Hopkins as full-time Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. Her research included the use of antibiotics,[12] including their effects in vitro.[13][14]
However, as her interests in community groups and agencies grew, she had to limit her work to part-time. After serving three years as medical director of the Family and Children's Society,[3] she accepted an assignment with the Maryland State Department of Health as a director of the Office of Mental Health and Child Health.[2][3] She resigned from that position because her proposals were being completely blocked or indefinitely delayed.[15] In 1961, Chandler joined the staff at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)[2] as chief of Demonstrations Section[4] of the Communities Services Branch. She headed the Child Mental Health Section of the Community Research and Services Branch of the NIMH,[3][4] and, in 1966, was a member of the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare Task Force on Early Childhood Development.[16] During all of these assignments, she remained an assistant professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine, and instructor of mental hygiene, at Johns Hopkins.[2][3][17]
After writing articles about pediatrics, Chandler was approached by the children's editor of a publishing house to write about a woman doctor, for a series of career books for teenage girls.[7] Chandler wrote several books,[18] both fictional and factual, in an effort to recruit more young women into the field of medicine. The characters in her fictional books mirrored Chandler's own life in many respects, although she never married.[7]
^Chandler, Caroline A., Reginald S. Lourie and Anne DeHuff Peters. Early Child Care: The New Perspectives. Edited by Laura J. Dittman. New York: Atherton Press, Inc., 1968.
^Stafford, Jane (8 February 1943). "Your Health". The Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. p. 25. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
^PODOLSKY, SCOTT H. (July 2010). "Antibiotics and the Social History of the Controlled Clinical Trial, 1950–1970". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 65 (3): 342. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrq003. JSTOR24631939. PMID20215414. S2CID32676067.
^Chandler, Caroline A.; Janeway, Charles A. (February 1939). "Observations on the Mode of Action of Sulfanilamide in vitro". Experimental Biology and Medicine. 40 (2): 179–184. doi:10.3181/00379727-40-10349. ISSN1535-3699. S2CID86658828.
^Chandler, Caroline A., Reginald S. Lourie and Anne DeHuff Peters. Early Child Care: The New Perspectives. Edited by Laura J. Dittman. New York: Atherton Press, Inc., 1968
B.H.F. (January 1969). "Reviewed Work: Early Child Care by Caroline A. Chandler, Reginald S. Lourie, Anna De Huff Peters, Laura L. Dittmann". Young Children. 24 (3): 180. JSTOR42658480.