Valerija Raulinaitis
{{Short description|American physician (1915–2004)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Valerija Raulinaitis
| image = ValerijaRaulinaitis1970.png
| alt = A smiling white woman with a bouffant blond hairstyle, wearing glasses and a dark top
| caption = Valerija B. Raulinaitis, from a 1970 publication
| other_names =
| birth_name = Valerija Birute Berzinskas
| birth_date = March 5, 1915
| birth_place = Riga
| death_date = February 26, 2004 (aged 88)
| death_place = California
| occupation = Physician, hospital administrator
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Valerija Birute Raulinaitis (March 5, 1915 – February 26, 2004) was a Lithuanian-American physician. In 1971, she became the first woman appointed to head a Veterans Administration (VA) hospital.
Early life and education
Valerija Birute Berzinskas was born in Riga and raised in Lithuania,{{Cite news |last=Bushnell |first=Henry |date=1963-12-05 |title=Psychaitrist is Guided by Common Sense |pages=128 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123327897/psychaitrist-is-guided-by-common/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of Victor Berzinskas and Maria Narkeviciute. She earned her medical degree at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas.{{Cite news |date=1971-11-06 |title=1st women VA director in U.S.: 'knew struggles of war years' |pages=10 |work=Republican and Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123326531/1st-women-va-director-in-us-knew/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1973-09-18 |title=Woman heads VA hospital here |pages=8 |work=The News Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123327424/woman-heads-va-hospital-here/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1974-05-13 |title=Dr. Raulinaitis is AAUW speaker |pages=10 |work=The News Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123327764/dr-raulinaitis-is-aauw-speaker/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |via=Newspapers.com}} In the United States, she pursued further training in psychiatry at the Downey Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago.
Career
Raulinaitis practiced medicine in Lithuania from 1938 to 1944, until she fled Lithuania with her husband and daughter. She worked as a doctor in a displaced persons camp in Germany from 1944 to 1949, then moved to the United States.
In the United States, Raulinaitis was a laboratory technician and pediatrician at Harper Hospital in Detroit, and as a psychiatrist at Woodward State Hospital in Iowa. She became a psychiatrist at the Downey VA Hospital in 1957, and in 1960 became head of the women's neuropsychiatric program at Downey. She became chief of staff at Downey in 1962,{{cite news |title=Honor Women in VA Work |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-valerija-raulinaitis-19/133088353/ |work=Chicago Tribune |date=November 16, 1963 |location=Chicago, IL |page=13 |access-date=October 8, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} the first woman to hold that role at an American VA hospital.{{Cite journal |date=1962-11-03 |title=Appointments |url=http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.1962.03050440114048 |journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association |language=en |volume=182 |issue=5 |pages=62 |doi=10.1001/jama.1962.03050440114048 |issn=0098-7484}}{{Cite news |last=Kleiman |first=Carol |date=1971-03-07 |title=Look Who's the Chief of Staff |pages=130 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123326255/look-whos-the-chief-of-staffcarol/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1971, Raulinaitis was appointed director of the Pittsburgh (Leech Farm Road) VA hospital,{{cite news |last1=Heimbuecher |first1=Ruth |title=Music Performs Some 'Small Miracles' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-valerija-raulinaiti/133043829/ |work=The Pittsburgh Press |date=April 27, 1973 |location=Pittsburgh, PA |page=33 |access-date=October 7, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} becoming the first woman to head a VA hospital.{{cite news |last1=Engels |first1=Mary |title=President's Talent Scout Taps Women for Top Jobs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-valerija-raulinaitis-1915-20/133143649/ |work=Daily News |date=November 8, 1971 |location=New York, NY |page=122 |access-date=October 9, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{Cite news |date=April 30, 1971 |title=Nixon Names 4 Women to Top Positions |pages=14 |work=Press Democrat |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SRPD19710430.1.18&srpos=14&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Raulinaitis------- |access-date=April 22, 2023 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} In 1973, she became director of the American Lake Veterans Hospital in Tacoma, Washington.
File:Nixon with Vicki Keller, Jayne Baker Spain, Barbara Franklin, Sallyanne Payton, Dr. Valerija Raulinaitis.jpg meeting with Vicki Keller, Jayne Baker Spain, Barbara Franklin, Sallyanne Payton, and Valerija Raulinaitis in 1971]]
Honors
Raulinaitis was one of the six recipients of the Federal Woman's Award in 1970,{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Dorothy B. |date=April–June 1970 |title=The Tenth Annual Federal Woman's Award |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7FGN-D95fX0C&dq=Valerija%20Raulinaitis%20Federal%20Woman's%20Award&pg=RA3-PA25 |journal=Civil Service Journal |volume=10 |pages=25}}{{Cite news |date=1970-03-06 |title=Federal Woman's Award Winners Cry Discrimination |pages=18 |work=Times-Advocate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123326098/federal-womans-award-winners-cry/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |via=Newspapers.com}} and attended a reception with the other recipients in the Oval Office in 1971.{{Cite web |title=Raulinaitis, Valerija B. |url=https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/taxonomy/term/2857 |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Richard Nixon Museum and Library}} Also in 1970, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
Publications
- "Therapeutic Democracy: Group Process as a Corrective Emotional Experience" (1965, with Keith K. Hoover and Fred E. Spaner){{Cite journal |last1=Hoover |first1=Keith K. |last2=Raulinaitis |first2=V.B. |last3=Spaner |first3=Fred E. |date=January 1965 |title=Therapeutic Democracy: Group Process as a Corrective Emotional Experience |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002076406501100104 |journal=International Journal of Social Psychiatry |language=en |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=26–31 |doi=10.1177/002076406501100104 |pmid=14283561 |s2cid=44743344 |issn=0020-7640}}
Personal life
Valerija Berzinskas married American-born economist Viktoras Raulinaitis. They had a daughter, Ruta, born in 1943. The retired to California together. Her husband died in 1986, and she died in 2004, at the age of 88.{{Cite web |last=US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration |title=VA.gov {{!}} Veterans Affairs |url=https://www.womenshealth.va.gov/history/index.asp |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Women Veterans Health Care |language=en}}
References
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Category:20th-century American women physicians
Category:20th-century American physicians
Category:American psychiatrists
Category:Lithuanian refugees in the United States
Category:Lithuanian women physicians