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Dr. Robinowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York. She received an A.B. degree from Wellesley College in Massachusetts (1959) and her M.D. from Washington University (1964). She interned at the Bronx Municipal Hospital, Einstein School of Medicine (1964–65). She stayed on there to take residency (1965–67), followed by child psychiatry training at the National Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. (1968–69). She then joined the U.S. Public Health Service, assigned to the Education Training Division of the National Institute of Mental Health (1969–70), followed by two years as Director of Child Psychiatry at the University of Miami Medical School in Coral Gables, Florida. From 1972–76, she was at the George Washington School of Medicine as Director of Psychiatric Education and then as Director of the “Psychiatrist as Teacher” Project.
She came to the American Psychiatric Association with the job of Deputy Director and Director, Office of Education, and later became Senior Deputy Medical Director under Melvin Sabshin, M.D., where she remained for ten years. She left to go to the Georgetown School of Medicine as Associate Dean and then Dean (1995–2000). She retired to engage in active psychiatric practice in Washington, D.C. Dr. Robinowitz has held faculty and lectureship appointments at all the medical schools where she served. She has contributed to the literature.
She has been active in psychiatric and medical organizations and has received numerous awards, including the NIMH Mental Health Care Development Award (1966–70), the APA Distinguished Service Award (1991), the Veterans Award (1995), the Administrative Psychiatry Award (1999), the American College of Psychiatrists (President, 1999–2000), the Bowis Award (1994), and the APA Distinguished Service Award (2001). She has been a member of the American Medical Association Psychiatry Section since 2000 and the Council on Scientific Affairs since 2001. Dr. Robinowitz has been a member of the Association for Academic Psychiatry President (1994–95), which awarded her a Lifetime Achievement Award (2003); the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (President, 1989–91); the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Secretary, Vice President, and President, 1979–86); the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (1978–82); and the President (1981–82).
Dr. Robinowitz served as American Psychiatric Association President (2007–08).