Anne Cohen Heller '41

Alumnae Achievement Awards 1994

Endocrinologist, Professor of Medicine

Anna Cohen Heller, a distinguished endocrinologist, graduated from Wellesley in 1941. She was one of two women to go directly to medical school after graduation, and she received her M.D. from Cornell University Medical School in 1944. Dr. Carter (as she is known professionally) interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York, which she credits as being “the best experience,” and she finished her residency at New York Hospital. She joined the faculty at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, where she taught for 35 years. In 1982, she became a professor at the New York Medical College, Westchester County Medical Center.

Dr. Carter’s work has focused on endocrinology and the hormonal aspects of breast cancer. She was considered an expert in her field and has served on the Cancer Clinical Training Committee of the National Cancer Institute and as a member of the panel of experts in the Consensus Conference on Cancer of the Breast of the National Institutes of Health. Other accolades include the American Cancer Society Public Education Award in 1987, the Dana Hall School Alumna Achievement Award in 1990, and the American Medical Women’s Association President’s Recognition Award in 1993.

Dr. Carter continued to serve the medical field and Wellesley College until her death in 2001. She was a Trustee Emerita of the College and she established the Nellie Zuckerman Cohen and Anne Cohen Heller Professor of Health Sciences Chair. She also served on the board of the Marie and John Zimmerman Fund that sponsors the scholars program for premedical students.