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For Laurie Glimcher, MD, being a mother and a doctor came hand-in-hand. “When my daughter was in elementary school, she told me she thought all mothers were doctors,” said Glimcher, senior physician in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy. “For me, my career was never in question.”
Glimcher, who also is a professor of immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has been a mother and doctor for 27 years. Now she serves as a role model for young female scientists who are balancing career and family.
Two years ago, Glimcher launched the Primary Caregivers Technical Assistance Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), initially a one-year national pilot program that provides financial and technical support for postdoctoral fellows who are balancing family and career. Through this program, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grants funds to selected fellows to hire a technician to help them carry out experiments and be able to compete with their peers without young children at home whose time is less constrained by child care responsibilities.
Glimcher, who graduated from Harvard Medical School, faced these challenges herself shortly after she completed her residency training in internal medicine at MGH. She settled in Washington, D.C., to begin postdoctoral training at the NIH and gave birth to her first child, Kalah. Within nine years, she was a mother of three.
“It was challenging to balance both roles, but I was determined and knew I could do it,” she said.
The Primary Caregivers Technical Assistance Program offers support not available a generation ago. “It helps knowing you have the support you need and can go home to your family every night,” she said.
Glimcher’s career certainly affected her role as a mother, but even more so, motherhood shaped her career. “Having children gave me a balanced perspective and a daily dose of reality,” Glimcher said. “It was a challenge finding time for everything, but I learned to prioritize at work and home.”
At work, one priority was taking risks in the Immunology lab, which she now directs at the Harvard School of Public Health. In August, her team of researchers made an important discovery—removing a specific gene from mice caused them to grow new bone and strengthen existing bone— that could help in the fight against osteoporosis.
“In research you have to stay at the forefront of the scientific world,” Glimcher said. “To me, being a mother was always just as important.”
For the Glimchers, medicine and family are entwined. Glimcher’s son, Hugh, is a third-year student at HMS, and his father Hugh Auchincloss is a former chief of Transplant Surgery at BWH. Glimcher’s father Melvin is a former chief of Orthopedic Surgery at MGH.
“My parents always encouraged me to pursue a career in medicine, and their support made me who I am today,” Glimcher said. “I want to do the same for other women and give them confidence to take risks and go for it all.”