Carolann S. Najarian, M.D.

Born and raised in New York City, Carolann S. Najarian, née Abrahamian, attended the City University of New York, Queens College and in 1962 received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with High Honors. After her marriage and subsequent move to Cambridge, Massachusetts, she attended Boston University School of Medicine graduating with the Doctor of Medicine degree, Class of 1980. Dr. Najarian is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and has been a practicing internist in the Cambridge-Watertown (Massachusetts) area, Assistant Medical Director of Middlesex County Hospital, a member of the medical staff of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center and of Mt. Auburn Hospital, as well as and instructor in clinical medicine, Mt. Auburn Hospital/Harvard Medical School. After years in private practice, Dr. Najarian left active medical practice to volunteer full time as president of the Armenian Health Alliance, Inc., a Boston based 501(c)3 organization that she helped found in response to the 1988 earthquake that devastated northern Armenia. Most recently she completed the requirements for MSc degree in medical anthropology at Brunel University, London and was graduated with distinction in July 2004.

Dr. Najarian has made over 50 trips to the Republic of Armenia and to Nagorno-Karabagh, traveling extensively throughout both countries. The purpose of these trips was to assess the medical needs in these regions on an ongoing basis, and to deliver the needed assistance to medical facilities hospitals in major cities and to villagers in rural areas, including orphans and refugees. In 1994, Dr. Najarian founded the Primary Care Center of Gyumri, the city most devastated by the earthquake of 1988. Three doctors and nurses trained in primary care provide care and medicine free to over 400 patients a month, most of who are indigent and elderly. In 1995, she founded the Arpen Center for Expectant Mothers in the city of Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabagh. The center provides monthly assistance of food, vitamins, clothing, and other basic necessities such as soap to pregnant women. Information on pregnancy, good health and diet are also distributed by the center. In order to obtain this assistance pregnant women must be seen at the local maternity hospital first. For most, it is the only way they obtain any prenatal contact and care. Approximately 7000 women have been served by the Arpen Center. Currently, 800 women are assisted through the Arpen Center each month.

Dr. Najarian makes her home in Lincoln, Massachusetts with her husband George. Her first book, A Call From Home; Armenia and Karabagh, My Journal, was published on the tenth anniversary of the earthquake. Based on her journals, it documents what she saw and experienced during nearly a decade of humanitarian work in the region. In writing A Call From Home, she brings together her experience growing up in New York City as the daughter of Armenian immigrants and that of a medical relief worker in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh.

Honors and Awards

• Humanitarian Award - May 15, 2004 Boston University School of Medicine Alumni Association
• Woman of the Year Award – 2003
  Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry Charitable Trust – presented in California
• “Appreciation Award” for work in Artsakh presented by the President of Artsakh, Arkady Ghougasian, 2002
• “Appreciation Award” for work in Kashatagh (formerly, Lachin) presented by Deputy Alexan Hakopyan, 2002
• The Annual Hovaness Shiraz Prize of the Artsakh Writers Union -- presented in Stepanakert, 2000 by Vardan Hakbian, Director, the Artsakh Writers Union Board
• Mothers’ Fund, Nagorno-Karabagh, November 1996
  Recognition award for service to the mothers and children of Karabagh
• Exceptional Women's Award, Boston – Magic Radio, May 2000
• Rev. A.A. Bedikian Author Recognition Award, September 1999
  Awarded by Armenian Evangelical Church of New York, for A Call From Home.
• Ellis Island Medal of Honor, May 8, 1999
  Presented by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations to "outstanding citizens from all walks of life who have distinguished themselves among their specific ethnic group."
• Armenian International Women’s Association Achievement Award, July 1997.
  Presented in Paris
• The Haig G. Sarafian Award for Outstanding Citizenship, June 1997.
  Armenian Students’ Association of America, Inc. award “bestowed upon Armenians who have made exceptional contributions to community life.”
• The Haystack Award for Charity, June 1996
  United Church of Christ of Massachusetts
• Armenian Students’ Association, Boston Branch, September 1996.
  Award for “outstanding contribution in the service of Armenia and Armenians.”
• Armenian Children’s Milk Fund, February 1994.
  Humanitarian award for medical service to Armenia
• Armenian Network of America, Boston Region, August 1993.
  “In Honor of Professional Contribution in Medicine and Dedicated Service to the Armenian Community.”
• Boston Woman, March 1989.
  Highlighted by the magazine as one of Boston’s 100 most remarkable women