Carolann S. Najarian, M.D., a native New Yorker, spent the major part of her medical career in private practice in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts. In 1988, after the great earthquake that destroyed most of northern Armenia, she spearheaded a medical relief effort to that country through the NGO she established, the Armenian Health Alliance, Inc. Over the course of more than 50 trips to the region, she delivered millions of dollars worth of medicine and medical supplies to the destroyed region, established the Primary Care Center of Gyumri (providing care to needy residents and training to physicians) and the Arpen Center for Expectant Women, in Nogorno-Karabagh (providing food and vitamins to pregnant women).
Dr. Najarian earned her M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine, class of ’80 and an MSc in Medical Anthropology from Brunel University, London, ’04. She also holds a BA in Music from Queens College, New York, ‘62. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Since 1989 she has been president of the Armenian Health Alliance, Inc. which she founded along with other health care professionals to facilitate medical relief for Armenia. She was Assistant Medical Director at the Middlesex County Hospital, a long term, chronic care facility and held an appointment as instructor in clinical medicine at Harvard Medical School through her affiliation with Mt.Auburn Hospital, Cambridge.
Dr. Najarian, now retired, is a member of Massachusetts Medical Society, the Chester A. Keefer Society (Boston University School Medicine) and served on that school’s Board of Visitors from 2004-2010.
She wrote A Call From Home; Armenia and Karabagh, My Journal (Arpen Press, 1999) based on her journals, chronicling her experiences and the people she met over the first 8 years of her work after the earthquake and the break-up of the Soviet Union.
With her husband, K. George Najarian, they support numerous philanthropic endeavors including: an endowed annual lecture series on human rights held at Faneuil Hall, Boston; support for Facing History and Ourselves; Amnesty International; Physicians for Human Rights; the Food Project (Lincoln, MA and Boston); and providing scholarhips to students at Boston University School of Medicine; and Queens College (CUNY), Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, and Armenian International Women’s Association.
Among the awards and honors Dr. Najarian has received are: The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, 1999; Humanitarian Award - 2004, given by Boston University School of Medicine Alumni Association; Woman of the Year Award – 2003, Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry Charitable Trust ; Exceptional Women's Award, Boston – annual award given by WMJX-FM Boston Radio, May 2000; The Haystack Award for Charity, June 1996, United Church of Christ of Massachusetts.
The Najarians currently reside in Washington, D.C.
