Lya Imber de Coronil ^People

She was a prominent pediatrician vice president of UNICEF, and the firstwoman in Venezuela to earn the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences, as well as the first female member of the board of the Medical School of the Federal District.Her parents, Naúm Imber and Ana Barú, left Soroca (Moldova) together with Lya, who was 16 years old at the time, and her sister, Sofa, to emigrate to Venezuela. She graduated from the Central University of Venezuela, earning the degree of Doctorof Medical Sciences, in 1936. She was one of the founders of the Venezuelan Society of Childcare and Pediatrics, and served as treasurer of its first board (from 1939 until1941) and later as its president (from 1949 until 1951). She worked in the Municipal Children's Hospital Dr. José Manuel De Los Ríos as a resident, then as deputy and head of internal medicine and eventually as Head ofService in 1954.She also worked as director of the First Clinic of Child Mental Hygiene of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (from 1956 until 1958), and as President of the Venezuelan League of Mental Hygiene (from 1972 until 1976). She h a d founded theLeague of Mental Hygiene in 1941.Author of: Treatment of Bilharziasis (1954), Development of Childcare andPediatrics in Venezuela from 1926 to 1955, Post-vaccinial Encephalitis (in collabora- tion with other doctors), Study of Some Cases of Anemia in Childhood (1947), etc.