Dr. Beth Bowen

As a child, Beth loved horses and had at least one to ride and care for, from her late childhood until she went off to college. She was a holder of a Horsemaster’s Certificate.

After graduating from Tower Hill School in Wilmington, she attended Smith College in Northampton, Mass. where she fully embraced the Baha’i Faith and chose to spend time studying at Southampton University in England. She then travelled extensively visiting Baha’i communities, spreading a message of unity and peace, becoming fluent in French and developing an interest in international health.

Adding to her broad interests, she studied classical guitar, voice, French horn and participated in orchestras and choirs in high school and college.

Beth graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, with both a Masters and a Doctorate in Education (1974, 1977). After working for about three years at the Gesell Institute of Human Behavior in New Haven, Conn., she decided to become a physician and moved back to Wilmington to complete the prerequisite courses for medical school. She graduated from Thomas Jefferson University Medical College in Philadelphia in 1987 as a member in the college’s Medical Honor Society. Following internship and residency in Family Medicine at the Medical Center of Delaware (1987-1990), she was certified by the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Family Medicine.

Beth then worked in Atlanta as an Assistant Professor at Emory University School of Medicine. She was also an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Preventive Medicine, and Community Health at the Morehouse University School of Medicine and served as the Director of the Morehouse Medical Student Program in the Department of Family Medicine.

Among Beth’s cherished awards was being selected “Teacher of the Year” by the Morehouse medical students. She received several other awards for excellence in teaching.

Beth decided early in her career that she wanted to contribute to women’s and children’s health worldwide. She spent up to half of each year, for several decades, serving with non-governmental organizations that were accredited to the United Nations and its affiliate agencies.

She traveled to more than 60 countries and did humanitarian public health work in Africa, Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, and some Pacific island nations. Throughout her travels Beth offered numerous valuable services to the Baha’i communities assisting them in their efforts to bring about a united world.

She was the National President of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, in 1993, and also served on the Board of Directors of PSR for 9 years. For some 20 years, she was one of two volunteer representatives at the United Nations for both PSR and the International Society of Doctors for the Environment. In a published WHO memorandum, Beth was referred to as a physician of world renown and universally respected work for her work for PSR representing more than 50 thousand physicians.

She served on the Mottahedeh Development Services Board of Directors in 2000 – 2004 and as a member of the Baha’i organization Health for Humanity.

She attended numerous significant United Nations conferences and several other international conferences on women and children, the environment, and sustainable development, including:

- The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio, Brazil, 1992;

- The U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, 2004-2008 and 2010;

- The Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995;

- The World Food Summit, Rome, 1996;

- The World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization, Geneva, 1997-2002;

- The Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations, New York 1998-2010;

- The United Nations Special Session on Children, New York, 2002;

- United Nations Conference on Global Climate Change, World Health Organization Meeting on Health and Climate Change, Bali, Indonesia, 2007.

Beth was a frequent consultant, speaker, rapporteur, author, contributor or editor for the United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She also collaborated on papers and projects with major international NGOs, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Later in her career, she became a strong advocate of Jungian psychology, studying at the International School for Analytical Psychology in Switzerland, and added private practice of psychology to her medical practice.

Before Beth passed away, she devoted great effort to writing a biography of an outstanding African-American Baha’i lady, a close spiritual sister and best friend of Beth from the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Magdalene Carney. She established an online community to share stories and photos for the upcoming book and soon had more than 1200 member-subscribers.

Beth’s optimistic life outlook and usually-buoyant sense of humor contributed to her assembling the widest variety of friends and admirers within the world-wide Baha’i community and the international medical-environmental NGO communities.

Beth was a loving daughter who was especially attentive to the care of her mother Polly. Her parents predeceased her. She is survived by a brother, Brooks Jefferson Bowen (of Potomac, Maryland), a sister, Victoria Adams Bowen (of Berkeley, California), and three nephews

Beth passed away at Sunrise at Decatur (Georgia) on December 22, 2022, following a series of strokes. Funeral services are being held be at the Roswell Funeral Home in Roswell, Georgia, followed by interment in Green Lawn Cemetery in Roswell.