Dickstein was born on August 17, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York to Russian-Jewish parents William David Chernoble and Sadye Rebecca Engelman.
Following this, she married medical-student Herbert Dickstein in 1955 and travelled with him to medical school in Ghent, Belgium due to restrictive quotas for Jewish people.
[4] She originally accepted enrollment at Meharry Medical College but opted to join the University of Louisville School of Medicine after a spot opened up at the last moment.
[2] In spite of its dismantlement, she established a health-awareness laboratory course for freshmen medical students on a volunteer basis and an elective class for sophomores.
Her concept, the Health Awareness Workshop Program, was recognized in 1987 with the H. Charles Grawemeyer Award for Instructional Development.