Margaret Craighill
Craighill received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Science (MS) degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, finishing her studies in 1921.
[2] Upon graduation, she briefly worked as a physiologist with the Chemical Warfare Department of the United States Army at Edgewood Arsenal in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
In 1941, Craigill proposed a progressive plan that included curriculum, relationships between students and faculty, and the conduct of the teaching hospital.
During her tenure as dean, Craighill was responsible for widespread reform throughout the college that included the curriculum, the teaching hospital, and student-faculty relations.
Over the course of her military career, Craighill traveled roughly 56,000 miles to places such as Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA).
[9] Craighill pushed to have at least one consultant in gynecology and obstetrics to be appointed by the Office of the Surgeon General, but she was unsuccessful and these specific matters were instead handled by Surgical Services.
She visited Army training hospitals and observed that inadequate, or even no mental health screenings at all, were being conducted for female recruits.
In an attempt to solve this reoccurring issue, Craighill stressed the importance of giving psychiatric examiners a standard and definitive instructions for evaluating mental health.
These requests were not placed into effect until the spring of 1944 when Colonel William C. Menninger was appointed as the head of the Surgeon General's Neuropsychiatric Division.
[9] For her distinguished service in World War II, Craighill was promoted to lieutenant colonel and awarded the Legion of Merit.
[3] On April 8, 1946, Craighill separated from the United States Army and returned briefly to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
(January 12, 1944, Bryn Mawr College)[8] "I must acknowledge that I am feeling discouraged over any progress that I can make in regard to establishing better conditions for women doctors.
"[8] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.
