Rita Charon (born 1949 in Providence, Rhode Island), is a physician, literary scholar and the founder and executive director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University.

[5] Charon was born in Providence, Rhode Island and credits her father, a physician serving the French-Canadian population there, as her inspiration to go into medicine.

in biology and child education from the Experimental College of Fordham University in 1970, and after working as a teacher and peace activist, attended Harvard Medical School from 1974 to 1978, where she obtained her MD degree.

She has published and lectured extensively, both nationally and internationally, on the ways in which narrative training helps to increase empathy and reflection in health professionals and students.

She was named Outstanding Woman Physician of the year in 1996, and in 1997 she received the National Award for Innovation in Medical Education from the Society of General Internal Medicine.