Photo: Robert Presciutti
Photo: Gene Schwaartz
Photo: Elizabeth Pimentel
About
Elizabeth
At seventeen, I left my conservative New England Catholic family and became what my parents warned me against. I had my eyes opened wide at NYU, where I helped take over the university to protest the Vietnam War. In Washington, D.C. I was jailed for participating in a sit-in against the War.
As a senior in college in 1971, I couldn't have imagined that after graduation I'd join a commune in Denver and become one of the handful of women driving a cab out west, trying to find my way in turbulent times during the heyday of second-wave feminism. This is the subject of my memoir-in-progress, titled Confessions of a Female Cabbie: The Yellow Cab, Revolution and Me.
I found within my cab the courage to explore the person I was and would become. Always drawn to helping others, I launched into a career in physical therapy, which then inspired my pursuit of neural science and neuroanatomy, both traditionally male-dominated professions. After three decades of teaching these subjects to students of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and medicine, I put down my lecture notes and started writing creatively.
My essays portray the shifting roles of women as they come into their own during a crucial time in America's recent past. My broad perspective reveals and celebrates my life as a mother, daughter, clinician, college professor, taxi driver, protester, counterculture member, and feminist. I document challenges that resonate with other women as we navigate this society. I've been published in The Washington Post, NY Daily News, Salon, On Mothers (an anthology), and others.
I live in The Bronx, where for many years I was still outnumbered by men - my husband and three sons. When I'm not at my desk, I can be found running in Van Cortlandt Park or dancing.
