Dr. Judith Kashtan, Minnesota psychiatrist who paved the way for other women in the industry, dies at 69

Dr. Judith Kashtan went out of her way to support and lift the voices of other women psychiatrists.

Elected the first woman president of the Minnesota Psychiatric Society in 1995, Kashtan was a leader in the psychiatric community until her death on Nov. 28 from a brain hemorrhage. Kashtan, who would have turned 70 on Sunday, paved the way for other women in the psychiatric industry and was passionate about mental health education, colleagues said.

"She was unapologetically someone who was going to look out for women and make sure there were safe spaces created for us," said close friend and fellow psychiatrist Dr. Dionne Hart. "She was always a champion for women. … That will be her legacy."

When Kashtan first started, leadership in psychiatric organizations was dominated by men. Even when Kashtan reached those positions herself, her voice was not always heard or welcomed, Hart said.

"She would pick her moment to speak up and it would be powerful," Hart said. "She had this elegance about her, but she was also going to speak her mind, enjoy herself, laugh, meet people and she was going to be herself."

At the national offices of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Kashtan created mentorship opportunities for women and spaces for breastfeeding.

Kashtan served as a member of the APA's Board of Trustees from 2012 to 2015. In 2016, she was given the NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award. Kashtan was also a professor in the University of Minnesota's department of psychiatry.

In the office, Kashtan would take on patients who had challenging or complex mental health diagnoses. She prescribed as little medicine as possible and was always trying to understand what was happening in her patients' lives during therapy, according to Hart. Kashtan not only wanted to model to others how to treat people with similar cases but she also wanted others to live at their best.

"She was fascinated by human emotion and the brain. The interplay between biology and experience — I think that that dynamic fascinated her all her life and career," said Clifford Kashtan. "She never stopped learning. She was open to new ideas about mental health and the emotional care of people."

In lieu of flowers, her family asked mourners to donate to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The organization's mission closely aligned with Kashtan's beliefs: to get people the right education on mental illness and to open a doorway for them to access treatment.

While Kashtan was passionate about her career, she prioritized spending time with her three children.

A lifelong lover of music, she grew up playing the violin and met her husband when he was playing a Bach piece on the piano. She went to a number of wide-ranging musical concerts from the Grateful Dead to operas at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.

"She said, 'Why am I still doing it?' and I told her, 'Because you love it,'" Clifford Kashtan said. "She wasn't ready to retire."