Marilyn Salzman Webb

Marilyn Salzman Webb (born October 26, 1942),^[1] also known as Marilyn Webb, is an American author, activist, professor, feminist and journalist. She has been involved in the civil rights, feminist, anti-Vietman war and end-of-life care movements, and is considered one of the founders of the Second-wave women's liberation movement.^[2]

Webb holds a PhD in educational psychology from the University of Chicago - successfully awarded 50 years after sexual harassment derailed her from first receiving it.^[1][3] She pursued her undergraduate education at Brandeis University, graduating with a BA in 1964. Later she studied at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and completed her MS degree in 1981.^[4] She had begun studies for her PhD in educational psychology at the University of Chicago in 1964, but left with only the compensatory master's degree in 1967, when her doctorate was nearly completed. After finishing her coursework and passing her preliminary examinations, she abandoned her degree after facing sexual harassment and sexual assault by professors she asked to serve on her dissertation committee.^[1] Fifty years later, she contacted administrators, who — after due diligence — welcomed her to finish her dissertation and awarded her a PhD in June 2019.^[3]

Webb has had a five decades-long career in journalism and is the author of the acclaimed book, The Good Death: The New American Search to Research the End of Life (Bantam Books, 1997 and 1998), and co-editor (with poet Anne Waldman) of two historic book collections of talks by Beat poets and artists, Talking Poetics from Naropa Institute: Annals of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Volume One, and Volume Two (both Shambhala Publications, 1979). She was also an editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, a senior editor at Woman's Day, McCall's, and US Magazine, a writer for New York Magazine, and a daily newspaper reporter. Her pieces have appeared in multiple other publications, including The Village Voice, Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, Ms. Magazine, Child Magazine, Parade, The New York Times and USA Today, as well as in numerous book anthologies.