Alissa R. Spielberg

Alissa Rebecca Spielberg, 57
July 18, 1967-September 18, 2024
Alissa Rebecca Spielberg, a distinguished educator and legal expert in the field of health law and ethics, leaves behind a legacy of scholarship, health care advocacy, and public service. Alissa entered into rest peacefully in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday, September 18, at 57 years of age, at Brigham and Women's hospital with her loving husband by her side.
Soon after Alissa was born in Boston, her family was stationed for the first two years of her life in El Paso, Texas during the Vietnam War. This is where she found a love for galletitas (cookies) and her Spanish speaking playmates.
The family then moved back from Texas to Boston, settling in Wellesley. Alissa attended the Red Barn Nursery School in Weston. She then spent two years at Hardy Elementary School in the Wellesley Public Schools, before attending the Meadowbrook School in Weston followed by the Winsor School in Boston, where she graduated in 1985.
It was her desire to be challenged intellectually and her love of Boston history that led her to Winsor, where she rowed crew, developed a love of photography fostered by her time on the yearbook staff, and produced and directed Feiffer's People, a satirical play written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer.
Alissa spent four formative summers at Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp in New Milford, Connecticut. There, she was able to embrace her creative side by furthering her skills in photography as well as learning new crafts, including jewelry making and metalworking. One of her many creations was a Kiddush cup made from silver and acrylic.
For Alissa's bat mitzvah at temple Beth Elohim in 1980, when it was less common for young women to do so, she was the first young woman to don a tallis for the ceremony.
After graduating from Winsor, Alissa spent her undergraduate years at Columbia University where she studied Philosophy and graduated in 1989. She enjoyed exploring New York City and made the most of her time there.
Alissa found her next academic adventure at Boston College Law School, from which she graduated in 1992. There, she met her future husband-to-be, Sean O'Donnell. Together, Alissa and Sean founded a speakers' series bringing together students from Tufts Medical School and BC Law to discuss medico-legal issues, bioethics, and end of life decision-making.
Alissa furthered her academic pursuits at the Harvard School of Public Health where she earned her Masters of Public Health in 1993 and at Harvard Medical School where she completed a Fellowship in Medical Ethics in 1998.
As a committed educator, Alissa's teaching was an extension of her public health calling. She often encouraged students not only to challenge their basic assumptions (and the systems around them) but also to devise practical interventions aimed at reducing harm and making significant positive impacts. Alissa taught at Emerson College, Harvard University, Tufts University, and Wellesley College, where she was the recipient of numerous teaching awards. As an energetic and passionate educator, she helped shaped the careers of numerous students now practicing medicine and public health across the country. Course topics were many and varied and included philosophy, law, history, ethics, gender studies and health care policy. She focused on subjects like feminist bioethics, history of germs, the Warren Court, religion, sexuality, women and health, radical rights, the social lives of drugs, and community health.
Alissa was a respected researcher, writer, and communicator. Her prescient article on use of email in communications between physicians and patients was published in JAMA in 1998. Alissa was a sought-after commentator on NPR, the Washington Post, LA Times, and other news sources. She served on the ethics review committees of several Boston area hospitals, including as a member of the Institutional Review Board (Ethics Committee for Human Subject Research) at The Fenway Institute.
She was a tireless advocate for vulnerable persons and marginalized communities. During the AIDS epidemic, Alissa was awarded a patent on a single-use syringe she devised to reduce infection among at risk intravenous drug-users. In recent years, she worked as a consultant to various pharmaceutical companies to evaluate their own research practices and policies.
Alissa loved to research. She served as the family genealogist. Her curiosity extended beyond her professional work to myriad extracurricular interests from mastering Japanese and Hebrew calligraphy to investigating Feminist revisionist history of the Beatles. She loved the deep dive and brought a scholarly sensibility at every turn.
Alissa loved bringing people together and making connections for others. She was deeply empathetic, protective, generous and inclusive, and loyal to a fault, often putting others' needs above her own.
She is survived by her beloved husband "Shasha" (of Wellesley), her adoring parents, Drs. Theodore and Deanna Spielberg (of Natick and Brockton) and Asher, her loving, silly and sweet chihuahua. She is also survived by her aunt and uncle, Joan Spielberg Rich and James Rich (of Chevy Chase, Maryland) and her uncle Mark Karlin (of Buffalo, New York) along with many longtime friends, who Alissa cherished throughout her life as her chosen family.
She will be laid to rest in her family plot at Sharon Memorial Park, near her maternal grandparents and her dear aunt Elaine Karlin, whose kindness, thoughtfulness, and strength Alissa admired.
Services will be held on Monday, September 23 at 12:45pm at Sharon Memorial Park at 120 Canton Street in Sharon. Reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp (bucksrockcamp.org) or to Partners In Health (pih.org).