Dr. Eliot Sorel

Dr. Eliot Sorel, MD – husband, father, grandfather, friend, healer, teacher, coach, mentor, innovator, internationalist, photographer – passed peacefully on October 13, 2024, at the age of 84. He is survived by his wife, Christiane E. Sorel; his Son, Marc A. Sorel (wife Maura); his Daughter, Marie-Adele Sorel Kress, MD (husband Jeremy); and his six wonderful grandchildren, Benjamin, Davina, Elias, Olympia, Theodore, and Zeke.

A first generation American, Dr. Sorel lived the American dream. Working his way through school after emigrating from Europe at the age of 21, Dr. Sorel studied at NYU, the State University of New York-Binghamton, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Yale, where he would meet his future wife. After a pioneering two-year stint establishing mental health services in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he moved to Washington, DC.

Dr. Sorel was an innovative global health leader, health systems performance expert, practicing physician, and Clinical Professor of Global Health, Health Policy and Management at the George Washington University, where he was also a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Sorel served as a subject matter expert for the World Health Organization (WHO), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH Fogarty International Center), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), World Bank Group (WBG), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). He was founding editor in chief of the Global Mental Health and Psychiatry Review and a cofounder of the Africa Global Mental Health Institute. At the George Washington University, Dr. Sorel taught Global Mental Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. He was an active and respected member of the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Psychiatry; President of the World Association for Social Psychiatry; active member of the World Psychiatric Association; President of both the Washington Psychiatric Society and the Medical Society for the District of Columbia, and creator of the TOTAL Health model: an integrated, collaborative template for health care that combined the capabilities of primary care, mental health & public health. Dr. Sorel was the organizer and President of the 1st International Perinatal TOTAL Health Congress.

His honors and initiatives were diverse and extensive. They include the RI Centennial Award from Rehabilitation International (RI) in 2023; the Ronald A. Shellow Award from the American Psychiatric Association in the spring of 2021; recognition as a Pioneer and Leader in Public Health from The George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health honored in December 2019; the Mental Health Champion Award, awarded at the Universal Health and Mental Health for All Conference in Malta, E.U., in December, 2018; the Excellence Prize, from the Government of Romania at the Romanian Embassy, in Washington in 2018; Doctor Honoris Causa from Carol Davila Medical University and the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania, awarded in October 2009 and June 2014, respectively; Star of Romania, Order of Commander, awarded by The President of Romania in Bucharest in January 2004; a commendation from the United States Congress for initiating and chairing Resilience in the Face of Terror: Healing the Trauma of 9/11 in the autumn of 2002.

Funeral Service will be held Wedesday, October 16 at 10 a.m. at Congregation Har Shalom 11510 Falls Rd., Potomac, MD 20854. Interment to follow at Judean Memorial Gardens 16225 Batchellors Forest Rd., Olney, MD 20832.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, please make donations to Hebrew International Aid Society (HIAS), which helped Dr. Sorel during his stateless years in Paris, or the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI).

Services entrusted to Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.