In 1954 Schwartz was hired as a physiology instructor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, which she left a year later to take a position at Michael Reese Hospital.
Schwartz was among the very few women who served in the 1960s on American Physiological Society program committees,[REF] was the first woman president of the Society for the Study of Reproduction from 1977-1978, and was the second woman president of the Endocrine Society from 1982-1983 [REF].