THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Claire M. Fagin, PhD, RN, FAAN
November 25, 1926 – January 16, 2024
“Whatever I have achieved, the awards I have gotten, the personal rewards I have felt, would not have come my way were I not a nurse. I have given a lot to the profession, but I am not even near to repaying what it has given me. I shall always be grateful for the stroke of fortune that brought me to choose this wonderful field.”
Professor and Dean Emerita of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing). One of the first women to lead an Ivy League institution and first female interim president of Penn, 1993-94. Director of the graduate program in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, New York University, 1965-1969. Chair and professor of the Department of Nursing, Herbert Lehman College of the City University of New York, 1969-1977. Director of the Health Professions Institute of Lehman College and the Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, 1975. President of the American Orthopsychiatric Association; member of the Institute of Medicine; advisor for the World Health Organization; and first female board member of Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company. First female director of the John A. Hartford Foundation National Program, Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity. Dean of Penn Nursing, 1977. Developed landmark education programs, including the Doctor of Nursing Science, the first nursing doctorate in the Ivy League. Opened the first center for nursing research in the country, 1980. Penn Nursing established the Claire M. Fagin Distinguished Researcher Award in 2003. In 2006 the University named the nursing education building Claire M. Fagin Hall. Bachelor of Science, Wagner College School of Nursing, Staten Island; Master of Arts, Teacher’s College at Columbia University; Doctor of Philosophy, New York University.

More About Claire:
- Obituary, The New York Times
- “The Legacy of Dr. Claire M. Fagin: Celebrating a Pioneer in Nursing Education and Healthcare,” by Anthony Raphael, medriva.com, January 19, 2024
- “Fagin ’48 H’93 proves no challenge is too great for a ‘real nurse’,” Wagner Magazine, Fall 2011
- Meyers Marvels: A Conversation with Claire Fagin, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, October 2022
- Claire Fagin, PhD, FAAN, RN, Interview, Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership, 2004
- Wikipedia