Claire Fagin, PhD, RN, a leading change agent and nurse advocate, died Jan. 16, The New York Times reported Jan. 17. She was 97.
Dr. Fagin is credited with being one of the first women to lead an Ivy League school — the Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania — as well as overturning the practice of strictly limiting parental visits to hospitalized children.
She served as interim president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1993 to 1994 as well as in other leadership roles during her time there. She "transformed the school," tripling enrollment and establishing a doctoral program in nursing, according to the Times. In 2006, the Nursing Education Building was renamed in her honor to the Claire M. Fagin Nursing Sciences Building.
Dr. Fagin is survived by one son.