UCLA Dean Gave New Life To School Of Nursing

Marie J. Cowan was born on July 20, 1938 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was given a nursing diploma by Mary's Help of College of Nursing in San Francisco in 1961. She went on her studies at the University of Washington in Seattle and in 1979, she owned a bachelor's degree in nursing, a master's in physiology and biophysics and a doctorate in an interdisciplinary program composed of pathology and physiology/biophysics. In the same year, she began to serve on the faculty of the University of Washington.

In 1997, Cowan was appointed dean of the UCLA School of Nursing. She thrust forward for restoration of the entry-level undergraduate program that would make greater the readily available supply of nurses in California, and it was reopened in 2006.

She likewise thrust forward for an expanded master's program where she recruited greater than 20 new faculty members, worked with faculty to devise an entry-level master's program for graduates of other filed of study, and founded a bioscience course of study for the doctoral program in nursing. The School of Nursing came back to top-10 position nationally under the leadership of Dean Cowan.

With her long history in research, Cowan gave faculty with the encouragement and the expertise and knowledge in research required to construct a research program that can be funded nationally. As a researcher, she provided helpful services on the first National Institutes of Health peer review group for nursing research. In 2007, the American Academy of Nursing gave Cowan the Living Legend award. With her achievements, Cowan must be given the Hall of Fame award.

[Via LA Times]