New Brodie Chair Honors Nursing History Pioneer

Nursing history as a field might begin and end with Florence Nightingale if not for pioneers like Barbara Brodie. The professor emerita’s work from the 1970s onward has made her a legend in nursing who has worked for decades to elevate nursing history to serious scholarship.

Brodie’s legacy at the School of Nursing and beyond will be more firmly cemented through the newly established Barbara M. Brodie Endowed Faculty Fund in Nursing History. The endowment has already attracted more than $500,000 in gifts and pledges from friends and former students. A total of $2 million is needed to fully fund the professorship and support one of the first nursing history chairs in the nation.

Brodie is “very pleased” with the initiative. “The center is now an acknowledged leader in nursing history,” she says. “To assure this position, it needs an academic leader who carries the rank of an endowed professorship in nursing history—a rank that bestows honor and prestige on its occupant and on his or her academic scholarship.”

Besides honoring Brodie, the new fund will help ensure the long-term health, leadership, and growth of UVA’s Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, which Brodie founded in 1991 and directed until 2002.

“That UVA School of Nursing is home to a world-class history center is testament to our founder, Dr. Barbara Brodie,” notes Dean Dorrie Fontaine. “We honor her work by seeking support for this professorship, and know that, even in an era of intense competition for nurse historians, our students will always need to understand our profession’s history. It’s knowledge that leads to improved care for all.”

A postdoctoral fellowship for the center was previously established in Brodie’s honor at her retirement. Since then, the center directorship has changed twice, first to Arlene Keeling (BSN ’74, MSN ’87, PhD ’92) and in 2015 to Barbra Mann Wall. The new endowment secures the center’s place at the forefront of nursing history, which provides important insights into current issues as well as a sense of professional identity and context.

“As we consider innovations needed to overcome problems in American healthcare today, we can turn to history for answers,” Wall reflects. “This endowment will enhance the center’s ability to preserve, study, and disseminate nursing and healthcare history, as well as facilitate faculty networking across disciplines. I’m very grateful for this effort and for the terrific groundwork laid by my predecessors.”