About Elaine Marieb
The Elaine Marieb College of Nursing is named in honor of distinguished two-time UMass Amherst alumna Elaine Marieb, who earned a master of science degree from the College of Nursing with a specialization in gerontology in 1985, and a PhD in zoology from the College of Natural Sciences in 1969. A trailblazing educator with an abiding belief in the power of education to change lives, Marieb earned six different higher education degrees in all, and connected deeply with the students she taught at Springfield College and Holyoke Community College. She reached countless more students in classrooms around the world through her many best-selling textbooks and laboratory manuals, widely considered to be the gold standard for teaching anatomy and physiology.
In 2016, Marieb took the seventh spot on TIME magazine’s list of 100 Most-Read Female Authors in College Classes. As a teacher, she was known for her ability to integrate the student’s perspective into her lectures and for her passion to improve understanding of the relationship between the study of the human body and the clinical aspects of nursing.
A generous philanthropist throughout her life, Marieb has long supported UMass Amherst, including through a $2 million campus-wide endowment for scholarships for students who experienced a lapse in their educational journey at the university. The Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation made a transformational gift of $21.5 million to the College of Nursing in 2021. This gift enables the college to bolster student support; expand the simulation labs and other resources to provide a top-tier nursing education; and establish a Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation and an endowed professorship to attract outstanding researchers and educators.