Dr. Sue Hagedorn '77

The Elaine Marieb College of Nursing has benefited from the generosity of esteemed alumna Dr. Sue Hagedorn '77. 

Hagedorn is a nurse practitioner and educator whose career has been dedicated to social justice as a nurse educator, practitioner, philanthropist, filmmaker, and activist. She has practiced and taught psychiatric, pediatric and public health nursing and for pediatric and women’s health nurse practitioners. 

After earning a BS in Nursing at UMass Amherst in 1977, Hagedorn went on to earn a master’s degree in maternal-child nursing from Boston College and a doctorate in nursing from the University of Colorado, where she serves as a professor emerita.

Hagedorn is a Fellow of the American Academies of Nursing and Nurse Practitioners and received the Kathleen Ann Mullen Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Adolescent Health in the Rocky Mountain Region in 2017.  

Dr. Hagedorn has produced more than 20 films focused on nursing and social justice. In 2008, Hagedorn, and the founders of the digital storytelling movement, StoryCenter, began Nurstory, a collaborative project that examines how personal stories of nurses and other providers can contribute to nursing education.

In 2021, the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing received a $2 million gift from Dr. Hagedorn to create a new program to enhance diversity and inclusion within the college. 

Dr. Hagedorn received the UMass Amherst Alumni Association's 2021 Revolutionary Spirit Award, which honors alumni or friends  who embody the revolutionary spirit of UMass Amherst as pioneers, builders, and unconventional doers committed to the relentless pursuit of innovation and progress.