The Archives is happy to announce that the Mary Thomson Champagne Records are processed and available for research. Interested researchers should contact the Medical Center Archivist before use. The collection is organized into the following series: Administrative Records, 1981-2016; Academic Programs and Partnerships, 1979-2016; and Digital Files, 1994-2016. Types of materials in the collections include correspondence, notes, photographs, clippings, newsletters, handbooks, grant applications, reports, charts, speeches, brochures, presentations, meeting minutes, meeting agendas, evaluation forms, curriculum vitae, survey results, and budgets.
Born in 1946, Mary Thomson Champagne received a BSN from San Jose State College in 1968 and served in the Peace Corps from1968 to 1971. While in the Peace Corps, she worked at the Hospital of Nursing in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan. In 1975, Champagne graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with an MSN and, in 1981, with a PhD.
Champagne became Dean of Duke University’s School of Nursing (SON) in 1991 and helped to usher in a period of growth. Champagne assisted with the development of new academic programs and partnerships including an Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) degree, a sixteen-month program open to students with an undergraduate degree in another field or subject, which began in 2002. When Champagne retired as dean in 2004, Duke SON’s faculty had grown from 5 full time employees to 38 and student enrollment grew from 50 students in 1991 to 374 students in 2003.
Champagne’s research was related to improving the health of the community. Much of her work focused on quality of care and safely and improving health in low-income seniors living in subsidized housing in Durham, North Carolina. She chaired the Durham Regional Hospital Trustee's Committee on Patient Safety and Clinical Quality, served on the Duke University Health System Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Committee, and collaborated with clinical nurse specialists in Duke University Hospital in research studies addressing wound and ostomy care and quality of life.
To learn more about these materials, visit the finding aid or contact the archives staff.
This blog was contributed by Archives Intern Kahlee Leingang.