Social Upheaval and a Dean’s Vision for Professional Nursing: The Work of Dorothy M. Smith

Dorothy Mary Smith (1913–1997) was a visionary leader and innovator in nursing education. She was the founding dean of the University of Florida College of Nursing and played a key role in the design of an early academic medical center model. This article will discuss her education and early years, and the formation of Smith’s perspective on nursing education, exemplified by the implementation of her unification model of nursing, which was later adopted by numerous other academic nursing programs. During her deanship, significant events included the intrusion of the Johns Committee, an offshoot of the McCarthy investigations. The changing tides and times, such as the civil rights movement, also brought controversy and struggle to southern universities. In the end, financial downturns in state funding brought an end to the vision of Smith and her colleagues, leading her to ponder the outcome “if I had stayed.” Smith was an innovative leader whose legacy inspired graduates and faculty long after her academic career ended.