Dr. Fagan will also retain her duties as the hospital’s Designated Institutional Official for graduate medical education and serve as Chair of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine – Nemours Children’s Health Department of Pediatrics
Heather Fagan, MD, MS, FAAP, has been named Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief for Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida. Dr. Fagan will also serve as Chair of the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of Medicine – Nemours Children’s Health Department of Pediatrics. In addition, she will retain her role as the hospital’s Designated Institutional Official for graduate medical education.
“Dr. Fagan is a visionary leader who has been instrumental in our journey to ensure that our hospital is and continues to be a leading institution for clinical excellence, academic preeminence, and medical training,” said Martha McGill, BSN, MBA, MHA, Central Florida President for Nemours Children’s Health. “I am confident that her ongoing leadership will help ensure that our patients can receive high-quality care and emerging pediatric physicians receive the best training and medical education possible.”
In her new leadership capacity, Dr. Fagan will provide strategic direction and oversight for all aspects of the hospital’s pediatrics department, ensuring the highest standards of patient care and family experience, quality and safety, faculty engagement, scholarly activity, education, and training.
“The convergence of medicine and academics has helped create endless possibilities in the way we treat and care for patients, and I am honored by the opportunity to continue nurturing this critical dynamic to ensure patients get exceptional care and that we can create a pipeline of skilled, passionate physicians to care for children well into the future,” said Dr. Fagan.
In 2024, Nemours Children’s and UCF expanded their longstanding partnership to establish the University of Central Florida College of Medicine – Nemours Children’s Health Department of Pediatrics. A distinguished critical care physician and award-winning medical educator, Dr. Fagan will leverage her extensive healthcare and academic expertise to lead the department’s efforts to support the growth and maturation of UCF medical students through a focus on medical training, workforce development, innovation, community partnerships, and advocacy.
Dr. Fagan joined Nemours Children’s Health in 2014 to develop a graduate medical education infrastructure at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida. Under her leadership, the hospital achieved institutional accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. She has since overseen the successful accreditation of the pediatrics residency program and multiple subspecialty fellowships, as well as the administration of medical student educational programs and the training of more than 200 visiting residents and fellows annually.
Dr. Fagan completed her pediatric residency, chief residency, and pediatric critical care fellowship at the University of Chicago. She earned her medical degree from Chicago Medical School and is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric critical care medicine by the American Board of Pediatrics.
About Nemours Children’s Health
Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two free-standing children’s hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children’s seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe, and high-quality care, while also addressing children’s needs well beyond medicine. In producing the highly acclaimed, award-winning pediatric medicine podcast Well Beyond Medicine, Nemours underscores that commitment by featuring the people, programs and partnerships addressing whole child health. Nemours Children’s also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, Nemours KidsHealth.org.
The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.
