ORLANDO, Fla. (July 2, 2025) – 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.

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