Beverly Hoehne Whipple ’62 received an honorary doctorate from her undergraduate alma mater this spring. She, in turn, gave back to the College a significant gift to advance nursing research at Wagner.
A professor emerita of Rutgers University, Whipple earned a bachelor’s in nursing from Wagner and a Ph.D. in psychobiology, with a major in neurophysiology, from Rutgers. She is renowned for her work on women’s health and sexual physiology, described in more than 250 books and scholarly papers. One book she co-authored, The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality, has been translated into 23 languages.
The honorary doctorate was presented at the Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing’s pinning and candle lighting ceremony, an annual pre-commencement program that inducts the new class into the nursing profession.
Whipple spoke to the class about her career and the importance of nursing research.
“I’m sure you know that the public has rated nursing as the most honest and ethical profession in the past 16 years, so we are all proud to be part of the nursing profession,” she said. She has been a nurse educator and researcher for about 40 years and has spoken about her research in 93 countries.
“I want to share with you all the joy and fulfillment I have had by being part of research projects that had positive effects on people’s health. I encourage each of you to think about research questions as you are advancing the nursing needs of your patients.”
Whipple has made a gift to the Spiro School of Nursing to open new possibilities for research, especially for master’s and doctoral nursing students. The funds will be used to create and equip a cutting-edge space that caters to their needs for an individual and group research facility.
