In Memoriam: Dr. Marcia Rachel

Dr. Marcia M. Rachel, former associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Nursing, died Sept. 26. She was 65.

A native of Picayune, Rachel graduated from Wingfield High School in Jackson and received her B.S.N. from Mississippi College. She served as a mental health nurse at St. Dominic Medical Center and as a home health nurse and received her M.S.N. in mental health nursing from the University of Southern Mississippi and her Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Mississippi.

Executive director of the Mississippi Board of Nursing, Rachel was a chief executive in UMMC’s hospitals and clinics. She was a nurse educator at the graduate and undergraduate levels in the School of Nursing, most recently as associate dean for academic affairs.

Rachel served as president of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and president of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools. She is a Mississippi Nurses Association Hall of Fame inductee.

Visitation was Sept. 29 at Brandon Baptist Church with visitation and funeral service Sept. 30 at Lakewood Funeral Home. Memorials may be made to the Brandon Baptist Church building fund.