Virginia Tilden, as the daughter of a Foreign Service Officer, was born and raised abroad. She decided to go into nursing and took her BSN in 1967 at Georgetown. She specialized in psychiatric nursing with a Master's at UCSF in 1971, and her doctorate in 1981. She compares the different focuses and curriculum between Georgetown and UCSF. The former was more traditional and hierarchical, with little emphasis on teamwork or problem solving. The latter was more research oriented with focus on patient centered care. She came to OHSU in 1982 under Dean Lindeman's tenure. Tilden shares the Dean vision of building the Science of Nursing, building a staff with its basic mission of research prepared at the doctoral level. Tilden became Director of Research and involved in the Nurse Ethics Resource Program in 1989. She shares how she went into administration and spent eight years as Dean at University of Nebraska. She then returned here and resumed her research work.