Morgan Raisian Commons, S3344

This space is officially named in gratitude of the generosity of Claudia Morgan ’77.

Tribute

Claudia is originally from Niagara Falls, NY and graduated from high school in Nashville, TN at the age of 16. She began her Grinnell College career as an art major but switched to chemistry after taking a class from Professor Gene Wubbells. Luther Erickson was her advisor. After Grinnell, Claudia earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Washington University in St. Louis before starting a research career with medical school faculty positions at Ohio State and Tulane.

While at Tulane, Claudia resumed her studies in the arts, working mainly with still life and landscape in oil and charcoal. She moved to the Bay Area in 1997, paving the way for her to pursue her love of the arts.  She became active in the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, serving as their executive director from 2000 to 2005. Claudia then rejoined academia and served as Associate Dean at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and later at the Stanford School of Medicine before retiring in 2019. Her husband, John Raisian, is a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, which he led as Director for twenty six years.

Talented both in the arts and sciences, Claudia is making this gift for the Humanities and Social Studies Center in recognition of her love of the arts and her belief in the great value of a liberal arts education.