Lisa Cuddy served as dean of medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in House M.D.
Cuddy, played by Lisa Edelstein, is the hospital’s senior medical administrator for most of the series. She supervises House, manages institutional pressures, and repeatedly tries to balance his extraordinary diagnostic results against his disregard for rules and authority.
Her position gives her practical power over House’s department, including staffing, budgets, patient access, and disciplinary decisions. At the same time, she recognizes that his unusual methods can solve cases other doctors cannot. This creates an ongoing conflict between administrative responsibility and medical innovation.
Cuddy’s exact title is sometimes simplified to “hospital administrator,” but the show identifies her as dean of medicine. The character also has a personal history with House, and their relationship becomes a major story line in later seasons. Edelstein left the regular cast after season seven, so Cuddy is absent from the final season.