Dr. Lisa Cuddy is the Dean of Medicine and Chief Hospital Administrator of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. She is the direct superior of both Dr. House and Dr. Wilson. She is a specialist in endocrinology, but has a very limited medical practice due to her administrative duties.
Dr. Cuddy's medical qualifications are impressive. She was second in her graduating class at medical school, and became the second youngest chief of medicine in the history of the hospital when she was 32.
Relationship with House
Cuddy first knew of House when she was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan while he was at medical school. She describes him as "already a legend" at the time.
Cuddy decided to hire House despite the fact that she acknowledged that he had already been fired from four other hospitals. The exact reason why she decided to hire House has always been kept ambiguous. She has claimed that she recognized him as an "excellent doctor who couldn't get hired at a blood bank, so I got you cheap." However, it has frequently been suggested that they had a relationship at one time - a possibility that has been confirmed at least in part by House's reference to a one-night stand when Cuddy cited his qualifications as the reason for his hiring. In Humpty Dumpty, House offered his theory that Cuddy hired him since she believes the world can be made perfect, and that he can be a better person than he is.
The relationship between Cuddy and House is a strained one. House frequently ignores or works around Cuddy's instructions. He has often exposed the hospital to unlimited liability, and has a habit of alienating important donors to the hospital. However, Cuddy is frequently reminded how much better a doctor House is than she is despite her incredible intellect. She admires House for his ability to ignore emotional considerations when a patient's life is on the line, and his persistence in acting for the patient's best interests.
House constantly bombards Cuddy with sexually suggestive comments, often remarking about the display of her breasts or the size of her buttocks. At first, Cuddy believed that this was merely House acting poorly in an attempt to bring her to anger. However, once House started taking an interest in Cuddy's relationships, Cuddy began to believe that House was actually attracted to her. However, her reaction appeared to be that House had an earlier opportunity to have a relationship with Cuddy and did not do so.
In the episode titled, "Who's Your Daddy?" it was suggested that Cuddy was going to ask House for a sperm donation so that she could become pregnant. However, she refrained at the last moment.
Not only has Cuddy consistently protected House from the wrath of the hospital's board of directors (House has tenure and can only be removed by unanimous vote of the directors, including Cuddy), she once perjured herself to save House from indictment. However, her loyalty has often come at a very high price, such as insisting House do more clinic duty, or provide more guidance to students.