Alene Bertha Duerk became the first female admiral in the U.S. Navy in 1972. She was also the director of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps from 1970 to 1975. She is a 1974 recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award of Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
Rear Admiral Alberto Díaz Jr. is the first Hispanic to become the Director of the San Diego Naval District and Balboa Naval Hospital.
Winnie Gibson (1902–2000) was the second director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, serving in that position from 1950 to 1954.
Wilma Leona Jackson was an American nurse and military official who served as the third director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, serving in that position from 1954 to 1958.
Rear Admiral Christine M. Bruzek-Kohler was the 21st Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, and served as the Commander Naval Medical Center San Diego and Navy Medicine West from May 2009 to August 2010. She officially retired from the Navy in December 2010.
Nancy J. Lescavage is a retired American rear admiral who served as the 20th director of the Navy Nurse Corps and was the commander of Naval Medical Education and Training Command, Bethesda, Maryland.
Rear Admiral Kathleen Lousche Martin served as Deputy Surgeon General of the Navy/Vice Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery from October 2002 until her retirement in September 2005. She also held the position as the 19th Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from August 1998 to August 2001. She serves on the board of directors for Caliburn International, a military contracting conglomerate that also oversees operations of Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children.
Rear Admiral Maxine Conder was a United States Navy rear admiral who served as Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps from 1975 to 1979.
Frances Teresa Shea-Buckley was a United States rear admiral who served as Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps from 1979 to 1983.
Retired Rear Admiral Mary Joan Nielubowicz was the Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from 1983 to 1987.
Mary Fields Hall was the Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from 1987 to 1991. She was the first U. S. military nurse to command a hospital. She became the commanding officer at Naval Hospital, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in July 1983, and later commanded Naval Hospital, Long Beach, California.
Rear Admiral Mariann Stratton was the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps from 1991 to 1994.
Captain Ruth Agatha Houghton was an American nurse who served as the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps from 1958 to 1962.
Captain Ruth Alice Erickson (1913-2008) was the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, serving in that position from 1962 to 1966. As a lieutenant in the Navy Nurse Corps, she witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.
Captain Veronica M. Bulshefski was the Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, serving in that position from 20 April 1966 to 1 May 1970.
Rear Admiral Louise Currie Wilmot is a retired United States Navy officer who was the first woman to command a United States Naval base. When she retired after 30 years of service, she was the highest ranking female naval officer in the United States.
Rear Admiral Karen Ann Flaherty assumed duties as the Deputy Surgeon General of Navy Medicine at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery as of August 6, 2010. Flaherty served as the 22nd Director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps as well as the Deputy Chief, Wounded, Ill, and Injured at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery from 2009 to 2010.
Margaret A. Rykowski is a rear admiral in the United States Navy Reserve and serves as Deputy Fleet Surgeon, United States Fleet Forces Command and Deputy Director, United States Navy Nurse Corps, Reserve Component.
Elizabeth Leonhardt (1867–1953) was one of the Sacred Twenty, the first 20 nurses in the United States Navy Nurse Corps during World War I. She was the Chief Nurse of the US Navy Nurse Corps in 1919.
Rear Admiral Christina M. “Tina” Alvarado was a registered nurse who retired after having served as the deputy chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), Reserve Policy and Integration.
