Mary Ann Bickerdyke, also known as Mother Bickerdyke, was a hospital administrator for Union soldiers during the American Civil War and a lifelong advocate for veterans. She was responsible for establishing 300 field hospitals during the war and served as a lawyer assisting veterans and their families with obtaining pensions after the war.
Daniel Hale Williams was a pioneering American surgeon and hospital founder. An African American, he founded Provident Hospital in 1891, which was the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. Provident also had an associated nursing school for African Americans. He is known for having completed the first successful heart surgery.
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.
Isabel Adams Hampton Robb (1859–1910) was an American nurse theorist, author, nursing school administrator and early leader. Hampton was the first Superintendent of Nurses at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, wrote several influential textbooks, and helped to found the organizations that became known as the National League for Nursing, the International Council of Nurses, and the American Nurses Association. Hampton also played a large role in advancing the social status of nursing through her work in developing a curriculum of more advanced training during her time at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African-American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the United States. In 1879, Mahoney was the first African American to graduate from an American school of nursing.
Provident Hospital of Cook County is a public hospital in Chicago, Illinois that was the first African-American-run hospital in the United States.
Ruth Winifred Howard was an American psychologist. She is best known for her psychological work concerning students with special needs at Children's Provident Hospital School. She is one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in Psychology. Howard was an active participant in the American Psychological Association, the International Council of Women Psychologists, the American Association of University Women, the National Association of College Women, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She also received instruction from Florence Goodenough.
Lucy Hughes Brown was the first African-American woman physician licensed to practice in both North Carolina and South Carolina and the cofounder of a nursing school and hospital. Hughes Brown was also an activist and poet.
Alma E. Foerster (1885–1967) was an American nurse who worked in both civilian and military care. She began her career as a public health nurse in Chicago and during the First World War helped establish hospitals in Kiev, for which she received the Cross of Saint Anna. She worked in Romania, receiving the Order of the Cross of Queen Marie for her service, before being sent on a humanitarian mission to Archangel, Russia. As one of only two American Red Cross nurses in Archangel, she provided assistance at the military surgical hospital, while the other nurse assisted with civilian nursing. She was one of the inaugural recipients of the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1920. After her return to the United States, she worked in the United States Public Health Service as a nurse, instructor and director of nursing in Chicago, Mobile, Ann Arbor and Racine, before returning to Chicago where she ended her career.
Alma Elizabeth Gault was an American nurse administrator. Gault successfully advocated for African American nurses and their educational institutions to be integrated into professional nursing associations. Under her leadership, Meharry Medical College School of Nursing, in Nashville, Tennessee, was the first segregated black nursing school to attain membership in the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing. For her achievement's Gault was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1984.
Hulda Margaret Lyttle Frazier was an American nurse educator and hospital administrator who spent most of her career in Nashville, Tennessee at Meharry Medical College School of Nursing and affiliated Hubbard Hospital. Lyttle advocated for the modernization and professionalization of African American nurses' training programs, and improved practice standards in hospitals that served African Americans.
Sylvanie Francoz Williams was an American educator and clubwoman based in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Sara Iredell Fleetwood (1849–1908) was an American clubwoman and teacher. She was involved in the movement of black women into professional nursing, graduating as one of the first nurses from Howard University's Freedman's Hospital School of Nursing. She became the nursing superintendent at Freedman's, organized the Freedmen's Nursing Association and served as the first African American woman on the nurse's examining board of the District of Columbia.
Katrina Hertzer was an American nurse during World War I, serving as Chief Nurse of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
Carrie E. Bullock was an American nurse. She served as the president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) and founded their official newsletter.
Beulah Ream Allen was an American nurse, physician, and civilian physician during World War II. After graduating with a nursing degree in 1922, she worked as a supervising nurse and headed the educational department for the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. She worked as a hospital inspector for the state of Utah until 1928, when she moved to San Francisco to attend medical school. While earning her degree at the University of California, San Francisco, she worked as a nurse in the Bay Area. Upon her graduation in 1932, she moved to the Philippines, where she opened a medical practice.
Alma Vessells John was an American nurse, newsletter writer, radio and television personality, and civil rights activist. Born in Philadelphia in 1906, she moved to New York to take nursing classes after graduating from high school. She completed her nursing training at Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1929 and worked for two years as a nurse before being promoted to the director of the educational and recreational programs at Harlem Hospital. After being fired for trying to unionize nurses in 1938, she became the director of the Upper Manhattan YWCA School for Practical Nurses, the first African American to serve as director of a school of nursing in the state of New York.. In 1944, John became a lecturer and consultant with the National Nursing Council for War Service, serving until the war ended, and was the last director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses from 1946 until it dissolved in 1951. Her position at both organizations was to expand nursing opportunities for black women and integrate black nurses throughout the nation into the health care system.
Petra Fitzalieu Pinn was an American nurse and hospital administrator, and president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) in 1923 and 1924.
The Lincoln School for Nurses, also known as Lincoln Hospital and Nursing Home School for Nurses, and Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing, was the first nursing school for African-American women in New York City. It existed from 1898 to 1961. It was founded by Lincoln Hospital in Manhattan. The hospital and nursing school, moved to 141st Street, between Concord Avenue and Southern Boulevard in Mott Haven, the South Bronx, after 1899.
Sophia French Palmer was an American nurse, an editor and a health administrator. She was the first Editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Nursing. She was the President of the New York State Board of Nurse Examiners. She was also associated with the American Nurses Association, and various American Training Schools for Nurses including the Garfield Memorial Hospital. She made significant contributions in establishing a number of health institutions particularly in the field of nurse training.
