Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee was a pioneering Canadian-born United States Navy military nurse, who served as Superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps during World War I. She is best known for being the first female recipient of the Navy Cross.
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.
Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first American active-duty Navy woman, the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and the first woman allowed to serve as a woman in any of the United States armed forces, when she enlisted as a sailor in the U.S. Naval Reserve on March 17, 1917. Walsh subsequently became the first woman U.S. Navy petty officer when she was sworn in as Chief Yeoman on March 21, 1917.
Esther Voorhees Hasson (1867-1942) was the first Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps. Prior to and after serving in the United States Navy Nurse Corps, she served as an Army nurse.
Josephine Beatrice Bowman was the third superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
Myn M. Hoffman was the fourth Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
Sue S. Dauser was the fifth Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, guiding the Nurse Corps through World War II.
Captain Nellie Jane DeWitt was the sixth and final Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps and became its first director.
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 Joan Marie Engel held the position as the 18th Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from September 1994 to August 1998. She concurrently served as deputy commander for personnel management in the Health Sciences, Education and Training Command, and later as assistant chief for Education, Training and Personnel.
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.
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.
The Sacred Twenty were a group of nurses who were the first female members to ever formally serve in the United States Navy representing the Nurse Corps. Officially formed in 1908, the Sacred Twenty made broad contributions during wartime, not only including training of field nurses and disease treatment, but also providing education programs for nurses abroad and professional publications to the field of nursing.
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.
