Throughout a nursing career that has spanned 65 years, Luther Christman, PhD, RN, FAAN, has been a champion for improving professional nursing practice and elevating the educational level of the nursing profession. He established a premier school of nursing that pioneered the practitioner-teacher role and science-based academic models from the baccalaureate through the doctorate levels. As founder and dean of the Rush University College of Nursing, his name is often linked to the “Rush Model,” a unified approach to nursing education and practice that continues to set new standards of excellence in the United States and abroad.
Basic tenets of Christman’s nursing philosophy focus on providing the best clinical care for patients, developing an expanded practice role for nurses through advanced education and elevating the status and sphere of influence of professional nursing. Christman also was an early leader in the development of the role of the clinical nurse specialist. Through practice, research and publications he helped identify the value of the clinical nurse specialist in providing quality patient care.
A champion of diversity in nursing, Christman was the first male to be named dean of a nursing school in the United States. As dean of Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing, he was the first to employ African-American women as faculty at Vanderbilt. Christman strongly supported the recruitment of more men into the nursing profession. He was the founder of the American Association for Men in Nursing, as well as a founder of the National Student Nurses Association.
A visionary leader in nursing, Christman has served as an innovator and consultant to nursing schools, health care agencies and professional organizations in nursing and medicine around the globe. He is a national treasure in nursing and health care.
Imogene King, EdD, MSN, RN, FAAN
Imogene King, EdD, MSN, RN, FAAN, is universally recognized as a pioneer of nursing theory development and theory-based nursing practice. As one of the original nurse theorists, King has made an enduring impact on nursing education, practice and research while serving as a consummate, active leader in professional nursing. Internationally known for her “Theory of Goal Attainment,” King has worked with nurses worldwide in Africa, Canada, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, and most recently, China, to shape professional nursing practice, scholarship and education. Her theory has relevance and value in increasingly diverse and outcome-oriented systems for the delivery of nursing and health care. Her nursing paradigm is an important model for health care in the 21st century and beyond.
King’s legacy of service spans nearly six decades. Her enduring contributions to ANA notably include the first ANA Committee, in 1965, to plan clinical conferences and, more recently, serving as the Southeastern representative to the ANA Code of Ethics Task Force. King was the 1996 recipient of ANA’s Jessie M. Scott Award for demonstrating the interdependent relationships among nursing education, nursing practice, and nursing research. She has served in elected and appointed positions as a voice for the profession at international, national and state levels and is known for asking relevant, critical questions that commanded evidence-based decision-making for the future of nursing and health care.
In addition, King has consistently demonstrated her willingness to mentor nurses and students across all roles and settings. Most importantly, King role models nurses’ responsibility to actively contribute to the advancement of the profession. As a result, she has personally influenced the life, community, and profession of nurses and nursing.
Sadie Heath Cabaniss
Sadie Health Cabaniss was a pioneer nurse in the truest sense. The Virginia nurse developed the first training school for nurses in her state that followed the Nightingale plan, and that school exists to this day as the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University.
She also convinced existing training schools in Virginia to form alumni associations, and then she called on representatives from these groups to come together in 1901 to create what now is known as the Virginia Nurses Association. As president of her state organization, she helped draft a measure that would regulate the practice of nursing in the Commonwealth. Once the bill was enacted in 1903, she was one of the original members of the Virginia State Board of Examiners of Nurses, and served as its president throughout her two terms.
In addition to her advocacy for the profession, she was a public health advocate. She founded the Nurses Settlement of Richmond, VA, where nurses provided care to patients in their homes. She also helped develop dispensaries for patients with tuberculosis who could not be admitted to local hospitals. And, she established the first rural visiting nurses service in Virginia and brought her public health skills and knowledge to other states, as well.
Harriet Patience Dame
Harriet Patience Dame's leadership, advocacy, innovation and expert ability to provide holistic care to the sick and wounded stands as a true testament to the nursing profession.
When Union General Joseph Hooker announced that all soldiers who could not walk to Harrison's Landing, VA, would be left behind to certain death, Dame first organized the sick and wounded so they could help each other during the 120-mile trek and later won space for them on wagons. Her leadership saved the lives of many.
A selfless caregiver, the New Hampshire native was appointed matron of the 18th Corps Hospital at Broadway, where for several months she served as the sole nurse. She also convinced the Surgeon General to ensure that every military boat had proper hospital accommodations, supplies and at least one surgeon on board.
She served as the second president of the Army Nurses Association, and because of her service, a Senate bill was introduced in the 48th Congress to provide pensions to nurses who worked on the battlefield or in hospitals during the Civil War.
Veronica Margaret Driscoll
During a career that spanned more than 45 years, Veronica M. Driscoll proved her commitment to advancing the profession time and time again.
In her role as assistant executive director of the New York State Nurses Association's (NYSNA's) economic security program, she helped registered nurses employed in New York City municipal hospitals win increased wages, benefits and improved practice environments. Her leadership in this campaign prevented nurses from resigning en masse.
Later as NYSNA's executive director, from 1969 to 1979, Driscoll was instrumental in doubling membership, streamlining operations and establishing NYSNA as the largest collective bargaining agent for RNs in the country. She was key to ensuring the enactment of the groundbreaking 1972 New York State Nurse Practice Act. Driscoll later served as the first executive director of the Foundation of the NYSNA
In other efforts, she staffed the committee that prepared A Blueprint for the Education of Nurses in New York State, which promoted strengthening nursing's educational base through higher education. On the national scene, she served on important ANA bodies, including the ANA Commission on Economic and General Welfare, on which she served as chairperson.
Mary Lewis Wyche
Mary Lewis Wyche graduated from the diploma program at Philadelphia General Hospital in 1894 at the age of 36. It clearly was only the start of an amazing nursing career in which she focused her energies on improving professional nursing in her home state of North Carolina -- despite the cultural constraints of her time.
In education, Wyche foresaw the need to standardize nursing school educational requirements. She established three schools, one of which is still known today for the quality of its nursing program. In a time when women couldn't vote, she mobilized support for the regulation of nursing practice in the North Carolina legislature, resulting in the first practice act in the U.S. in 1903. She was appointed to the North Carolina Board of Nurse Examiners, and served as secretary-treasurer from 1903-1908.
She was a firm believer in professional nursing associations. In 1901, she mailed invitations to nurses she knew asking them to discuss forming a nursing organization. When no one came to the meeting, she sent out a second mailing describing the excitement generated at the event and extended another invitation to meet. The group of nurses who agreed to meet formed the North Carolina State Nurses in 1902, and Wyche served as its president for five years.
Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail
While working with the then Indian Health Service from 1929 to1931, Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail helped to bring modern health care to her own people and to end abuses in the Indian health care system, such as the sterilization of Native American women without their consent. She effectively communicated Native American culture and perspectives to non-Indians throughout the country then as well as throughout her public service career.
From 1930 to 1960, the Montana nurse traveled throughout North American reservations to assess the health, social and educational problems Native Americans faced. One of her assessment's revealed that acutely ill Native American children were literally dying on the backs of their mothers, who often had to walk 20 to 30 miles to get to one of the five hospitals that served 160,000 Navajo. She also provided midwifery services to Native American and other women in the Little Horn Valley for 30 years.
Through her work with the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the founder of the Native American Nurses Association was instrumental in winning tribal and government funding to help Native Americans enter the nursing profession. In 1962, Yellowtail received the President's Award for Outstanding Nursing Health Care.
Mary Elizabeth Carnegie
Mary Elizabeth Carnegie exhibited courage, integrity and commitment to the advancement of the nursing profession, as well as to the advancement of black and other minority nurses.
Carnegie was employed at the American Journal of Nursing Company from 1953 until 1978 and was editor emeritus of Nursing Research until her death. She wrote, edited and contributed chapters to nearly 20 books and is author of all three editions of the award-winning The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing Worldwide, 1854-1994. She initiated the baccalaureate nursing program at the historically black Hampton University in Virginia, where the archives are named in her honor. A past president of the American Academy of Nursing (1978-1979) and chair of the ANA's Minority Fellowship Program Advisory Committee (1988-1999), she served as dean and professor of the school of nursing at Florida A&M University (1945-1953).
After retiring in 1978, Carnegie served as an independent consultant for Scientific Writing and as distinguished visiting professor for the Schools of Nursing at Hampton University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Pennsylvania State University in University Park.
Carnegie received eight honorary doctorates and countless awards, including the George Arens Pioneer Medal from her alma mater, Syracuse University, the President's Award from Sigma Theta Tau International, and the Living Legend Award from the Association of Black Nurse Faculty in Higher Education.
Signe Skott Cooper
Signe Skott Cooper is a name synonymous with continuing nursing education. Through her pioneering efforts and lifelong contributions, she has been an inspiration for the nursing profession. Her contributions have helped to sustain and develop creative methodologies for both traditional and distance learning in continuing nursing education.
After becoming a nurse in 1943, Cooper joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and was stationed in the China-Burma-India theater. Upon her return she started a lifelong dedication to nursing as an educator, editor, consultant, historian, author, administrator, researcher, mentor and pioneering leader in continuing education. One of her more notable accomplishments was the pioneer development of extensive telephone conferencing courses in 1966. The initial course was offered through a series of telephone bridges to 24 listening posts throughout Wisconsin with more than 600 nurses enrolled. She has written five books, has been an editor or on editorial boards for seven nursing magazines, and has served as a consultant to such publishing firms as McGraw Hill and Springer Publishing Company.
Cooper has received numerous awards and honors, including the Image of Nursing Award from the Wisconsin Nurses Association, the Wisconsin Governor's Special Award and the Medallion of Services from the Wisconsin Heart Association.
Maggie Jacobs
Maggie Jacobs was a powerful leader in nursing. Although her remarkable life was cut tragically short at age 49, her influence will forever help to shape nursing and health care. Jacobs was a fierce and effective advocate for New York City's poor and for the development of its health care system.
She held positions of leadership for 21 years in the largest exclusively registered nurse bargaining unit in the United States - Health and Hospitals Corporation of the City of New York. In addition, she shared her dedication, expertise and leadership in numerous diverse community organizations, thus contributing to society while improving the public's understanding of nursing.
Jacobs received many honors and awards, including the Distinguished Service Award from the Nurses Association for the Counties of Long Island in New York, the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Harriet Tubman Political Club in Brooklyn, NY, and the Community Service Award from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs in Brooklyn, NY. She also received an award of Honorary Recognition from the New York State Nurses Association.
Undine Sams
A member of the Florida Nurses Association (FNA), Undine Sams, doctora honoris causa, or "Sammy," spearheaded sweeping changes that advanced the nursing profession. In the 1940s, when segregation laws were in full force, FNA, with Sams' leadership, was one of the first southern state nurses associations to permit black nurses to join.
Mary Elizabeth Carnegie, also a member of the ANA Hall of Fame, was one of the first black members of FNA. In the early 1950s, Sams implemented the recommendations for the FNA's Economic Security Program, and helped create the Nurses Charitable Trust of FNA District 5 (Miami-Dade County). Sams also played a key role in the "Nursing on the Move" campaign, which raised $2 million to support the 1992 relocation of ANA's headquarters from Kansas City, MO, to Washington, DC, to better position the association to influence national health care policy.
In 1998, Sams' 58th year as an FNA member, ANA honored Sams with a special recognition award for her lifelong contributions. She received her diploma in nursing from Jackson Memorial Hospital, a BSN in nursing at Barry University and an honorary doctorate in public service from Florida International University. Sams also was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International, Beta Tau Chapter at the University of Miami, and the FNA has named an award in her honor. In addition, Sams was one of the founders of the Florida Nurses Foundation in which three funds have been established in her honor -- a scholarship, a research grant and a "nurses in need" fund.
Margretta Madden Styles
Margretta Madden Styles was a nurse scholar who was renowned nationally and globally as a leader in nursing education, credentialing and international nursing. As a past president of ANA, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), "Gretta" Styles demonstrated a lifelong commitment to leadership in nursing. Styles was dean and professor of the University of Texas School of Nursing, San Antonio, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, and the University of California, San Francisco. She authored of books and articles on socialization and professionalism.
As the architect of the first comprehensive study of nursing credentialing in the 1970s, Styles was an innovator and pioneer in framing and defining this critical work that recognizes and differentiates quality in all aspects of nursing practice. In the 1980s, she spearheaded ICN's definitive work on nursing regulation. A driving force behind the creation of the American Nurses Credentialing Center, her work laid the groundwork for expanding the services and programs in the United States and abroad.
The recipient of seven honorary doctorates from universities in the United States, Canada and Greece, and numerous other awards from academic and professional organizations, Styles had a global impact on the profession.