Barbara L. Nichols
American nurse(1939-2026)
Barbara L. Nichols (July 19, 1939 – July 22, 2026) was an American nurse leader and was the first black president of the American Nurses Association. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Nichols was a CEO of CGFNS International, a president of the Wisconsin Nurses Association and a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing.
Early life and education
Nichols grew up in Maine and attended the Massachusetts Memorial School of Nursing and earned a bachelor's degree in nursing from Case Western Reserve University. She worked at Boston Children's Hospital before joining the United States Navy. Nichols said that in her early days as a nurse, she felt that her opinions were sometimes ignored because of her race, and she said that these experiences pushed her to become a nurse leader.
Career
At the U.S. Naval Hospital in St. Albans, Queens, Nichols was a head nurse. After leaving the Navy Nurse Corps, Nichols moved to Wisconsin, where she worked as a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison. In 1970, Nichols became president of the Wisconsin Nurses Association.
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This entry incorporates text from “Barbara L. Nichols” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.