List of Living Legends of the American Academy of Nursing

The Living Legend designation from the American Academy of Nursing is bestowed upon a very small number of nurses "in recognition of the multiple contributions these individuals have made to our profession and our society and in recognition of the continuing impact of these contributions on the provision of health care services in the United States and throughout the world." Each Living Legend has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) for at least 15 years.

While over 2,000 nurses have achieved the FAAN designation, only a few dozen have been named Living Legends.

Living Legends

Year	Name	Alma mater	Affiliations	Notes
1994	Faye Glenn Abdellah	Columbia University	United States Public Health Service	Former deputy surgeon general of the United States. First dean of Uniformed Services University Graduate School of Nursing. Authored Patient Centered Approaches to Nursing.
1994	Myrtle Aydelotte	University of Minnesota	University of Iowa	Former CEO of American Nurses Association. Founding nursing school dean at University of Iowa.
1994	Mary Elizabeth Carnegie	New York University	American Journal of Nursing	Editorial staff member of American Journal of Nursing. Senior editor of Nursing Outlook. First editor of Nursing Research. Nursing school dean at Florida A&M University.
1994	Ildaura Murillo-Rohde	New York University	National Association of Hispanic Nurses	Founding president of National Association of Hispanic Nurses. First Hispanic nurse to complete PhD at New York University. First Hispanic nursing school dean at New York University. Recipient of Hildegard Peplau Lifetime Achievement Award.
1994	Hildegard Peplau	Columbia University	Rutgers University	Author of Interpersonal Relations in Nursing. Only person to hold president and executive director posts at American Nurses Association.
1994	Jessie M. Scott	Columbia University	United States Public Health Service	Former Assistant Surgeon General, United States Public Health Service. Recipient of Distinguished Service Medal from USPHS. Involved in creation of the 1964 Nurse Training Act.
1994	Harriet Werley	University of Utah	University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee	Founding editor of Research in Nursing. Created the Nursing Minimum Data Set. Nursing department chief at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
1995	Luther Christman	Michigan State University	Rush University	Helped to develop the Rush Model of Nursing and the clinical nurse specialist role. Founding member of the National Male Nurse Association, which became the American Assembly for Men in Nursing. First male inducted into the ANA Hall of Fame. First male nursing school dean in US.
1995	Rheba de Tornyay	Stanford University	University of Washington	Dean emeritus at University of Washington School of Nursing. Former president of the American Academy of Nursing. Namesake for an aging center at University of Washington.
1995	Virginia Ohlson	University of Chicago	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign	Department head for public health nursing at University of Illinois College of Nursing between 1970 and 1980. Helped to establish the master's degree in public health nursing at the school. Served as an international nursing consultant and received an order of knighthood from the emperor of Japan.
1995	Rozella M. Schlotfeldt	University of Chicago	Case Western Reserve University	Dean emerita of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. Established faculty and nursing practice collaborations at the school. Served on a task force to create the 1964 Nurse Training Act.
1996	Clifford Jordan	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania	First male tenured nursing professor at Penn. Coordinated Penn's graduate program in nursing service administration. Served as executive director of the Association of Operating Room Nurses.
1996	Mary V. Neal		University of Maryland	Chair of pediatric nursing at University of Maryland. Established a research program at the university hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. Developed a "rocking hammock" and studied stimulation in premature infants. Created a conceptual model for maternal-child nursing.
1996	Dorothy M. Smith	Harvard University	University of Florida	Founding dean of the University of Florida College of Nursing. Developed the clinical assessment database. Served as a hospital chief of nursing practice while on the faculty at Florida.
1997	Mabel Wandelt	University of Michigan	University of Texas at Austin	Developer of Quality Patient Care Scale (Qualpacs). One of four initial nurse researchers on "magnet hospitals" which led to the Magnet Recognition Program. Author of Guide for the Beginning Researcher.
1997	Mary Kelly Mullane	University of Chicago	University of Illinois at Chicago	Former nursing school dean at University of Illinois at Chicago. Former executive director at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Chaired an Illinois state research committee which encouraged nurses to pursue graduate degrees in the 1960s.
1997	Jo Eleanor Elliott	University of Michigan	University of Michigan	Former president of the American Nurses Association. Headed the USPHS Division of Nursing. Advocated college education for all nurses.
1997	Doris Schwartz	New York University	Cornell University	Professor and gerontology researcher. Former co-director of Cornell's Geriatric Nurse Practitioner and Family Nurse Practitioner programs in the 1970s.
1997	Mary Woody	Columbia University	Auburn University	Founded the nursing school at Auburn.
1997	Anne Zimmerman	Loyola University Chicago	Loyola University Chicago	President of the American Nurses Association, 1976–1978. Headed several state nursing associations.
1998	Vernice Ferguson	New York University	National Institutes of Health	Led the nursing department at the NIH Clinical Center. Former chief nursing officer for the Veterans Administration.
1998	Claire Fagin	New York University	University of Pennsylvania	First female interim president in the Ivy League.
1998	Madeleine Leininger	University of Washington	University of Washington	Emeritus professor and transcultural nursing expert.
1999	Grayce Sills	Ohio State University	Ohio State University	Former president of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. Expert in community-based mental health nursing.
1999	Margretta Styles	University of Florida	University of California, San Francisco	Founded the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
1999	Loretta Ford	University of Colorado	University of Colorado	Co-created the first pediatric nurse practitioner program at Colorado.
1999	Connie Holleran		University of Pennsylvania	Former executive director of the International Council of Nurses.
2000	Geraldene Felton	New York University	The University of Iowa	Former nursing school dean at Iowa and former president of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
2000	Jeanne Quint Benoliel		University of Washington	Pioneer in palliative care. Founded the PhD program at the University of Washington School of Nursing.
2000	Shirley Chater		Texas Woman's University	President of Texas Woman's University between 1986 and 1993.
2000	Thelma Schorr	Columbia University	American Journal of Nursing	Editor-in-chief, American Journal of Nursing, 1971–1981.
2001	Susan Gortner	University of California, Berkeley	University of California, San Francisco	Pioneered clinical research in cardiovascular nursing.
2001	Mary Starke Harper		National Institute of Mental Health	Presidential adviser on mental health and aging.
2001	Lucie Kelly		Columbia University	Editor of Nursing Outlook. Past president of Sigma Theta Tau International. Created interdisciplinary nursing administration program at Columbia.
2001	Ruth Lubic		Childbirth Connection	Founded the first U.S. birthing center.
2001	Florence Wald	Yale School of Nursing	Yale School of Nursing	Established the first American hospice team.
2002	Lillian Sholtis Brunner	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania	Editor of Textbook of Medical and Surgical Nursing and Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice.
2002	Rhetaugh Graves Dumas	Union Institute & University	Yale University	Former dean and vice provost at the University of Michigan. Former deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
2002	Virginia Saba		Georgetown University	Early leader in the nursing informatics movement.
2002	Gladys Sorensen	Columbia University	University of Arizona	President, American Academy of Nursing, 1985–1987.
2003	Signe Cooper	University of Minnesota	University of Wisconsin–Madison	Developer of the concept of continuing nursing education.
2003	Ira P. Gunn	University of Houston	U.S. Army	Early nurse anesthetist. Namesake for a professional advocacy award given by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
2003	Ramona T. Mercer	University of Pittsburgh	University of California San Francisco	Nursing theorist (maternal role attainment).
2004	Florence Downs		New York University	Editor of Nursing Research from 1979 to 1997. Directed early graduate programs in nursing.
2004	Juanita Fleming		University of Kentucky	Administrator at the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University. Authored more than fifty refereed papers and 24 books or book chapters.
2004	Edith Patton Lewis	Case Western Reserve University		Editorial staff member of Nursing Outlook, Nursing Research and American Journal of Nursing. Developed the Contemporary Nursing Series.
2004	Sally Ann Sample	University of Washington	University of Vermont	Helped to create the joint appointment (academic and clinical practice) role for the clinical nurse specialist.
2004	Shirley Smoyak	Rutgers University	Rutgers University	Founder, Journal of Psychosocial Nursing.
2005	Joyce Clifford	Brandeis University	Beth Israel Hospital	Advocate for primary nursing and for baccalaureate nursing education.
2005	Jean E. Johnson	University of Wisconsin–Madison	University of Rochester	Created sensation theory.
2005	Imogene King	Columbia University	Loyola University Chicago	Introduced the theory of goal attainment.
2005	Joan Lynaugh		University of Pennsylvania	Director emerita of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing.
2006	Kathryn Barnard		University of Washington	Nurse theorist who studied infant mental health.
2006	Sister Rosemary Donley	University of Pittsburgh	Duquesne University	Former president of the National League for Nursing and Sigma Theta Tau International.
2006	Marlene Kramer	Stanford University	University of Nevada Reno	Author of Reality Shock: Why Nurses Leave Nursing.
2006	Angela McBride		Indiana University	Former president of Sigma Theta Tau International and the American Academy of Nursing. Author of The Growth and Development of Mothers and The Growth and Development of Nurse Leaders.
2006	Ellen Rudy		University of Pittsburgh	Established a faculty practice system at Pittsburgh's School of Nursing.
2007	Marie Cowan	University of Washington	University of California, Los Angeles	Former dean at UCLA. Cardiovascular researcher who wrote 110 peer-reviewed articles.
2007	Phyllis Ethridge	University of Arizona	Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital	Hospital administrator who developed one of the first nursing health maintenance organizations. Appointed to Bill Clinton's 1992 health reform task force.
2007	Carrie Lenburg	Columbia University	National League for Nursing	Former associate director of the National League for Nursing. Helped to form the New York Regents External Degree Program, now known as Excelsior College.
2007	Margaret McClure	Columbia University	New York University	Hospital chief nursing officer. One of the four authors of Magnet Hospitals: Attraction and Retention of Professional Nurses.
2007	Callista Roy	University of California, Los Angeles	Boston College	Developed the adaptation model of nursing.
2007	Gloria Smith	Union Institute & University	Wayne State University	Former vice president of health programs at W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
2008	Gene Cranston Anderson	University of Wisconsin–Madison	Case Western Reserve University	Nurse researcher in maternal-infant care.
2008	Helen Grace	Northwestern University	University of Illinois at Chicago	Dean emerita of UIC College of Nursing. Co-editor for several editions of Current Issues in Nursing.
2008	Margaret Newman	New York University	Penn State University	Creator of the theory of health as expanding consciousness.
2008	Robert Piemonte	Columbia University	New York University	Former executive director of the National Student Nurses' Association.
2008	Phyllis Stern		Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis	Grounded theory scholar.
2009	Barbara Brodie		University of Virginia	Retired associate director and former director of the Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry.
2009	Leah Curtin	University of Cincinnati	Nursing Management	Longtime nursing journal editor. Author of Sunflowers in the Sand: Stories from Children of War.
2009	Marjory Gordon	Boston College	Boston College	Created Gordon's functional health patterns. Serves on board of directors for North American Nursing Diagnosis Association.
2009	Ruby Leila Wilson	Duke University	Duke University	Former dean at Duke. Developed the first clinical master's program in nursing.
2010	Billye J. Brown	Baylor University	University of Texas at Austin	Former dean, University of Texas at Austin.
2010	Donna Diers	University of Technology, Sydney	Yale University	Former dean at Yale School of Nursing. Created first graduate entry program in nursing.
2010	Norma M. Lang		University of Pennsylvania	Dean emerita of nursing at University of Pennsylvania. Created a model for nursing quality assurance in the 1970s.
2010	Barbara L. Nichols		CGFNS International	Former CEO of CGFNS International
2010	Betty Smith Williams	University of California Los Angeles	California State University Long Beach	Founding member of the National Black Nurses Association
2011	Patricia Benner	University of California, Berkeley	University of California San Francisco	Author, From Novice to Expert
2011	Suzanne Feetham		National Institutes of Health	Created the Feetham Family Functioning Survey.
2011	Ada Sue Hinshaw	University of Arizona	University of Michigan	First director of the National Institute of Nursing Research.
2011	Meridean Maas	Iowa State University	University of Iowa	Co-director, Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center
2011	May Wykle	Case Western Reserve University	Case Western Reserve University	President, Friends of the National Institute for Nursing Research. Former president of Sigma Theta Tau International.
2012	Anne J. Davis		University of California, San Francisco	Professor emerita at the University of California San Francisco.
2012	Mi Ja Kim	University of Illinois at Chicago	University of Illinois at Chicago	International nursing consultant, member of the CGFNS International Board of Trustees.
2012	Nola Pender	Northwestern University	University of Michigan	Created the Health Promotion Model.
2012	Muriel Poulin	Columbia University	Boston University	Professor emerita at Boston University. Fulbright Scholar in Barcelona.
2013	Clara Leach Adams-Ender	University of Minnesota	Walter Reed Army Medical Center	Former chief of the United States Army Nurse Corps
2013	Hattie Bessent	University of Florida	University of Florida	Led the ANA Ethnic Minority Fellowship Program
2013	Margaret Miles	University of Missouri–Kansas City	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Founding president, Society of Pediatric Nurses
2013	Jean Watson	Lewis Gale School of Nursing	University of Colorado	Nurse theorist and nursing professor who is best known for her Theory of Human Caring
2014	Kathleen Dracup	University of California, San Francisco	University of California, San Francisco	Dean Emeritus, UCSF School of Nursing
2014	Barbara Durand	University of San Francisco	Arizona State University	Former dean, ASU College of Nursing
2014	Bernardine Lacey	Columbia University	Western Michigan University
2014	Colleen Goode	University of Iowa	University of Colorado Denver
2015	Diane M. Billings	Indiana University	Indiana University
2015	Marylin J. Dodd	Wayne State University	University of California, San Francisco
2015	Fannie Jean Gaston-Johansson	University of Gothenburg	Johns Hopkins University
2015	Marie Manthey	University of Minnesota	Creative HealthCare Management	Nurse, author, and entrepreneur. She is recognized as one of the originators of Primary Nursing, an innovative system of nursing care delivery.
2015	Afaf Meleis	University of California, Los Angeles	University of Pennsylvania
2016	Linda Burnes Bolton	University of California, Los Angeles	Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
2016	Ann Wolbert Burgess		Boston College	A researcher whose work has focused on developing ways to assess and treat trauma in rape victims
2016	Colleen Conway-Welch	New York University	Vanderbilt University School of Nursing	Dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN) from 1984 to 2013 and member of President Ronald Reagan's Commission on the HIV Epidemic.
2016	Joyce J. Fitzpatrick
2016	Martha N. Hill	The Johns Hopkins University	The Johns Hopkins University
2017	Linda R. Cronenwett
2017	Elaine L. Larson
2017	Carolyn A. Williams
2017	Nancy Fugate Woods	[[University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill]]	University of Washington
2017	Connie Henke Yarbro
2018	Jacquelyn Campbell		The Johns Hopkins University
2018	Marilyn P. Chow
2018	Joanne M. Disch
2018	Ada K. Jacox
2018	Beatrice J. Kalisch
2018	Sally L. Lusk	University of Michigan	Sigma Theta Tau, American Academy of Nursing, Midwest Nursing Research Society	Known for her study of influences on health behavior of workers exposed to hazardous noise.
2018	Ruth McCorkle	University of Iowa School of Nursing	Yale School of Nursing
2019	Geraldine "Polly" Bednash	Texas Woman's University; Catholic University of America; University of Maryland
2019	C. Alicia Georges			National Volunteer President of AARP 2018–2020.Former President of the National Black Nurses Association 1987–1991, Current President of the National Black Nurses Foundation. Professor and Chairperson Emerita Lehman College Department of Nursing
2019	Pamela Mitchell
2019	Linda Schwartz
2019	Mary Wakefield	University of Texas at Austin	Obama administration
2020	Linda Harman Aiken			Founder of the Magnet Recognition Program
2020	Bobbie Berkowitz	University of Washington; Case Western Reserve University	School of Nursing at Columbia University	American professor of nursing and dean emeritus of the School of Nursing at Columbia University
2020	Kathleen (Kitty) Buckwalter
2020	Beverly Malone	University of Cincinnati; Rutgers University in Newark
2020	Marilyn Rantz	University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	University of Missouri
2021	Betty Ferrell
2021	Terry Fulmer
2021	Susan Hassmiller
2021	Marla Salmon
2022	Jane Barnsteiner
2022	William L. Holzemer
2022	Jeanette Ives Erickson
2022	Norma Martinez Rogers
2022	Joyce Newman Giger
2022	Franklin A. Shaffer
2023	Janice C. Brewington
2023	Pamela F. Cipriano
2023	Martha A.Q. Curley
2023	Mary O'Neil Mundinger
2023	Madeline A. Naegle
2023	Adey M. Nyamathi