Mary Eliza Mahoney

May 17, 1845 – January 4, 1926

First African American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the U.S. and the first to graduate from an American school of nursing. Instrumental in founding the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, she worked to improve access to educational and nursing practices and to raise living standards for African American registered nurses. She was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1976 and the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.