Lucile Petry Leone

National Archives

“People need care when sick; they need preventive services; they need workable information. The needs do not change: perception of need changes. Expectations of how and to what extent needs can be met also changes.”

Lucile Petry Leone, “The Changing Needs of People,” American Journal of Public Health, 47 (Jan, 1957): 32

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Lucile Petry Leone (1902–1999) had a profound influence on the nursing profession and public health. In her sixty-year career, she enhanced professional training at the University of Minnesota and other U.S. institutions. During World War II, Leone founded and directed the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps to encourage young women to enter nursing schools to meet the wartime demand. She was the first woman appointed assistant surgeon general (rear admiral) of the Public Health Service and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Medicine (1970). 

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