05/29/2026
Luther Christman, PhD, RN, FAAN was the first man to be named dean of a nursing school in the United States and founded the American Association for Men in Nursing. He questioned the idea of who could be a nurse and the value of nursing expertise. He was the first dean to employ African-American women as faculty at Vanderbilt and advocated for the recruitment of more men into the nursing profession. He also elevated the profession’s authority in healthcare by pioneering academic nursing education models from the baccalaureate to doctoral level.