Pioneering nurse, global health leader, and well-respected community leader Barbara Nichols passed away on July 21, just days after celebrating her 88th birthday. Beyond being a beloved matriarch in the Madison community and an active volunteer for many causes and organizations throughout the area, Nichols was also a trailblazer as the first Black president of the American Nurses Association, as well as the Wisconsin Nurses Association.
Nichols built a distinguished career spanning more than five decades, marked by exceptional leadership, innovation, and service across complex organizations and political environments at the local, state, national, and international levels.
A leader in the local African American community, Nichols held leadership roles at St. Mary’s Hospital, the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing, United Way of Dane County, the Madison Area Technical College Board, and the United Nations Association of Dane County, where she served as board president. She has also been a prominent local and national leader within the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
Frances Huntley-Cooper, a former mayor of Fitchburg and the first African American woman elected mayor in Wisconsin, was a close friend of Nichols and her longtime sister in the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. For decades, both women were leaders in the historic African American sorority.
“All of us just really loved her so much,” Huntley-Cooper tells Madison365. “She was such an amazing woman who had such a great sense of humor. Barbara was a fun person to be around, but she also always would hold you accountable. She was very insightful and very opinionated. She always loved politics. We were so close that we would always celebrate our birthdays with each other.”
Huntley-Cooper says that she knew Nichols for many years, dating back to when their children, now in their 50s, were young and participated together in Jack and Jill of America, a leadership organization for African American mothers and their children.
“Barbara was a very bright and intelligent person who traveled the world. I can’t even tell you how many countries and continents she has been to,” Huntley-Cooper says. “She was an amazing storyteller. She loved her family so much. I really have so many great memories with Barbara, and I’m really going to miss her.”
Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, a renowned international educator and scholar and professor emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, tells Madison365 that she and Nichols were close friends for more than 25 years. Both were longtime members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and they were frequently seen together at community and sorority functions.
“We would also often run into each other in airport lounges. Like me, she traveled quite a bit. And we would run into each other in places like Chicago or Detroit … we’d both be headed back to Madison,” Ladson-Billings says. “She lived an incredible life. She was definitely a trailblazer.
“Barbara and I served on United Way of Dave County committees together, too. When I was a board member, she was on one of the community impact committees,” Ladson-Billings continues. “One thing that I never want people to forget is that Barbara just had the best sense of humor. She could really make you laugh. And in fact, I called her recently on a Saturday night when I was in Las Vegas because I knew her birthday was that Sunday, and I didn’t want to forget. And we had this running joke about her next career was going to be that of a stand-up comedian.
“And I teased her about that because I said, ‘Barbara, you only had two jokes.’ There’s no way you can do a whole stand-up comedian act with two jokes, ” she adds.
Ladson-Billings says Nichols knew she was at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., convention and that comedian DL Hughley was performing that night. “Barbara told me, ‘I need you to go to a comedy show and steal some jokes for me,'” Ladson-Billings remembers. “We just laughed, and I just can remember that being my last interaction with her. So the fact that she died a couple of days later, and then she was in such great spirits the last time I talked to her, I have to believe that her passing was peaceful.”
Ladson-Billings says that Nichols introduced her to the Wisconsin Council of Nurses. “And so a couple years ago, I was one of their keynote speakers, talking about health disparities in Black people in Wisconsin,” Ladson-Billings remembers. “Barbara was always that person who knew people. She could do that outreach and connect people.
“I also want to remind people what a devoted daughter that Barbara was. She was a very caring person,” she adds. “She cared for her own mother until the very end.”
Born July 19, 1938, in Waterville, Maine, Barbara Nichols began her nursing career after graduating from Massachusetts Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1959. She was one of only two Black students admitted to her class. She later earned a bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, as well as four honorary doctorates.
Nichols served as a commissioned lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She moved to Madison in 1966 and went on to make history as the first African American to serve as president of both the American Nurses Association and the Wisconsin Nurses Association. She also became Wisconsin’s first African American cabinet secretary when she was appointed secretary of the Department of Regulation and Licensing under Gov. Tony Earl.
(Photo by Marcus Miles)
Barbara Nichols’ daughter, Nichelle Nichols, remembers her mother fondly.
“My mom traveled a lot, and she did a lot of things, and I love to just hear how people throughout her life have been so personally connected to her and impacted by her,” she tells Madison365. “It’s been a gift for me because I’ve been able to see her through the way other people are describing her as well, and that’s been gorgeous and just really satisfying and meaningful. She impacted so many people in so many places.
“She will be really missed in this community. She had so many friends.”
Nichols, who is currently the executive director of the Family, Youth & Community Engagement Department for the Madison Metropolitan School District and a longtime member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority like her mom, adds that one of the things she most appreciated about her mother was how deeply devoted she was to her family.
“A lot of people knew her through her professional work. A lot of people have known her through her engagement and leadership in the community, and all of that is amazing,” she says. “As a daughter, just knowing her lifelong dedication to her family has been really inspiring, and it’s been so beautiful meeting a lot of my mom’s professional colleagues through the years and seeing how much they have admired her and have shared stories of her mentorship, her advice, her caring, her being with people.
“That’s just a whole other aspect that feels really special because you know I am her legacy, and it’s been a lot of fun, and it’s been an honor to do service in the community,” she adds. “To be in an AKA chapter with my mother all these years was incredible …and it won’t quite be the same without her there. She was a great community leader.”
Nichols was elected the first Black president of the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1978 and was re-elected in 1980, serving two terms through 1982. Previously, she served as president of the Wisconsin Nurses Association from 1970 to 1972, becoming the first Black person to lead a state nurses association.
The American Nurses Association recently joined the nursing community in mourning the death of Nichols, calling her “a nursing trailblazer and transformational leader whose courage, conviction, and clarity reshaped the profession and paved the way for generations of nurses.”
“Barbara Nichols redefined nursing leadership as we know it,” said Dr. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, in a statement. “She played a pivotal role in shifting the profession from the margins to the center of health policy and equity, and she did it with grace, grit, and unmatched wisdom.”
Outside of her professional work, Nichols was deeply committed to her community. United Way of Dane County CEO Renee Moe tells Madison365 that Nichols began volunteering with United Way in 1984 and provided leadership in many ways over the decades, adding that her health care expertise, community perspective, and unwavering commitment to her neighbors were invaluable.
“As a United Way board member and chair of a community solutions team focused on self-reliance and independence, Barbara helped bridge health care and nonprofit services to address critical community needs,” Moe says. “One notable result was the development of an innovative approach to reduce falls for older adults and keep neighbors safely in the homes of their choosing. Using comprehensive medication reviews and cross-sector collaboration, adverse drug interactions were reduced, and falls decreased significantly. In just a few years, we went from being recognized as one of the worst for falls to one of the best for falls prevention.
“Barbara’s leadership was so respected that she was asked to chair United Way’s Vision Council, the volunteer team responsible for healthy nonprofit partnerships, community investments and accountability for results,” Moe adds. “She was fearless in tackling difficult issues, never shied away from hard conversations and always brought music, laughter and joy into every meeting.”
Moe says she remembers the counsel Nichols gave her shortly after she became CEO of the United Way of Dane County.
“She said, ‘Renee, United Way is the community’s moral compass.’ At the time, that felt like an intimidating charge,” Moe says. “Over the years, I’ve come to understand what she meant: the community needs systems willing to put people first, stay grounded in what matters most, and do the right thing even when it’s difficult. Barbara embodied those values throughout her life, and her words continue to guide our work today.
“Barbara’s impact on our community will endure for generations,” Moe adds. “She is already missed.”
(Photo by Hedi Rudd)
In 2015, Nichols was honored for her lifetime or profesisional and community work with the City of Madison 2015 MLK King Humanitarian Award.
John Quinlan, a local community leader, journalist and longtime civil rights advocate, nominated Nichols for that award. Quinlan, a 2008 recipient of the MLK award, worked alongside Nichols as a leader in the local United Nations Association of Dane County chapter.
“For someone with such a myriad of accomplishments, it sometimes amazed me how Barbara’s humility made it hard for her to see completely what a difference she’d made in the world,” Quinlan tells Madison365. “On the night back in 2015 when I conveyed the news to her that she’d be receiving the King Award, she was genuinely surprised, and in that moment, speechless. ‘But so many people deserve this so much more than me,’ she said, choking back tears. I spent the next few minutes reminding her of why, in fact, I believed that no one deserved it more.
“In her acceptance speech for the MLK Award, as she reflected back on a life well-lived —all of the barriers she’d overcome, all of the ways she’d advanced the field of nursing as no one else had, the understandings she’d spread in so many spheres about diverse cultures and peoples. In that moment, I think she genuinely realized what a blessing that she’d been to this world,” Quinlan adds. “So many of us that night also reminded her of the precious nature of the friendships we shared with her, of her devotion and unconditional support of us. It’s a legacy based in love that will live on forever.”
A visitation will be held for Barbara Nichols at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 2019 Fisher St., on Friday, Aug. 14, 11 a.m.-noon.
