Ethelda Thelan was born November 10, 1919 and came to Nevada in June of 1951, after obtaining her nursing degree from the University of California San Francisco and working at the school of nursing in Charlottesville, Virginia. After two years at the Washoe Medical Center in northern Nevada, Thelan became a staff public health nurse at Washoe County Health Department and eventually joined the Nevada Nurses Association in 1955.

Andrea Chrestensen was born March 23, 1948 in Carson City, Nevada. Her family was one of the founding families of Nevada. She received her associate’s degree in nursing at Northern Nevada Community College.

Elizabeth Francis (nee Knath), born in Laramie, Wyoming on November 12, 1931, was the fourth of nine children. The family then moved to Salem, Oregon and Francis attended high school there through her junior year. She finished high school in 1949 in Saratoga, Wyoming, becoming the first of her siblings to graduate.

Margaret Simon relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada to be with her husband, who moved here first for work related purposes. Upon obtaining her Master’s in Nursing Education from the University of Pittsburgh, Simon started working at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, moving on to work at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital. She received a job offer and began working at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1966. She also served on the State Board of Nursing in Nevada.