Alma Elizabeth Gault

Alma Elizabeth Gault (September 28, 1891 – July 12, 1981) was an American nurse administrator. Gault successfully advocated for African American nurses and their educational institutions to be integrated into professional nursing associations. Under her leadership, Meharry Medical College School of Nursing, in Nashville, Tennessee, was the first segregated black nursing school to attain membership in the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing. She left Union Memorial to take the position of Director of Nursing Services at Memorial Hospital in Springfield, Illinois in 1943. Gault developed a diploma program at Meharry that received accreditation, and later added an accredited baccalaureate program. Other accomplishments at the school include securing a donation from the Helene Fuld Trust Fund to renovate the nursing building and to establish the Helene Fuld Instructional Media Center. Gault helped secure a grant from the Division of Nursing of the U.S. Public Health Service to trial a five-year undergraduate curriculum revision project with the intention to enrich the curriculum to better recruit and retain students.

Recognition Nashville proclaimed Alma Gault Day in recognition of her achievements when Gault retired. Gault was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1984. The Tennessee Nurses Association annually recognizes one nurse with the Alma E. Gault Leadership Award.

Later life and death She died July 12, 1981, in Ohio.