Joan Marie Engel

Rear Adm. Engel was born in St. Marys, Pennsylvania in 1940.[1] She was the first school nurse at Elk County Christian High School.[2]

Engel entered the Navy Nurse Corps in 1969 as a Lieutenant. She served in various stateside and overseas naval hospitals, progressing in rank with jobs of increasing responsibility. She became deputy director of the Nurse Corps, serving under the RADM Mariann Stratton, the 17th Navy Nurse Corps director.[1]

Clinical nursing assignments included assignments at the Naval Hospital, Millington, TN; Branch Medical Clinic, Iwakuni, Japan; Branch Medical Clinic, LaMaddalena, Sardinia; and Naval Hospitals in Charleston, SC, Jacksonville, FL, Newport, RI, and Pensacola, FL.[2]

Engel's administrative assignments included being the first junior Nurse Detailer, BUMED; the first Assistant Chief of Staff, Logistics, Naval Medical Command, Northeast Region, Great Lakes, IL; Naval Inspector General staff, Washington, D.C., and Naval Medical Inspector General staff, BUMED; and Deputy Director, Navy Nurse Corps, BUMED.[2]

She served as the 18th Director, Navy Nurse Corps from October 1994 until August 1998.

Rear Admiral Engel retired in January 2000 as the Assistant Chief, Operational Medicine and Fleet Support, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, DC, a position she held since August 1996.

RADM Engel received her nursing diploma from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Buffalo, New York in 1961. She earned a bachelor's degree in public school nursing from Clarion University in Pennsylvania in 1969.[1] In 1980, she earned a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Alabama School of Nursing. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Wharton Fellow and holds an honorary fellowship in the American Academy of Medical Administrators.[2]

Engel has earned the Legion of Merit (two awards), the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Navy Commendation Medal (two awards), and the National Defense Medal with bronze star. In 1998, the Clarion University Alumni Association presented her with the Distinguished Alumni Award.[2]

•   Legion of Merit with Gold Star
•   Meritorious Service Medal with three Gold Stars
•   Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Gold Star
•   National Defense Service Medal with bronze star

• Navy Nurse Corps
• Women in the United States Navy

• Sterner, Doris M. (1997). In and Out of Harm's Way: A history of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. Seattle, WA: Peanut Butter Publishing. ISBN 0-89716-706-6.
• Godson, Susan H. (2001). Serving Proudly: A history of Women in the U.S. Navy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-317-6. Fact filled, extensively researched account of the evolution of the roles of women in the United States Navy, treating the parallel and entertwined paths of the Navy Nurse Corps and the WAVES. About one-third of the pages are devoted to notes and bibliography.

• Nurses and the U.S. Navy -- Overview and Special Image Selection Naval Historical Center
• Joan Micah Engel