A Project of
the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls,
the Women's Museum of California,
SDSU Women's Studies Department, and UCSD Women's Center.
Joan Craigwell
2009
Trailblazer
Joan Craigwell is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and a nurse who went on to become dean of a school of nursing. She devoted herself to counseling veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and improving conditions for nurses, women and people of color. A recipient of the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Brain trust Award, the National Disabled American Veterans Commanders' Award, and the Congressional Distinguished Service Award, she has been a champion for nurses and women in the military and in the community.
Joan joined the Air Force in 1961. She served as a nurse and flight nurse in many locations, including Vietnam. The experience that left the most enduring mark in her life was the Tet Offensive in January 1968.
I left the Air Force in 1968 and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for my outstanding service in Vietnam. Many people would choose to leave nursing after my experiences, but I continued my career at the VA medical facility in Palo Alto as a professor of nursing and served as the team leader for the VA Veterans Outreach Center in San Diego. With the assistance of other Veterans, I helped to orchestrate the first Stand Down in San Diego, which focuses on homeless Veterans and has since spread to other cities. I still work with homeless Veterans through my church and speak at community Veteran's events to be a voice for Veterans.