90 Outstanding Yale Nurses Recipient
Class of 1954
Margretta (Gretta) Madden Styles, MSN, PhD, was dean of the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, from 1977 to 1987 and remained professor of nursing and dean emerita. She earlier served as dean of nursing at the University of Texas in San Antonio and at Wayne State University in Detroit and as director of undergraduate programs at Duke University.
An international leader in nursing, Gretta was the architect of the first comprehensive study of nursing credentialing in the 1970s, and in the 1980s, she spearheaded the International Council of Nurses’ (ICN) definitive work on nursing regulation, including the publication of a guidebook on nursing regulation.
Gretta was an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine, and was president of the American Nurses Association, the International Council of Nurses (ICN), the California Board of Registered Nursing, and the American Nurses Credentialing Center. In May 2005, she was recognized for her worldwide contributions with the Christiane Reimann Prize from the ICN, the profession’s most prestigious international honor. In 1979, she was awarded the YSN Distinguished Alumna Award.