Nursing educator Ethel J. Odegard was born on December 16, 1891 in Merrill, Wisconsin. After graduating from the local schools in 1910 she completed her nurse's training at Dr. Ravn's Hospital School of Nursing in Merrill in 1912. She went on to earn a BA degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1919 and an MA in nursing education from Columbia University in 1929.
Between 1919 and her retirement in 1956, Miss Odegard held a number of teaching and administrative positions in the field of nursing education. Most notable of these positions were appointments as instructor and superintendent of nurses at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital School of Nurses, Hastings, Nebraska (1919-1921); educational director and assistant superintendent of nurses at Madison General Hospital School of Nursing (1921-1924); director of Central Milwaukee School of Nursing (1924-1930); and nursing instructor at the College of Saint Teresa, Winona, Minnesota (1937-1942). During this time she taught anatomy, physiology, microbiology, bacteriology, and other sciences as they related to nursing, and she also wrote a number of articles on the problems and progress of nursing education. Throughout her career she strove to further professionalism within the field.
From 1944 until her retirement she was executive secretary of the Nurses Examining Board of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. As a result of a Fulbright grant in 1952, Miss Odegard spent a year's leave in Egypt as an advisor to the school of nursing at the University of Alexandra.
