Meet Three Women Who Advanced the Red Cross Mission

March is Red Cross Month and Women’s History Month. During this dual observance, we tell the stories of three women whose unwavering dedication touched lives and made a deep impact over the past 140-plus years of our lifesaving mission.

CLARA BARTON American Red Cross founder Clara Barton is one of the most honored women in American history. A compassionate and tenacious visionary, she built a legacy of service, innovation and hope when she started the American Red Cross at age 59 and led the organization for more than 20 years.

Driven by a desire to be useful and help those in need, Clara began caring for others during her childhood, nursing her injured brother when she was 11 years old. She became a schoolteacher and helped secure public education for children, while never settling for less than her worth. As she once put it: “I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man's work for less than a man's pay.”

Throughout her career, Clara continued to defy her era’s social norms for women. After her teaching career, she moved to Washington, D.C., and worked at the U.S. Patent Office, where she was one of the first women to work for the federal government. She sprang into action when the Civil War broke out, earning the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield” for caring for soldiers on the frontlines.

During a visit to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1869, Clara was approached by representatives of the International Red Cross to establish a society in our country. In May 1881, after leading a multi-year effort to gather support in the U.S., Clara founded the American Red Cross. In 1882, the U.S. government signed the Treaty of Geneva — international humanitarian laws that, to this day, protect the sick and wounded during wartime and form national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to deliver neutral aid voluntarily.

Clara’s vision of preventing and alleviating suffering continues today as people continue to advance her extraordinary legacy. In her own words, she taught us: “You must never think of anything but the need and how to meet it.”

Learn more about Clara, including this story map of how she helped across the country and around the world.

SHIRLEY HINES-ATKINS For more than 40 years, Shirley Hines-Atkins has been steadfast in her commitment to support military members, veterans and their families with compassion and care — answering the call to serve in multiple countries and leading teams throughout the Red Cross.

Her Red Cross career began in 1970 in Korea and Vietnam as a Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas staffer, affectionately known as a “Donut Dollie,” an homage to the Red Cross women who handed out donuts to troops in previous wars.

The standards for Donut Dollies like Shirley were higher than those of the military: They had to be at least 25 years old, college-educated, able to provide recommendation letters and pass physical exams, as well as have an “outstanding personality.” Facing the dangers of war, their service brought a touch of home to the frontlines — and compassion and comfort when service members needed it most.

Recalling her experience in Korea, Shirley once shared: “I had never been abroad before. This was my first experience out of the country. Arriving in Korea, everything was so completely new.  Everything was exciting!”

When Shirley returned to the states in 1972, she continued working for the Red Cross as a recreation aide and caseworker in military hospitals in Texas and Florida, and led through several roles: from serving as the assistant director of youth for the Birmingham Chapter and assistant director of personnel for the Atlanta Chapter, to managing the first intercity service center in the District of Columbia, to joining National Headquarters as the assistant to the national director of personnel.

She later was assigned to the Red Cross European Headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, where she spent more than three years. After completing her assignment in Europe, Shirley returned to National Headquarters as the director of the New Employee Assistance Program in the 1980s. Four years later, she served in the field as a station manager for Service to the Armed Forces in countries like the Philippines, Japan and Italy — eventually retiring in 2003.

Throughout her impressive career with the Red Cross, Shirley received numerous awards and recognition, including the Vietnam Service Medal, the Manager’s Tiffany Award, two Department of Army Commanders Awards, the Desert Storm Service Medal, the Japanese Golden Medal of Honor, the President’s 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Red Cross 2015 Legacy Award for Service to the Armed Forces.

Shirley is an active public speaker and shares her vast experience in humanitarian service. She currently lives in Florida with her husband. They travel and she enjoys doing craft projects and participating in community outreach through her church.

VIVIAN LITTLEFIELD, PhD, RN, FAAN, was once described as the glue that held together Red Cross nursing — which traces its longtime roots to our founder, Clara Barton, and the earliest days of our organization when celebrated nurse Jane Delano established the Red Cross Nursing Service to deliver aid during WWI, serve rural communities and support the country’s public health with hygiene and home care education in the early 1900s.

Today, nurses continue to play an important role at the Red Cross, such as caring for people in emergency shelters during disasters — and Vivian is at the heart of this continued legacy.

A longtime Red Cross volunteer who established the Red Cross Nursing Heritage Program in 2010, Vivian possessed a true and lifelong passion caring for others. As a young girl, she helped her grandfather in his work as a country physician. But because people discouraged her from pursuing medicine on account of her gender, she decided to become a nurse instead.

Still, Vivian achieved at the highest levels. With her bachelor, master and doctorate degrees, she taught at the University of Colorado and University of Rochester, established the Nursing program at the University of Kentucky in Hopkinsville, and led as the Dean of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

While living in Madison, Wisconsin, Vivian joined the board of the Badger Red Cross Chapter, later becoming chairperson of the board and Health and Safety volunteer chair. She also served as interim executive director and led the chapter’s response to 9/11, deploying staff and volunteers to help at Ground Zero. 

Vivian’s service at the Red Cross extended to having national reach. In 2009, she revitalized the National Nursing Committee and chief nurse position within the Red Cross. A year later, she established the Heritage program to reconnect with former Red Cross nurses, recognize and support Red Cross nursing and health activities, and preserve Red Cross nursing history. She also created the Nursing Matters Past and Present newsletter, serving as a writer and editor for the newsletter from its inception in 2011 until her passing in 2023. 

Recognized for her devotion to nursing, Vivian was the recipient of both the Florence Nightingale Medal in 2013, the highest international Red Cross distinction awarded to a nurse, and the Ann Magnussen Award in 2012, the highest national nursing achievement in the American Red Cross.

Ross Ogden, executive volunteer for Red Cross Blood Services and former Board of Governors member, once shared about Vivian: “Her knowledge of nursing and higher education was instrumental in building Red Cross nursing. It might be said that she faithfully walked in the shoes of Jane Delano.”