Dr. Cynthia Toman, historian and retired professor from the University of Ottawa, taught in the School of Nursing with cross appointment to the Department of History. She was associate director and then director of the endowed Associated Medical Services Nursing History Research Unit. Her research focuses on the history of nursing and, specifically, the history of Canadian military nursing. Her major books, published by UBC Press, include Sister Soldiers of the Great War: The Nurses of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (2016) and An Officer and a Lady: Canadian Military Nursing and the Second World War (2007). Awards include the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Governor General’s Gold Medal, the American Association for the History of Nursing’s Teresa E. Christy Distinguished Writing Award, and the Canadian Historical Association’s Hilda B. Neatby Prize. Toman was a guest curator for the 2005 “History of Canadian Nursing Exhibit” at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now the Museum of History) and consultant to Historica Canada for a “Historical Minute” on First World War Canadian Nursing Sisters.
