The Canary Savage Girardeau Award for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Canary Savage Girardeau, Cert’55, MS, completed her registered nurse certification at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing and is recognized as the first African American graduate of the School.

She is proud of her Badger nurse background and notes that the level of education she received at the UW–Madison School of Nursing expanded beyond the normal limits of nursing education at the time. “One of the surprising and very pleasing things is that we were able to have some classes along with the medical students, which gave us a deeper understanding of illnesses and processes,” she says. “I never would have had that with just nurses, and UW–Madison School of Nursing gave me that opportunity. I worked with a much more diverse group of people which is very different from what I experienced in other schools I attended and so different than what I would have experienced in any other school of nursing. This makes me proud and should also make UW–Madison just as proud.”

She recalls her three years (1952-1955) spent on the UW–Madison campus as an experience in assimilation — both culturally and educationally. Girardeau was well aware of the potential to be treated uniquely. However, she notes that both instructors and the director squelched idle curiosities by treating Girardeau no differently from her peers.

“There was a curiosity about Blacks,” said Girardeau in a 2005 School of Nursing interview, “but I was not treated differently. … everyone was pleasant. That had a great deal to do with the leadership in the School of Nursing.”

To Girardeau, the UW–Madison School of Nursing experience exists in stark contrast to the response she received on a summer’s day in 1952 when searching for a summer rental before entering the nurses’ dormitory that fall. She canvassed all of Langdon Street to find every rental but one closed to her because of race.

Despite the challenges she faced in the community, Girardeau has fond memories of her time at the School of Nursing. “The interaction with my classmates brings back very good feelings,” she says. “The training to become a nurse was so enjoyable, and becoming a nurse is something I’ve wanted to do all my life. I was in an atmosphere where the love of nursing was clearly promoted. When I entered the UW–Madison School of Nursing, I was married and had one child. I then became pregnant with my second child, and my classmates wholeheartedly helped me prepare for my second child and we had a lot of fun in the process. I had worked on the maternity floor the day I was ready to deliver, and when my labor started later at the nurses’ dormitory, I let my nurse friends know. They accompanied me to the hospital and helped deliver the baby because the doctor was running late. That’s a memory I’ll never forget.”

Five years after leaving Madison, Girardeau completed her public health certification in 1961 at Marquette University in Milwaukee. From there, she sought degrees at UW–Milwaukee, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education in 1966, and a master’s degree in educational psychology in 1971.

With a zest for knowledge, Girardeau distinguished herself early as a leader among leaders. In addition to her historical achievement at UW–Madison, she was the first African American to become a senior Girl Scout in Memphis, Tenn., the first African American accepted to Marquette University School of Nursing, one of the founders of Black Educators of Young Black Children, and the developer of the YWCA Young Moms Program in Milwaukee.

After spending the early part of her career in Milwaukee, she moved to Washington, D.C., in 1972 and took on professional roles that included director of training and community development for the Child Development Associate Consortium, home care nurse for the Washington Hospital Center, and nursing services and nurse case manager for the Children’s Hospital National Medical Center and Up John Health Care Services.

In 1989, Girardeau moved to Florida and began a career with the state’s Department of Health. There, she served many roles, including senior registered nurse, senior community health nurse, and nurse program specialist, until her retirement in 2002.

She also garnered many honors and awards: Florida’s Health Manager of the Year Award for her district (1995), Florida Nurse of the Year Award for district two (1997), the State of Florida’s Health Start Program Best Practice Award, one of “100 Great Nurses” named by a district of the Florida Nurses Association (2000), and the Public Health Nurse of the Year Award for the State of Florida (2001).

Girardeau is presently a senior program associate at Summit Health Institute for Research and Education (SHIRE) in Washington, D.C., where she contributes her nursing expertise to the organization and has been instrumental in implementing wellness circles for District of Columbia residents with chronic conditions.

With so many notable achievements throughout her career, Girardeau stresses that she just wants to be remembered as the nurse who made her patients feel comfortable and included in their health care journeys. “I think about the fact that people want to participate in getting well and recovering from any ailment that they have, and as nurses, they want our help!” she says. “They want us to recognize them as an active participant in their healing and want to feel as important in the process as the nurse. However, they are usually scared and don’t know how to participate. As nurses, we show them how, and we show them how participation speeds their recovery. Patients become appreciative and relieved that they can do something themselves. I want to be remembered as the type of nurse who made that happen for her patients.”