Rhetaugh Etheldra Graves Dumas (1928–2007) was an American nurse, professor, and health administrator. Dumas was the first Black woman to serve as a dean at the University of Michigan. She served as the dean of the University of Michigan Nursing School.[1] She also served as deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health, becoming the first nurse, female, or African-American to hold that position.[2] She is said to have been the first nurse to use the scientific method to conduct experiments that evaluated nursing practices.[3]
Dumas died on July 22, 2007, of ovarian cancer.[4]