Durham, North Carolina: Joyce Nichols was a pioneering physician assistant and staunch affordable housing leader. In 1970, Joyce Nichols was the first woman and the first Black woman to graduate from the Duke University Physician Assistant Program, making her officially the first Black woman PA anywhere.

But before that victory, because her then husband left her to raise three children, Nichols struggled financially. She had to drop out of the North Carolina College for Negroes (now N.C. Central University) and moved into McDougald Terrace, a public housing complex managed by the Durham Housing Authority. She was appalled at how the tenants were treated and made formal complaints.

Then the Durham Housing Authority, without an explanation, evicted her. She sued the authority — her case eventually making it to the U.S. Supreme Court — and won. The decision paved the way for future protections for public housing tenants. She went on to become a commissioner for the housing authority and remained an ardent advocate in her community.

Nearly 54 years since the Thorpe v. Housing Authority decision, and almost a decade after her death, the DHA (Durham Housing Authority) named a new public housing building “The Joyce” after Nichols (the last name she went by most of her life).

Joyce Nichols, (Clayton), was born June 28, 1940 on a farm in the unincorporated community of Timberlake, Person County, North Carolina just over 20 miles north of Durham. Her father was a tobacco farmer and her mother, who died when she was a girl, was a school teacher.

After her mother passed she said, "my aunt and my grandmother helped my father raise us. We were raised in a household—I had three brothers and one sister, but we were raised up in a household of ten girls and eight boys."

Her father, aunts and grandmother encouraged her to finish her education and that push led her to continue on,

In 1965, she received a scholarship to study as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) and after graduation in 1966, she started working in the cardiac care unit at Duke Hospital. In the hospital, she learned about the physician's assistant (PA) class at the Duke University Medical Center.

The PA Program had been made up strictly of men, especially those with former experience as Navy corpsmen, and they were reluctant to enroll Nichols. However, she was encouraged to apply by Doctor Eugene Stead, the creator of the PA training program. Nichols was accepted and fought to be given the same stipend as the men in the program. During her training, she still worked in the Duke hospital cardiac unit to support her family.

She and her family also lost their house due to a fire in 1969 and the faculty and students at the PA school helped to raise money to help Nichols' family.
Nichols graduated from the program in 1970, becoming the first woman to earn a degree as a PA.

When she graduated, she was able to get funds with the help of Doctor E. Harvey Estes Jr., to open a rural, satellite health clinic.
She worked in Rougemont and Bahama for two years, providing preventative healthcare to individuals who had not had easy access to medicine in the past.

In 1972, she moved to the Lincoln Community Health Center which was for the Black population in Durham, NC and continued to provide healthcare to rural communities. Nichols continued here until her retirement in 1995.

Due to her background, Nichols devoted her career to aiding underserved rural, poor, and African American people. For example, she independently established a foot clinic at the historically African American Lincoln Community Health Center.

After graduation as a PA, Joyce Nichols remained affiliated with the Duke University Medical Center, serving as a Clinical Instructor for the Department of Community and Family Medicine for fourteen years. She worked at Lincoln Community Health Center for twenty-three years and served as Chair of Lincoln’s Board of Directors.

She also started the first Rural Health Clinic in NC with the help of Dr. E. Harvey Estes, Jr., former Chair of Duke Community and Family Medicine. At the time of her retirement in 1995, she was managing the Diabetes and Hypertension Clinics and providing primary care services to the homeless shelter in Durham.

In addition to being the first Black woman to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), Ms. Nichols has served in many positions within the PA field and received several awards and certificates of appreciation including:

AAPA Presidents Award and National PA Humanitarian Award (1996)
Nancy Susan Reynolds Award (1991)
Durham Chapter Continental Societies Award (1989)
Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Duke University PA Program (1989)
Charter member of the AAPA and the North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants
Organized the Minority Affairs Committee of the AAPA
Treasurer of the North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants
Member, Board of Directors of the Durham County Hospital Corporation
In July 2020, the PA Foundation announced the launch of the Joyce Nichols Memorial Scholarship, a new scholarship to be awarded to Black PA students. Based upon the funding that was committed at the time of the announcement, a minimum of four $1,000 scholarships were to be awarded in 2020 and the next five years following.
After retirement, Nichols stayed involved in her community in various capacities, including raising money for healthcare and volunteering in political campaigns.
Joyce Nichols passed away in her Durham home in 2012 at the age of 72.

Sources: Women In Duke Health- This oral history interview was conducted with Joyce Nichols on October 31, 2006 by Jessica Roseberry.; Wikipedia; News & Observer article By Laura Brache-Updated July 18, 2022