Cindajo Pearce Overton knew she wanted to be a nurse because she wanted to care for sick people. The only question was how she would get there. With limited family resources, she enrolled in the diploma program at Birmingham Baptist Hospital. She then went on to earn a B.S.N. from The University of Alabama, an M.S. in counseling from Troy State University, and an M.S.N. from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. After teaching at the University of Alabama School of Nursing, both in Tuscaloosa and in Birmingham, she accepted a position as nursing instructor at Wallace Community College in Dothan in 1970. She believed she was guided to be a teacher because of her desire to have a greater impact on nursing through seeing her influence spread by graduates as “the pebble tossed into a lake.” Since the program was in its second year, she prepared many program materials for each course taught that year in addition to teaching the content and guiding the clinical experiences. She is credited with providing the sound foundation necessary for a program that went on to become the largest in Alabama and among the largest in the nation, graduating more nurses than any other institution in Alabama. Her outstanding teaching lead to her nomination in 1995 for the Chancellor’s Junior College Faculty Award. A leader in her community, she was instrumental in establishing the Wiregrass Diabetic Association and in establishing pregnancy and childbirth classes in Dothan. Professionally active, she served as vice president of the Alabama State Nurses’ Association and president of her District Nurses’ Association and was a frequent delegate to the Am