Dr. Dorothy Pethel spent most of her life in nursing. She retired in 1988 after 19 years at Sierra College. She was director of Nursing and Health Sciences. Pethel was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1989.

Dr. Dorothy L. Pethel received her Associate's degree in 1953 from SBVC, where she completed the school's licensed vocational nursing program. She changed her career goals from vocational to professional nursing, earning an Associate's degree in registered nursing at Riverside City College, a Bachelor's of Science in nursing at California State University, Los Angeles, an M.A. at California State University, Sacramento and a Ph.D in health education at California National University. Pethel joined  Sierra College as a vocational nursing instructor in 1969 and served as the college's Director of Vocational Nursing from 1979 to 1986. She became Director of Nursing and Health Sciences in 1986 and continued in that capacity until she retired in 1988. Pethel also produced and directed audio-visual tapes on Death and Dying and Heart Attack and wrote articles on public health and nursing. After retiring, she worked as a licensed Marriage, Family and Child Counselor and as a freelance writer. Dr. Pethel was inducted into the SBVC Alumni Hall of Fame in 1989. Dr. Pethel died in February 2011.