Elizabeth Sterling Soule was born in Boston, Massachusetts. While in the state, she grew up as the daughter of a physician and saw the negative health effects of poor living and work conditions. She went to nursing school, specializing in public health nursing. After graduating, she became the first visiting nurse in Everett, Massachusetts. She moved to Seattle with her husband in 1912 where she later organized the Washington State Public Health Nursing Association to handle outbreaks of typhoid and tuberculosis. Through this work, she later served as the first state supervisor of nurses for the Washington Tuberculosis Association and the Red Cross. In 1913, as more women's organizations expanded, nursing programs grew. Soule oversaw the fieldwork for the University of Washington's public health nurses. Seven years later, in 1920, she became the first state supervisor of public health nursing in the state health department.

In 1921, University of Washington President Suzzallo requested that Soule organize the newly created Department of Nursing as director. The Bachelor of Science in nursing degree through the program launched two years later. This switched Soule's focus from public health nursing to nursing education. As head of the program, Soule worked with local hospitals to train more and better nurses and worked to improve treatment at Washington's mental health hospitals and tuberculosis sanitarium. In addition to this work, Soule fostered collaboration with King County council members to provide her nursing education to Harborview Hospital.

The School of Nursing was established at the University of Washington in 1945 under the Health Sciences Department as the first nursing school on the West Coast for a bachelor's degree with Soule as the dean. Soule retired in 1950 and passed away in Seattle in 1972. She was posthumously inducted into the National Nursing Hall of Fame and the American Nursing Association Hall of Fame, as well as being labeled the "Mother of Nursing in the Pacific Northwest" by Time magazine.