Virginia Arnold was born in Wilmington, Delaware on March 24, 1907. After receiving her R.N. from Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1935, she went on to serve as State Supervisor of Nurses for the State of Pennsylvania and as supervisor of the Division of Venereal Disease Control for the Philadelphia Health Department. In 1944, she obtained her M.S. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in nursing education. Serving as a commissioned officer of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Arnold traveled to Egypt and Greece and aided in the reorganization of nursing services and education.

In 1956, she resigned her position in the USPHS to join the Rockefeller Foundation as Assistant Director for Medical Education and Public Health, where she supervised programs in 41 countries. She became Associate Director for Medical and Natural Sciences in 1964, and was instrumental in the development of nursing programs at the University del Valle in Colombia and the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.

Arnold retired from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1967. Following her retirement, she received a citation from the National League for Nursing in recognition of her contributions to the field of nursing education. Virginia Arnold died in her home state of Delaware in 1989.