Founded in 1993 by Executive Chair Peter Coffin, Breckinridge Capital Advisors (BCA) is an independently owned asset manager based in Boston. Coffin, who is Chair of Frontier’s Foundation Board, served as BCA’s President for over 30 years before retiring on June 30, 2024. The relationship between BCA and Frontier Nursing University dates back to 2017, when BCA began its support of FNU’s Courier program. The FNU Courier program is an eight-week rural and public health-service learning program for college students interested in public health, healthcare, or a related field. BCA supports the Courier program as part of its own Ambassador Program, which is a charitable effort that includes five focused relationships, each led by a team of Breckinridge employees.
Courier Connection Leads to Physician Mentorship
For decades, the Frontier Nursing University’s Courier Program has drawn people from far beyond Appalachia to become immersed in public health through service. It also offers an opportunity to explore careers in healthcare and build connections. For Dr. Jonathan K. Allotey (Courier, 2016) and Dr. Elia R. Cole (Courier, 2009), the Courier Program offered a unique entry point into mentorship. Their first meeting was in 2016 when Dr. Cole (then a medical student) joined the Couriers virtually to share her experience as a courier. At the time, Dr. Allotey, an international student from Ghana, was taking a gap year after college while preparing to embark on a career in healthcare. For the next 8 years, they continued a series of conversations to support Dr. Allotey through his medical education. In 2024, Dr. Allotey graduated from Tulane University with a dual degree in Medicine and Public Health.
A Century of Stories: Patricia “Patsy” Lawrence
When Patricia “Patsy” Lawrence joined Frontier’s Courier program in 1946, little did she know it would be the start of a life-long relationship with Frontier. Her Courier experience was so impactful that, according to Patsy, her father said she “went away for six weeks and matured six years.” Patsy has been an instrumental figure in the Frontier Nursing Service and Frontier Nursing University through her efforts to share the mission and work of Frontier with colleagues and friends in Philadelphia and Boston.
Graduate Spotlight: Melody Mast, CNM, WHNP, shifts focus to women’s health as co-owner of Virginia clinic
After 15 years of clinical experience in a full-scope midwifery practice, FNU graduate Melody Mast, CNM, WHNP, has recently shifted her focus to women’s general health. And in this new chapter, she is partnering with a fellow FNU graduate.
A Century of Stories: Dr. Susan Stone
Dr. Susan Stone served as President of Frontier Nursing University from 2001-2024. During her tenure, Dr. Stone led the campus move from Hyden to Versailles, Kentucky. She championed prioritizing increasing enrollment and diversifying the student body to produce graduates prepared to address healthcare disparities nationwide. Under her leadership, FNU’s enrollment grew from 200 to more than 2,500. Enrollment of students of color grew from 9% in 2010 to 30% in 2024.
A Century of Stories: Mary Breckinridge
Mary Carson Breckinridge was born on February 17, 1881, in Memphis, Tennessee. She graduated from the St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in New York in 1910. After World War I, she joined the American Committee for Devastated France. While in Europe, she became acquainted with the nurse-midwives in France and Great Britain. She believed nurse-midwives could meet the problem of medical care for mothers and babies in rural America. She studied midwifery at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies in London. She also spent time with the Highlands and Islands Medical and Nursing Service in Scotland, which served as a model for the Frontier Nursing Service.
Frontier Students Selected for Karen Edlund Future Nurse Leader Fellowship
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) announced that two of its current students have been selected by the Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health (NSRH) for the prestigious 2024 Karen Edlund Future Nurse Leader Fellowship. Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner student Samirah McKee and Certified Nurse-Midwifery student Erlyn Woodward were two of the six students selected for the 2024 Fellowship.
Frontier Recognizes 100 Years with A Century of Stories
In 2025, Frontier Nursing University honors and celebrates 100 years of healthcare service and education since our inception as Frontier Nursing Service in 1925. That was the year that Mary Breckinridge founded the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) to provide care to mothers, children, and families in rural eastern Kentucky. In its early years, FNS offered scholarships to American nurses to go to Great Britain for training in nurse-midwifery and recruited British nurse-midwives. In 1939, FNS established the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery, now known as Frontier Nursing University (FNU).
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Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).