Category: Alumni
-
Alumni Spotlight: Nurse and Educator Dr. Tarnia Newton Teaches Nurses to be Advocates for All Patients
Tarnia Newton, DNP (Class 28), FNP-C, has seen a shift in nursing and the understanding of the importance of culturally concordant care in healthcare outcomes. A self-proclaimed “disruptive innovator” and an educator of students she calls “JEDI nurses,” Dr. Newton understands that change does not occur without action. “I chose Frontier because it was an…
-
DNP Journey: Dr. Nagavalli Thiruvalluvan uses the power of preventative care to improve community health
Frontier Nursing University alumna Dr. Nagavalli Thiruvalluvan, DNP (Class 47), APN, NP-C, CRRN, migrated from India to the United States in 1995, along with her husband and 2-month-old baby. Since then, she has achieved a remarkable nursing career, including the completion of her Post-Master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from FNU in 2023. Dr. Thiruvalluvan…
-
Alumni Spotlight: Tabetha “Jarel” Brown: A Nurse’s Journey
Tabetha “Jarel” Brown, FNP (Class 91), APRN, CNP, NP-C, always pictured becoming a nurse. In third grade, she drew a now-and-then picture of her as a third grader, and the “then” was her as a nurse. Today, that framed picture hangs in her office at Pinnacle Health Integrative Nurse Practitioners in Poteau, Oklahoma, a practice…
-
Winter 2024 Quarterly Bulletin Celebrates Preceptors and Their Vital Roles in Educating Frontier Students
The Winter 2024 issue of the FNU Quarterly Bulletin features a special 8-page section celebrating preceptors. A message from FNU Dean of Nursing, Dr. Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN, explains why precepting is so important to Frontier students and how the experience benefits the preceptor as well. The special section also includes answers to…
-
Alumni Spotlight: Triana Boggs on serving the underserved
The first step in solving a problem is understanding what the problem is. As Triana Boggs, APRN, CNM (Class 186), opened Motherland Birthing and Wellness LLC last year, she did so with first-hand knowledge of how it can help address the community’s needs. The middle of three children, Boggs was raised by a single mother.…
-
Commencement, Alumni & Family Event, President’s Gala, and the FNU Day of Giving Highlight a Busy Fall at Frontier
The recent issue of the FNU Quarterly Bulletin is jam-packed with coverage of FNU’s event-filled Fall, which was one of the busiest in recent memory. It all began in September with Commencement, our largest annual event once again held at the historic Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.
-
Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Rachel Koransky-Matson Makes a Difference for Diabetes Patients in Rural Maine
Within her community in rural Maine, Frontier Nursing University alumnus Dr. Rachel Koransky-Matson, stands as a beacon of transformative healthcare, especially for those affected by diabetes. Graduating as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) in 2016 and completing her Post-Master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in 2017, Dr. Koransky-Matson said her journey began with a resounding…
-
2023 Year in Review
We have so much to be proud of in 2023, including our students, faculty, staff, alumni, preceptors and donors. We invite you to reflect on this past year at Frontier Nursing University.
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).