March 17, 2020
Dear Community Members,
Frontier Nursing University is experiencing the COVID-19 Pandemic as is the rest of the world, but we are also experiencing the heart of the situation because we are healthcare providers. All of our 2,300 students are Registered Nurses. Our students and faculty are located in every state across the United States. Of our 150 faculty members, 95% are nurse-midwives or nurse practitioners. Others at FNU are supporting the information and technology needs of the students and faculty. Our administration and staff are here to assure that the needs of these many nurses are met.
We are incredibly proud of our more than 7,000 alumni, many of whom are on the front lines in the battle against COVID-19. Their skilled service, expertise and remarkable dedication is vital in the care and treatment of patients across the country and beyond.
Our graduates are serving in every state and in some foreign countries. We are incredibly proud of our more than 7,000 alumni, many of whom are on the front lines in the battle against COVID-19. Their skilled service, expertise and remarkable dedication is vital in the care and treatment of patients across the country and beyond.
We also want you to know that we remain open and are staying connected to our students, faculty and staff, offering support in every way we can. We are in the fortunate position to be able to continue our classes online as that is our expertise. We not only know how to deliver online education, but also we are experts at it. We have been delivering distance education for more than 30 years. That said, we have made some changes. Our staff are now primarily telecommuting except staff whose primary role cannot be fulfilled in this way. Our faculty regularly telecommute. Together, we are all working to alleviate any roadblocks our students may experience during this time.
We have made the decision to forego any on-site education sessions on our campus in Hyden, Ky. All orientation programs and pre-clinical simulation sessions are being temporarily converted to online workshops. Some of our students are on hold from their clinical sites, but the majority are continuing at this point in time.
We are following the information from the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) very closely. There are really no experts regarding the coronavirus. It is new, and we are all learning as the pandemic unfolds. We appreciate the infection prevention health care community who is helping everyone navigate the best ways to stay safe and prevent the spread of the virus. Infection prevention is the major issue that the CDC is providing information about. We encourage everyone to get your information about COVID-19 and the recommendations primarily from the CDC. There are a lot of myths being promoted and spread. To check the reliability, it is best to go to the CDC website which is updated frequently here . The White House today did provide guidance in the form of a quick information sheet that is helpful.
We plan to post more information on this page daily. We will include experiences from our faculty and students, information as it becomes available and articles and webinars from our faculty experts. Understand that any information can become out of date very quickly as this is a rapidly changing situation. Stay safe out there everyone. Please send any questions or comments to fnunews@frontier.edu.
Sincerely,
Dr. Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc
President
Maintaining a Culture of Caring During Crisis
FNU invites all community members - from prospective students to alumni and donors - to actively participate in our Culture of Caring. When all community members exemplify caring, we enjoy a stable, productive community.
Learn more about FNU's Culture of Caring.
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).