Steering Committees
Kerri Schuiling, Vice Chair
Elaine Bolle
Derek Bonifer
Constance Brotherton
Peter Coffin
Bill Corley
Vernell DeWitty
Nancy Hines
Jean Johnson
Emma Metcalf
Tim Raderstorf
Peter Schwartz
Maria Small
Michael Steinmetz
Shelley Aldridge, Chief Operations Officer – Facilitator
Kristin Ashford, Dean of Nursing – Pillar I Co-Lead
Paula Delpech, Dean of Student Success – Pillar II Co-Lead
Kylie Waters, Chief Financial Officer – Pillar III Co-Lead
Bobbi Silver, Chief Advancement Officer – Pillar III Co-Lead
Marc Blevins, Chief Information & Digital Officer – Pillar III Co-Lead
Christopher McHenry, Student – Pillar I Co-Lead
Jeffrey Dobbins, Regional Clinical Faculty – Pillar II Co-Lead (President’s Academic Fellow)
Caroline Mutua, Student – Pillar II Co-Lead
Pillar I: Academic and Clinical Excellence
Kevin Brunacini, FNP Course Faculty
Bonni Cohen, FNP Course Coordinator (President’s Academic Fellow)
Susan Gell, PMHNP Regional Clinical Faculty
Nicole Lassiter, WHNP Course Faculty
Audrey Perry, Curriculum Specialist-Evaluation Coach
Erica Schroeder, Academic Advisor
Audra Cave, FNP Department Chair
Anne Cockerham, MW/WH Course Coordinator (President’s Academic Fellow)
Kristin Gianelis, DNP Regional Clinical Faculty
Lesia Hansen, Academic Advisor
Kelsey Kent, PMHNP Course Coordinator
Sally Weiss, FNP Course Coordinator
Penny Wortman, WHNP Course Coordinator
Torica Fuller, FNP Clinical Transitions Coordinator (President’s Academic Fellow)
Joseph McFadden, FNP Regional Clinical Faculty
Angie Mitchell, FNP Course Coordinator (President’s Academic Fellow)
Elizabeth Niederegger, CNEP Clinical Bound Team Lead
Kristine Twite, CNEP Regional Clinical Faculty
Aimee Wilson, Continuing Education Coordinator
Judith Butler, CNEP Course Coordinator
Sheri Erwin, FNP Regional Clinical Faculty
Kathy Gardner, FNP Course Faculty
Susan Piper, PMHNP Clinical Director
Sara Reid, Clinical Credentialing Coordinator
Erin Tenney, MW/WH Course Coordinator
Pillar II: Student Success
Joseph Duruttya, Controller
Laura Manns-James, MW/WH Course Coordinator (President’s Academic Fellow)
Audrey Stewart, Administrative Assistant to Dean of Student Success (Recorder)
Sharon Tankersley, Student Services Coordinator
Meagan Brock, Academic Advisor
Joanne Keefe, DNP Course Coordinator (President’s Academic Fellow)
Tonya Nicholson, CNEP Course Coordinator-Course Faculty
Rainie Boggs, Director of Enrollment Management
Eileen Thrower, MW/WH Department Chair
Carla Townsend, Information Services Librarian
Niessa Meier, CNEP Course Coordinator
Janice Ponstein, Director of Academic Records and Registrar
Chris Turley, Director of Student Engagement
Pillar III: Institutional Efficiency, Sustainability, and Growth
Megan Cadwell, Assistant Director of Clinical Credentialing
Jodi Dickey, Director of Clinical Credentialing
Sarah Harlan, Senior Philanthropy & Alumni Relations Officer
Heidi Loomis, CNEP Regional Clinical Faculty
Jasmyne Lyons, PMHNP Regional Clinical Faculty
Kevin Scalf, PMHNP Department Chair
Eva Fried, MW/WH Clinical Director
Michelle Lawhorn, CNEP Regional Clinical Faculty
Rachel Risner, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
Caitlin Rivard, Director of Alumni Engagement
Chelsea Searcy, Systems and Network Administrator
Amy Stuart, Senior Data and Accreditation Officer
Khara’ Jefferson, Program Director-DNP
Jim Kelsey, External Affairs Coordinator
Brittney Kinison, Director of Marketing and Communications
Alexandra Peters, PMHNP Course Faculty
Ana Verzone, PMHNP Course Faculty
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).