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Janya Allen
“I look forward to engaging with the community and cultivating a better understanding of how to serve patients.”
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Catherine Craig
“I wanted to join the Courier program because of the focus on medically underserved communities and the opportunity to explore the challenges specific to rural public health.”
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Avery Hanel
“I hope to grow in my knowledge of public health and treating patients in rural areas.”
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Sami Jones
“I’m interested in pursuing a career in rural medicine and this program will be an amazing opportunity for me to get first-hand experience with rural public health clinics.”
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Nora Oakes
“It is an amazing opportunity
to intern at a place that
has had such an
impact on women’s health.”
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Mia Simpson
“I am excited to learn more
about public health as well as advocating for mental health for underserved communities!”
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Anna Sullivan
“I hope to see firsthand what healthcare looks like in rural communities.”
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Lauren Towns
“I wanted to experience public health from a new community perspective!”
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Lisa Colletti-Jones
Director of Annual Giving and Courier Program
P: (859) 251-4728
lisa.collettijones@frontier.edu
courier.program@frontier.edu
The Courier Program Public Health Internship aims to:
- Introduce students to the value of public health and primary healthcare services to people living in rural and under-served communities;
- Support clinical and other community sites by meeting critical needs that would otherwise go unmet;
- Foster cross‐cultural skills through engagement with diverse communities and fellow students;
- Facilitate student experiences of FNU’s mission in action and encourage them to embody the Frontier legacy in their later vocations and personal lives.
This year’s Courier Program Public Health Internship has two key components. Each Intern will be asked to:
- Learn academically about the importance of rural and public healthcare by participating in online modules advised by the Courier Program Director.
- Observe at local clinic host sites and take what they are learning academically and apply it to real life situations in the community.
"The most important goal I had was to learn and grow from this experience, which I'm happy to say I've accomplished that...From cultural communication to servant leadership, I’ve learned so much about myself and what I am passionate about…This program is about learning and growing in order to take what we’ve learned to use in future experiences."
Anthony D., 2016 Courier
Program History
In 1928, Frontier Nursing University founder Mary Breckinridge established the Courier Program, recruiting young people to work in the Kentucky Mountains and learn about service to humanity. Couriers escorted guests safely through remote terrain, delivered medical supplies to remote outpost clinics, and helped nurse-midwives during home visits and births. Frontier has benefited tremendously from the 1,600 Couriers who have served since 1928.
Today’s FNU Courier Program Public Health Internship is a summer service-learning experience distinguished by its legacy and the adventuresome nature of its site placements. Students carry forth the Frontier mission by providing critical assistance to healthcare organizations in underserved and rural communities.
Each year approximately 8 college-aged participants make their way from their respective homes to central Kentucky to embark on a service-learning adventure. These students are curious, adaptable, self‐motivated, and self‐structured individuals with a commitment to respect and tolerance. Courier Program participants are enrolled at various universities across the country and typically have interest in learning about public health, health care, social work or a related field.
"Countless experiences with nurses, fellow Couriers, and local people made an impression that will never leave me. The Courier experience came into my life at a time when I was ripe for understanding, for asking big questions of myself and life."
Marian Leibold, 1977 Courier
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).