Frontier Nursing University (FNU) attended the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) 61st annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico on May 21-26th. At the conference nurse-midwives and other women’s health care experts convened to discuss ways to enhance quality of care and expand impact even further into mainstream care for women across the nation.
The meeting also celebrated the rich history of nurse-midwifery and called on nurse-midwives to channel their strengths in new, more effective and more diverse ways in order to enhance the health care of women throughout the lifespan.
FNU EXHIBIT BOOTH
FNU’s exhibit booth at the conference
was a busy place for interacting with students, graduates, faculty, staff, preceptors, supporters and friends. In celebration of Kitty Ernst’s 90th birthday in July, FNU decided to “Paint the Conference Purple” in her honor. Participants were able to take photos in a photobooth and post to their social media outlets to wish Kitty a happy birthday. Along with the photobooth FNU also had purple manicure sets available for a donation and also offered a variety of ways that people could donate to the Kitty Ernst Chair of Midwifery.
ANNUAL RECEPTION
The birthday celebration for Kitty Ernst continued with FNU’s annual reception.
This year more than 170 attendees enjoyed an evening of mingling, networking and sharing stories. The reception included party favors and decorations, and a special video message in honor of Kitty’s birthday. The evening closed with the presentation of a birthday cake, complete with candles, and singing Happy Birthday to Kitty. Many memories were shared, tears shed and laughs enjoyed as we honored this special woman.
STUDENT AMBASSADORS
FNU’s Diversity PRIDE Program was proud to host an ambassador essay contest that would send two students with 
an all expenses covered trip to the ACNM Annual Meeting. Congratulations to the two PRIDE student essay winners: Ximena Rossato-Bennett and Michelle Gragg. These students had the opportunity to attend many education sessions as well as the Midwives of Color Committee (MOCC) reception at the conference. They also had the opportunity to network with other midwives at the booth during the exhibit hours they were not in sessions. The students even shared their favorite parts of the conference with a video post:
KEYNOTE SPONSOR
FNU was also pleased to sponsor the keynote closing reception on Thursday, May 26 
in which Christy Turlington-Burns, founder of the non-profit organization Every Mother Counts, presented on maternal health challenges with Dr. Cara Osborne, CNM, MSN, ScD. Having endured a childbirth complication herself, Burns was compelled to direct and produce the documentary, No Woman, No Cry about maternal health challenges that impact the lives of millions of girls and women around the world.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
FNU is proud to announce that we had many faculty members and alumni receive awards and present sessions and posters during the ACNM conference.
We would like to extend a special congratulations to the following ACNM Fellow inductees:
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Tonya Nicholson – Inducted as new ACNM Fellow
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Rebeca Barroso – Inducted as new ACNM Fellow
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Julie Paul – Inducted as a new ACNM Fellow
Congratulations to the following faculty members for their recognition:
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Kim Baraona – ACNM Teaching Excellence Award
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Katie Moriarty – ACNM Board Member, Region Representative
FNU also had two alumni receive awards:
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Holly Kennedy – Hattie Hemschemeyer Award
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Maj Elizabeth Nutter – Kitty Ernst Award
Thank you to the following faculty members who presented workshops, sessions or posters at ACNM:
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Vicki Burslem
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Judith Butler
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Rebecca Fay
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Diana Jolles
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Katie Moriarty
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Tanya Tanner
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Susan Yount
View photos from our exhibit booth and reception here: FNU Photos at 2016 ACNM Conference.
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).