The 2017 Courier Program is coming to an end! While they were only here for a mere 8 weeks, the Couriers were able to accomplish and experience many things! Couriers spent an average of 35-40 hours a week at their clinical sites and community partners. Spanning across Leslie, Perry, and Clay Counties in Kentucky and Wise County, Virginia, Couriers worked with 12 organizations!
Prior to starting their experiences, seven Couriers had the opportunity to attend FNU’s annual Diversity Impact. They learned about diversity in healthcare and also attended a session about the history of Appalachia. You watch the session here. Outside of their sites, Couriers have also had the opportunity to have meals with Dr. Julie Marfell, the Dean of FNU, and Jean Fee, a pioneer graduate and former nurse on horseback with FNS and Mary Breckinridge. In July, 7 Couriers assisted with Red Bird Mission’s annual health fair. They also spent a weekend in Wise, VA at the largest Remote Area Medical (RAM) event in the country. In addition to all of this service,Couriers also assisted with six student dinners at the Big House.
As part of their site work, Couriers have led a special project created for their site. These special projects can widely vary. Some are more administrative such as Ronnie Sloan and Brigid Horan, who worked on the Red Bed Health Fair organizing, contacting vendors, and making food vouchers for upcoming micro clinics. Brigid also worked with her supervisor at Red Bird to provide leftover food from the camp she led to families struggling with food insecurity. Others projects were more direct, such as Calla Michalak working to acquire pedometers for patients at Hometown Clinic. Brie Belz worked on informative literature dispelling myths about needle exchange programs, and Matt Hodges who worked working introducing Narcan® into local clinics.
Each Courier is listed below with all of the sites they have served at within their 8 weeks and a description of their special project:
- Brie Belz: Served with Mary Breckinridge ARH Hospital, Kentucky River District Health Department, and The Well with Big Creek Missions. She worked on informative literature dispelling myths about needle exchange programs for members of the public.
- Claire Gasparovich: Served with Health Wagon and Camp Bethel in Wise, VA. She created systems to provide more efficient development for next year’s interns working on Health Wagon’s Remote Area Medical (RAM) event.
- Matt Hodges: Served with Kentucky Mountain Health Alliance Little Flower Clinic and The Well with Big Creek Missions. He established a partnership between Little Flower and the homeless shelter in Perry County to increase patient registration.
- Brigid Horan: Served with Red Bird Mission. She worked to provide leftover food from the summer camp at Red Bird to families struggling with food insecurity and created food vouches for upcoming micro clinics.
- Brittany Imel: Served with Mary Breckinridge ARH Hospital, the Leslie County Public Library, and the Stinnett Community Center. She worked with Dr. Haas, the hospital’s new pediatrician, to create and present health programming for youth attending Big Creek Missions’ summer camp.
- Calla Michalak: Served with Hometown Clinic and Bluegrass Care Navigators. She worked to provide pedometers to all diabetic patients at Hometown Clinic.
- Ronnie Sloan: Served with Red Bird Mission, Cumberland Valley District Health Department, and Pathfinders of Perry County. She worked with the Red Bird Health Fair by organizing fair activities and contacting vendors.
- Zandy Stovicek: Served with Kentucky River District Health Department, Stinnett Community Center, and Bluegrass Care Navigators. She worked with the health department to revamp prenatal care within Leslie County.
The Couriers have been kept very busy the summer serving others, but they have also taken part in an experience that provide a view into what it is like to work as a healthcare provider in rural and underserved communities. We enjoyed having our eight Couriers this summer, and we will be sad to see them leave! Their last day is July 29.
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).