Throughout 2019, representatives of Frontier Nursing University (FNU) attended a multitude of nursing and nurse-midwifery conferences and meetings. Students, faculty and alumni gathered with others from the field to hear from engaging speakers, grow their networking connections and speak with potential students. Here are the highlights of some of the key conferences and meetings attended this year.
KCNPNM
The 31st Annual Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and Nurse-Midwives (KCNPNM) Conference took place in Covington, Ky. in April. Over 50 exhibitors, including several higher education institutes, gathered at the Covington Convention Center to connect with guests.
The two-day exhibition window of the conference brought approximately 600 attendees. The FNU booth received many interested visitors, several of which led to further inquiries about FNU’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree and post-graduate certificate programs. Alumni, current students and friends of FNU also stopped by to say hello. Many attendees were familiar with FNU’s history and reputation as one of Kentucky’s oldest and most reputed nursing schools.
Conference guests had the opportunity to attend continuing education sessions as well as workshops on a full range of healthcare topics. Pharmacology was emphasized as the opioid epidemic continues to grow while groundbreaking new drugs are created.
FNU alumni, faculty, students and friends also gathered for a time of making new connections and renewing old ones at a reception hosted by FNU.
NSNA
The National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) 67th Annual Convention was held in Salt Lake City, Utah in April. At the FNU exhibit booth, attendees were engaged in conversations about the Master of Science in Nursing degree programs and ADN Bridge Entry Option. Conference attendees also had the opportunity to attend informal gatherings with FNU called Coffee and Conversations in the coffee shop adjacent to the convention center, where potential students could come and ask any additional questions about FNU programs. Alumna Jason Hone also stopped by and talked about his experience at FNU.
NCNP
The spring National Convention for Nurse Practitioners (NCNP) took place in May in Chicago, Ill. The three-day conference drew over 2000 nurse practitioners from all over the world. Attendees were able to learn about FNU’s graduate programs as well as becoming a preceptor.
The Fall NCNP conference was held in Las Vegas, Nev. in September. More than 1500 nurse practitioners (NPs) attended and learned about FNU’s graduate programs. Several alumni also stopped by to say hello and reminisce on their time at FNU.
AWHONN
The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) Convention was held in Atlanta, Ga. in June. FNU joined 240 other exhibitors as over 3500 people attended. Nurse-midwifery student Crystal Norman helped greet guests and shared her experiences at the FNU exhibit booth. FNU also hosted Coffee and Conversations gatherings each day and spoke with potential students about FNU’s nurse-midwifery and nurse practitioner programs.
AANP
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) National Conference was held in June in Indianapolis, Ind. FNU faculty member Vicky Stone-Gale as well as alumni Jill Johnson, FNP and Elena Prendergast, DNP, FNP-C gave presentations at the conference. AANP was one of several conferences this year where FNU focused on recruiting potential students from diverse backgrounds. Diversity Impact program mentees Frainelys (Frainy) Cruz, Caren Blantin, Ebony Hollins, Chanelle Nsangou, Nancy Carter, Jessica Stevens, and mentor Dr. DeLana Gardner spoke to potential students who visited FNU’s booth. Alumni and friends also gathered at the annual alumni breakfast.
ACNM
The 64th annual American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Meeting was held in National Harbor, Md. in June. FNU faculty and mentor Dr. Diana Jolles gave a podium presentation at the conference with her student mentee, Katrina George, as did Dr. Janelle Komorowski and her student mentee, Elizabeth Aviles.
FNU held its annual reception at the conference and had over 150 people in attendance. Student mentees helped greet guests and enjoyed an evening of networking with other FNU alumni, students, faculty and preceptors.
Student mentees Katrina George, Elizabeth Aviles, Aja Aviles-Soto, Alexandra Millett, Stacy Hepner and Ellen Apple represented the university by attending sessions and sharing information on distance education and specialty tracks at the exhibit booth.
Many FNU faculty, staff and students received awards at the ACNM conference. You can read about the awards and presentations here.
APNA
The American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) Conference took place in New Orleans, La. in October. FNU Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Program Director Jess Calohan helped out behind the booth handing out pralines and speaking to potential students. A Coffee and Conversations gathering offered an opportunity for attendees to ask more questions about FNU’s psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner program.
Thank you to all who attended and participated in our many conferences and meetings in 2019!
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).