In 2025, Frontier Nursing University honored the 100-year anniversary of the inception of the Frontier Nursing Service. We are grateful for the alumni, students, couriers, donors, volunteers, friends, and employees who have made an incredible impact on FNU’s century-long journey. We celebrated this milestone year by capturing and sharing some of the countless stories that make up our history. Whatever your connection to FNU, we hope you enjoy these stories.
There are a multitude of ways the subjects of Century of Stories are involved in the past, present, and future of Frontier Nursing University. Few are the number of people who check more of those boxes than Cathy Cook.
As a graduate, regional clinical faculty, preceptor, and faculty member, Dr. Cook has done it all. After earning her MSN from Case Western Reserve, she came to Frontier to obtain her CNM (1998). She later returned to Frontier for her DNP (2020).
She worked as a certified nurse-midwife from 1998-2020, most of them in Galesburg, Illinois. She specialized in natural childbirth and providing individualized education and prenatal care to expectant mothers. She has since received Full Practice Authority and opened her own aesthetic and hormone optimization clinic.
Despite this demanding career, Dr. Cook was eager to give back as a preceptor. Preceptors are experienced licensed clinicians who supervise nursing students during their clinical practicum. Their role is to help students translate what they have learned into real-world clinical practice. In total, Cook precepted an incredible 270 Frontier students.
“Students teach us as much as we teach them,” Dr. Cook said. “They help us see things through new eyes. Some of us who have been practicing for a long time may not know the newest items in healthcare. Students can teach us those things if we are open and willing to learn from them.”
Dr. Cook’s desire to teach and prepare more nurse-midwives led her to return to Frontier as Regional Clinical Faculty (RCF) and Clinical Bound Team Lead and ultimately course faculty. RCFs advise, support, educate, and evaluate students. They also support and collaborate with clinical preceptors in keeping with the policies established by the Frontier to ensure an effective clinical experience for students.
In 2021, FNU presented Dr. Cook with the Distinguished Service to Alma Mater award, in recognition of her wide range of contributions to the university. The award specifically honors graduates who have supported Frontier through volunteer efforts and/or donor support.
Dr. Cook’s additional awards include the Kitty Ernst Scholarship (1997), induction in the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society (2017), and American College of Nurse-Midwives Fellow (2022).
