In 2025, Frontier Nursing University celebrates 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 are celebrating 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 and are inspired to share your own story with us.
When the COVID-19 pandemic spread to the United States in early 2020, the public responses ranged from panic to denial. As businesses and services were restricted or completely shut down across the country, FNU alumni stepped forward. True to the Frontier mission, they were determined, creative, and brave in their efforts to serve their communities.
Here are two examples of the countless acts of heroism performed by FNU alumni amidst the panic and chaos of the pandemic:
Mobile Midwifery: When the pandemic hit in 2020, FNU graduate Dr. Mary “Ginny” Bowers, DNP, PMHNP, CNM (Class 82), IBCLC was the head midwife at Chesapeake Women’s Health in Easton, Maryland. While much of the world came to a screeching half, Ginny knew that her patients would need her care more than ever. She came up with a plan and, on March 18, 2020, shared it with the world with a simple social media post: “Mobile midwifery! Taking care of my pregnant mamas in their cars in order to help out the community.”
The drive-up option reduced the risks of exposure as patients had direct access to a bathroom, lab, and ultrasound without ever stepping foot in the waiting room. Bowers measured patients’ blood pressure, fetal heart tones, and maternal heart rates while they remained in their vehicles.
“Pregnant women carry a significantly higher risk of complications when exposed to respiratory viruses and I wanted to help decrease that risk in any way possible,” Bowers said. “I elected to function as both the medical assistant and the provider so as to limit the patient’s exposure.”
In 2022, Ginny joined the University of Virginia. In 2024, she obtained her Doctor of Nursing Practice, and she now specializes in reproductive psychiatry. She has established two reproductive psychiatry practices, one of which is a subspecialty of UVA Psychiatry. That clinic offers comprehensive psychiatric services to individuals during the perinatal period. The second endeavor is a private telemedicine practice which enables her to provide reproductive psychiatric services across a broader area.
“I am currently licensed in Virginia and Colorado, with pending PMHNP licenses in Maryland, Delaware, and Maine,” she said.
Just as she did during the pandemic, Dr. Bowers continues to find innovative ways to serve as many patients as she can.
“Frontier is a fabulous university and I truly believe this organization helps foster my ability to problem solve. Midwives really have a way of thinking outside of the box.”
Serving A Mennonite Community During the Pandemic: Jennifer Scott, CNM (Class 75) MSN, was working at Community Midwives in Penn Yan, New York, in 2020. Penn Yan is located in the rural Finger Lakes region of central New York. The majority of Scott’s patients were from a large local Mennonite community. The women would often make appointments on the same day and share a ride to the clinic.
Like many businesses, Community Midwives closed its doors during the pandemic. Telehealth visits were not an option for most of Scott’s patients, who did not have computers or cell phones. Instead, Scott and her colleagues began performing home visits.
“We are doing home visits because it is easier to isolate and wipe down our equipment between homes,” Scott said in 2020. “This also keeps our clients from congregating in the waiting room.”
They also limited visits to patients who were near term or at higher risk. In addition to providing healthcare, Scott became a source of news for her patients, keeping them updated on the pandemic by printing and distributing the latest information from local and state health departments.
Today, Scott and Community Midwives continue to serve the Mennonite community in the Finger Lakes Region. The practice now employes three full-time nurse-midwives and one-part-time nurse-midwife, including fellow FNU graduate Lisa Benedetto, CNM (Class 50). They travel upward of 50 miles to see patients, attending over 100 births per year and providing well woman care, annual exams, family planning, and menopause management. They also have privileges at a community hospital for those patients who need to be transferred or choose a hospital birth.
“FNU taught me to grab my saddlebag, get on my horse and ride up that mountain,” Scott said. “It taught me that my calling is to care for the underserved, the vulnerable families, without hesitation.”
We want to celebrate our anniversary by capturing and sharing the countless stories that make up our history. Whatever your connection to FNU, we are incredibly grateful to you and want to hear your Frontier story.
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>> Read More from “A Century of Stories”
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).