Frontier Nursing University (FNU) held its 12th annual Diversity Impact Conference on September 27-29. The event, which was free for all attendees, was held virtually for the third consecutive year. The conference’s theme was “Engaging Diverse Voices in Sustained Dialogue to Build Community Trust.”
The conference featured an impressive group of speakers and presenters from across the country. The opening day keynote address, “Social Justice in Nursing Education,” was given by Boston University Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine and Director of Faculty Development Angelique Harris, Ph.D., MA. The day two keynote address, “Community Historical Trauma,” was delivered by University of Texas School of Nursing Professor John Lowe, Ph.D., FAAN. Among the many other presentations were two by Clinical Professor at Duke University’s School of Nursing, Brigit Carter, Ph.D., MSN, RN, CCRN, FAAN, and Assistant Clinical Professor at Duke University’s School of Nursing Jacqui McMillian-Bohler, Ph.D., CNM. Together, they presented “Personal Triggers” and “Microaggressions.” FNU alumni Caitlin Hainley, DNP, ARNP-CNM, IBCLC, and Emily Zambrano-Andrews, DNP, ARNP-CNM, presented “Building Community: Advancing Accessibility and Affordability in the Midwifery Model,” based on their experience as co-founders of the Des Moines Midwife Collective. FNU President Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc, FAAN, FACNM, gave a presentation and led a discussion about gun violence in the United States.
One of the conference’s many highlights was a screening of the acclaimed documentary “Apart”. The film features formerly incarcerated mothers jailed for drug-related charges who overcome alienation and a society that labels them as “felons” to readjust to life with their families. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with three of the women featured in the documentary.
“What conference has a screening of a documentary and then has a session with the stars of the documentary?” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “I was floored by those women, allowing us to take what they were telling us into our classrooms and our professions.”
“I am proud that FNU makes this a signature event,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech continued. “I am so proud that I am a member of a community that takes this so seriously that this is the type of event they would sponsor. I know I’m being prejudiced – nevertheless, we had a lineup of speakers that speaks volumes of how important diversity is to us. It tells us that we put value into diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s not just lip service. It is what we live, it is part of our fabric. I’m so proud to be interwoven into that fabric.”
“I always learn something at the Diversity Impact Conference,” FNU Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Rachel Risner, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, C-FNP, CNE, said. “I learned something from every one of our speakers. It was just such an important time for me to disconnect from all my other meetings and chats and work and just be in the moment and to listen to what everybody had to say and to have takeaways and to be able to be reflective. All the speakers were really great. I can’t wait to see how much it changes and grows every year.”
Dr. Alexander-Delpech believes that the Diversity Impact Conference has the potential to become even more prominent in the years ahead.
“I want to see this as the signature online conference,” she said. “I want to take it beyond the university. I want to go beyond our walls because we can. We just need to push the envelope further. That’s my goal for next year, to bring outside people into the conference.”
To learn more about FNU’s DEI initiatives, visit our website.
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).