At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, Couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature our FNU community members that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality healthcare to underserved and rural populations.
It’s easy to forget what life was like before the COVID-19 Pandemic, but it was just in the spring of 2019 that Charles Davis, Ph.D., MSN, FNP-C, AE-C, Class 154 came up with an idea to help the students in the Webutuck Central School District in Amenia, New York. Employed as a nurse by the school district, Davis took action to bring an in-school based health clinic into the district.
“My district is a rural community in Dutchess County, New York,” Davis said. “Greater than 60% met a metric that classifies them as economically disadvantaged. Many also fit the category of being medically underserved and underinsured. Thus, these students face many barriers to getting their healthcare needs addressed including access to providers, transportation, and the ability of parents and guardians to take off work to have initial or follow-up appointments. Even parents/guardians that work as professionals and that have an easier time flex-timing from work still have challenges because the rural nature of our community means their jobs are often some distance away.”
Davis approached the district superintendent with his idea, arguing that a school-based health center breaks down those barriers. Furthermore, under New York State’s school-based health centers’ operation model, all services are delivered to the recipient without cost. He presented evidence demonstrating that students with access to school-based health centers not only have better overall physical and mental health but also improved educational outcomes, reduced chronic absenteeism and risky behaviors, improved management of chronic diseases, and a better-developed foundation for a successful transition to adulthood.
“Where better to provide comprehensive continuous primary and preventative care, acute care, chronic illness care, and referral management than the place where the students spend the majority of their waking hours?” Davis theorized.
With the approval of the district’s leadership and board of education, Davis moved forward to the task of complying with state regulations requiring in-school health centers to have a viable and qualified healthcare facility collaborator. By the end of the 2019-20 school year, he had found the necessary partner in the Open Door Family Medical Centers in Ossining, New York. Open Door was an ideal choice because it is a federally qualified health center with experience operating school-based health centers in other parts of the state.
With the required partner secured, the school board agreed, and the process of securing funding ensued. On May 4, 2020, the Foundation for Community Health in Sharon, Connecticut awarded the Webutuck school district a $100,000 grant to proceed with the in-school clinic. This funding was combined with $50,000 from New York State, resulting in the necessary dollars that will allow construction and remodeling of the health center’s space to occur, and a target opening of the beginning of the 2020-21 school year was projected.
Currently, the opening of the clinic is being delayed by the pandemic to at least the
beginning of the 2021-22 school year. Davis, however, continues to advocate for student healthcare throughout the state, recently collaborating with Webutuck Central School District Director of Curriculum and Development Jennifer Eraca to present to the New York State School Board Association on the value of school-based health centers.
“I wouldn’t be doing this without FNU, its faculty — especially Dr. Lisa Chappell and the
educators associated with the Family Nursing Practitioner Program, staff, and the vision and spirit of Mrs. Mary Breckinridge,” said Davis, who grew up in Coeburn, a small town in southwest Virginia, not far from FNU’s original Hyden campus. “Mrs. Breckinridge’s legacy and spirit are strong.”
Thank you, Charles, for all of the hard work and dedication you have to ensure that rural New York school children receive this vital access to care!
Are you interested in learning more about the great work of FNU alumni members? Visit the FNU Alumni blog!
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).