At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, Couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality health care to underserved and rural populations.
When Liz Nutter was working on 
her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Frontier Nursing University (FNU), she conducted research on water birth and became one of few experts in the field. Now, she is passing on her expertise and knowledge by mentoring other DNP students at FNU.
After Liz was introduced to the idea of a DNP, she knew it was a perfect fit. She decided to become a nurse-midwife because she wanted to stay at the bedside and implement change in her population.
As an active duty Major in the United States Army, Liz completed her studies while serving as Chief Midwife and overseeing a staff of nurse-midwives on top of her Army duties. Liz was the first midwife in the Army to have a DNP degree.
According to Liz, the DNP program has opened many educational and professional doors. Her area of expertise is water birth, which the Army has been doing since 2004.
“The OBGYN consultant to the Army Surgeon General contacted me and asked me to do a multi-center clinical trial to get a retrospective review of our data,” said Liz. “At the time, we were all using different protocols and had fantastic outcomes, but our data didn’t mean anything until we standardized our approach.”
Liz took her DNP as an opportunity to explore the evidence. She took an extensive look at the literature surrounding water birth and developed a protocol based on the evidence of her research. She put together the Department of Defense’s Water Birth Program, which included training for nurses and providers.
“The DNP allowed me to reach out to well-published experts that I would not have had the opportunity to speak with if my ‘doctoral student’ status had not opened those doors,” said Liz. “The DNP has also given me the title and respect to be able to articulate the evidence I found through my extensive research when I met resistance from some of our pediatric colleagues who have doubts about water birth.”
According to Liz, her degree has also helped her bridge the gap between Certified Nurse-Midwives and Certified Professional Midwives (CPM). She has had numerous speaking opportunities with CPM organizations and the American College of Nurse-Midwives, among others.
“I recently had an opportunity to speak at an international conference which was wonderful because I was able to see how our sister midwives in other countries are practicing,” said Liz.
Liz has also published two peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health and published two chapters in books on water birth.
While her expertise is in water birth, Liz’s education has changed her perspective clinically, prompting her to consult the evidence in all aspects of her practice. She shares this with her nurses and takes articles to her colleagues, showing them the latest and greatest practices and encouraging their immediate implementation.
“I think it’s really important that as DNPs, we’re leading the way. We should be taking what research PhDs have put out there and quickly implementing it into practice change. There’s no reason to have a 12 to 15-year gap where the research is sitting on a shelf and not moving into clinical practice.”
Along with her impressive professional accomplishments, one thing Liz loves to do is to mentor DNP students.
“I love mentoring – that’s one of my passions. I feel like it’s my doctoral responsibility to pass on my knowledge and mentor midwives that want to take this skill into practice.”
The FNU family thanks Liz for her service to our country and her dedication to her field!
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).