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.
Tiffany Jackson graduated from
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) in 2007. In her early career, she worked as an obstetrics nurse in a hospital, but there weren’t any nurse-midwives present. It was earlier, during clinical training in nursing school, that one patient had opened her mind to another way of thinking about birth.
The patient she observed chose to go through labor without the common types of support. Tiffany typically saw most mothers at the hospital hooked up with IVs and epidurals, but this mother was laboring with only the support of her husband, Tiffany, and Tiffany’s nursing preceptor on the unit.
Tiffany describes the mother as being “very Zen–just breathing through her contractions,” which inspired her. She wanted to provide care for women who would have relationships with their providers and options for how they would give birth. Tiffany envisioned a relationship where she would offer expert guidance and provide information, while the woman would make informed choices about her own body and her baby. Tiffany decided that as a nurse-midwife she could reach more women and help them have better birth experiences.
Tiffany chose FNU because the distance education model worked well for her as an independent learner. She explored different options, but was drawn to the heritage and the strong history of FNU–and the amazing Kitty Ernst. Tiffany says of her career choice, “It’s not for the faint of heart. You do it because you have a passion, not to get rich. You have to love women, and sometimes it’s hard, emotionally demanding and exhausting.”
In 2014, Tiffany accepted a position with MomDoc, a privately-owned obstetrics practice in Arizona that was started by physicians. They started with physician assistants and women’s health nurses in the clinics. The practice has grown to 20 branches, three of which now have certified nurse-midwives. The nurse-midwives practice with hospital privileges to offer full-scope midwifery care to women.
Since becoming a nurse-midwife, Tiffany has attended more than 1,000 births. She respects each mother’s choice and believes women should have personalized birth experiences. She recently attended a birth with a family having their seventh child. The parents brought in their 12-year-old daughter to assist with the delivery and welcome the new baby into the world.
MomDoc nurse-midwives precept midwifery students in the clinics, and some of Tiffany’s colleagues are also FNU alumni. She says they joke about getting t-shirts that say, “Team FNU.”
MomDoc has a mentoring program for new midwives who join the practice, which transitions them through what is called the “Circle of Safety.” In the mentoring stage, each new midwife must complete 30 deliveries. They have an additional three months where they can call their mentors for help and advice. Tiffany credits one of her FNU preceptors, Dr. Kim Couch, for helping her make that transition earlier in her career.
“Some midwives may have been expert nurses, but they are new to the role of nurse-midwifery,” said Tiffany. “So, they have to ‘hang in there’ and not be afraid to ask for help in their new role.”
Tiffany is considering pursuing a doctorate when her children are older, and possibly opening a birth center business with a friend and colleague who is also a certified nurse-midwife. Tiffany’s mother has an MBA, and Tiffany imagines her mom handling the business affairs of the practice.
“Someday, I would love to be in a birth center and attend out-of-hospital births,” Tiffany said. “That’s what FNU trains us for, and I’d love to be able to support home or birth-center deliveries.”
The FNU community is proud to have alumni like Tiffany who are passionate about helping women make informed choices that lead to better birth experiences. Go Team FNU!
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).