As today’s healthcare professionals take on more responsibility and advocate for system-wide improvements, leadership development becomes a cornerstone of advanced nursing education. Earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree is one of the most effective ways to build the leadership skills necessary to drive meaningful change in healthcare settings and beyond.
Wherever you are in your nursing journey, pursuing a DNP can equip you with the tools to step confidently into executive and educational roles.
Why Leadership Matters in Nursing
Leadership in nursing is more than just supervising others. It can include:
- Guiding interdisciplinary teams
- Shaping health policy
- Improving clinical outcomes
- Educating the next generation of nurses
Frontier Nursing University’s DNP program is designed to prepare nurses for these roles through a combination of advanced coursework, clinical experience and scholarly projects.
Earn Your DNP at Frontier Nursing University
At Frontier Nursing University, leadership development is woven into the core of the Post-Master’s DNP curriculum. The program consists of 30 credit hours, including ten clinical credit hours, and is designed to strengthen both theoretical knowledge and practical leadership application skills. View the program of study here.
Flexibility with Frontier’s Online DNP Program
The online DNP program at Frontier Nursing University makes it easier than ever to balance school, work and day-to-day responsibilities while advancing your education. FNU’s program offers flexible learning models, allowing students to complete coursework while continuing to serve patients in their home communities.
Students begin Frontier’s DNP program with a three-day on-campus orientation experience where they meet and build a support network with their faculty and peers. Upon completion of didactic coursework, students collaborate with their chosen clinical site to lead a rapid cycle quality improvement project.
Gain Practical Experience Through Quality Improvement Project
At FNU, DNP students strengthen their leadership skills by organizing and leading quality improvement projects that directly address needs within their clinical sites. Working with faculty coaches, site mentors and site sponsors, students learn to translate evidence into practice through focused, rapid-cycle initiatives that are small in scope but big in impact. Students complete planned improvements using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement “Model for Improvement” over an eight-week period.
Dr. Nagavalli Thiruvalluvan
For instance, DNP graduate Dr. Nagavalli Thiruvalluvan developed a weight management program for her primary care clinic, where most patients were overweight or obese. Her project emphasized lifestyle modifications, resulting in improved comorbidities, enhanced body image, and reduced reliance on medications.
Dr. Julie Percefull
Likewise, fellow graduate Dr. Julie Percefull increased mammogram rates at her clinical site by 40 percent, introducing screening reminders, decision aids, and case management tools that boosted both patient engagement and quality of care.
Through projects like these, DNP students gain hands-on leadership experience while leaving a lasting impact on the organizations and communities they serve.
Ready to Lead with a DNP?
If you’re ready to take the next step in your nursing career and lead with confidence, a DNP degree could be the path for you. FNU’s Post-Master’s DNP program combines flexibility with rigor, equipping you with the leadership tools to improve care, empower teams, and inspire change.
To learn more about earning your DNP through Frontier Nursing University, click here.
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).