We want to congratulate the following Chi Pi members on winning a $750.00 scholarship for the Fall 2018 Scholarship cycle:
- Jennifer McCammond
- Olga Rybakov
- Traci Buran
- Miriam Sward
- Thomas George
- Pamela Maslen
- Riana Damjanovich
- Michelle Van Druff
We hope this scholarship will help cover some of the added costs of graduate school. Best of luck as you pursue your goals!
Here is what the winners have to say about receiving the Chi Pi Honor Society Scholarship:
“First of all, I would like to say thank you so much for this scholarship. I am a big fan of FNU. I love everything about the school. I am also thrilled to be a Sigma Honor Society member. I never would have thought that I’d accomplish all this. I have a long road ahead of me, but I am dedicated to my goals, and am sure that I will reach them. My desire is to continue the Master’s program, and eventually get my DNP at FNU. This scholarship will support me in reaching this goal! I had to cut down on work hours because of the amount of time I spend studying every week, and every bit helps me to reach my goals.”
“Thank you so much for this scholarship I plan to use this scholarship to help me get to and from Clinical Bound and February. I will be flying in from the North East, renting a car and spending a much anticipated week in Hyden!”
“I am filled with both sincere gratitude and excitement to have received a Chi Pi Honor Society scholarship during my journey at Frontier. I plan to put every penny of this generous gift toward my tuition which will continue to bring me closer to my dream of serving women as a Certified Nurse Midwife in a rural community. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to care for women and families during moments of their lives they will never forget. I am filled with gratitude to be surrounded by a supportive, wise, and nurturing community during my studies at Frontier. I am especially grateful for this gift that will help take me another step closer to this calling to one day open a birth and family care center.”
“Thank you so much for this wonderful news! I am absolutely thrilled to have been chosen for this award. Throughout my time at Frontier, I have felt tremendously supported and encouraged by faculty, staff and students, as I pursue what has been my long-term dream. Because I currently live outside of the United States, I have a long and often, snowy drive to clinical which involves an international border crossing. On an average day, I commute between 110 and 130 miles to my clinical sites, often through heavy snow. This scholarship will be an enormous help in covering some of the tuition and additional expenses associated with my clinical experience including before after care for my three, school-aged children, gas, and tolls. My clinical experience feels like a journey, and I often find myself reflecting upon the history of the Frontier Nursing Service as I make my way to my sites. Thank you for believing in me and supporting me. I feel honored and grateful to be a member of the Chi Pi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, and to receive this generous award.”
“Thank you for the honor of a scholarship award. As I prepare to graduate and take boards, this scholarship money will help to offset the cost of testing, as well as for state licensure and prescriptive authority. I also plan to obtain my DNP starting in the spring, so every dollar counts!”
“I am so grateful and blessed for this opportunity. I will use this scholarship to continue my education with FNU and obtain my DNP. I have always wanted to achieve the high academic standing of the doctoral level and, in full honesty, I was weighing the monetary cost over my personal wishes. It is with this blessing that motivates me to continue and achieve my dream. My words do not express how grateful I am, and how appropriately timed that I am so very thankful during this time of Thanksgiving.”
“I am humbled and truly grateful. As a veteran, current military spouse, and father of two kids in college, this scholarship allows me to work less so I can expedite my clinical experience…thus hastening my reunion with my wife! She is presently stationed in Guam where FNP clinicals are not sanctioned. Once clinicals are done, I will head back to Guam to provide care for underserved indigenous people of the Marianas Islands. A portion of the scholarship will pay for upcoming Obesity Medicine Association training for NPs. I hope to focus on obesity and type 2 diabetes as these are of chief concern in the islands.”
“Thank you. We are discussing using the scholarship to purchase products such as folders for law enforcement vehicles to house safety plans/information so that each vehicle will have access to material.”
Students can learn more about joining the Honor Society 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).