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.
In 1928, Mary Breckinridge, founder of Frontier Nursing University established the Courier Program, recruiting young people to come work in the Kentucky Mountains and learn about service to humanity. Couriers escorted guests safely through remote terrain, delivered medical supplies to remote outpost clinics, and helped nurse-midwives during home visits and births. Frontier has benefited tremendously from the 1,600 Couriers who have served since 1928.
Jean Gilcrest was a Courier between 
her sophomore and junior years of college, in the summer of 1957 . She learned about the program through family members. According to family legend, Jean and Mary Breckinridge were double cousins. It was a combination of family history, an interest in medicine, an interest in riding, and an interest to see what being a Courier was like that inspired her to participate in the Courier Program. She grew up outside of Lexington, Kentucky and was interested to see how living in the bluegrass was completely different than living in the mountains.
Jean has many memories of her time as a Courier, mostly of driving to home visits with the nurses. Jean recalls one visit in particular to a home in which they had to drive the FNS jeep at 20-30 miles per hour to prevent the neighbor’s vicious dogs from jumping in their car. At this home, there was a young girl who was not potty trained—there had been accidents, and messes were everywhere in the home. However, the next time Jean and the nurse returned to the home, it was clean and the young girl was well put-together. Jean wondered if the nurse returning to visit made her mother feel cared for, inspiring the mother to clean up her homestead.
Jean remembers that one of the doctors at Frontier, Dr. Beasley, would bring pregnant women who were going to be having their first babies to the hospitals before they went into labor (to ensure that they would not have any problems at the time of delivery). Around women’s due dates, Jean and the nurses would drive the women in the FNS jeeps up and down the bumpy roads in an attempt to speed up the labor process.
Another one of Jean’s memorable experiences was when she accompanied a nurse to take a child in a brace to Shriner’s Hospital in Lexington. On the day they were to take the child, it was pouring down rain and they could not get the jeep across the creek to pick him up. Jean remembers the father carrying the child across a swinging bridge in the rain so he could be taken to the hospital.
Jean remembers having tea with Mary Breckinridge in the afternoon, although she does not recall whether this was something all the Couriers did or whether it was due to their relation.
Jean not only had several significant experiences while at Wendover, she learned a lot about the culture of the region, as well. Something that significantly stood out to Jean was the lack of education in the area. Kentucky was ranked 47th in the nation for education at that time. After graduating eighth grade, many of the former students became the teachers themselves, instructing first grade through seventh grade. Many of these eighth grade graduates did not continue to high school; if they wanted to go to high school, they would have had to move into town, leaving their brothers and sisters to take over their chores.
She remembers learning about Kate Ireland’s views on the impact of governmental welfare programs that started in the region at this time. Kate told her she believed they had a negative impact on the people in the area because they started using food stamps for white bread and sugar—foods that were more detrimental to their health than the way they used to eat. Their diets were healthier before when they grew their own wheat and made their own bread from whole grain flour.
The things Jean learned about the culture of the area, coupled with her experiences while serving as a Courier, not only had a personal impact on her but she believes her assistance truly impacted the community as well. She was confident that her service made a difference.
After finishing the Courier Program, Jean continued her college education and graduated with a teaching degree. She worked as a teacher until she had children of her own. After her divorce, she made the decision to pursue a nursing degree. She worked as a rehabilitation nurse until she retired. Both her experiences at Frontier as well as a personal experience with injury inspired this secondary career choice.
She enjoyed her time in Wendover as a Courier and stayed on a committee for Frontier in Cleveland for some time.
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).