Frontier Nursing University (FNU) hosted its 7th annual Diversity Impact Conference on June 1-4, 2017. Last summer, four Couriers attended Diversity Impact prior to beginning the Courier Program. Due to their positive experience, Diversity Impact became mandatory for all future Couriers! Ambassadors from Breckinridge Capital Advisors, who sponsored the 2017 Courier Program, also attended the conference.
On the first evening of the weekend, Courier Coordinator Mandy Hancock and Associate Professor Dr. Diane John led an activity entitled “Patient/Provider Care: Do you see what I see?” Attendees were split up into groups of three. One person had to verbally describe a drawing to another, a second person drew and the third person observed the communication between them. Each person was able to experience all three positions and engage in a group discussion about their observations. After the arts-n-crafts portion, Dr. John discussed how to activity related to communication between patients and providers.
Many sessions were provided over the four day conference. Among the Courier favorites was “Intro to Appalachia: Perception vs. Reality” led by Shane Barton from University of Kentucky. “I really enjoyed the session with [Shane] on Appalachian culture. When trying to prepare to be a Courier, I really struggled finding comprehensive information on the area that was free of stereotypes and bias. He was so knowledgeable and passionate which made me passionate about this specific community,” recalled Claire Gasparovich.
Another session led by FNU Student Nurse-Midwife Speaker Essence Williams was also well received by Couriers. Calla Michalak who said the following about the session: “I really enjoyed the session about Guatemalan Midwives. It was really interesting to learn about the women working so hard to make that aspect of their culture work with modern medicine and even more interesting to think about how that could be applied at all levels of care all over the world.”
Nearly every 2017 Courier intends to go into some form of healthcare. Brittany Imel said Diversity Impact affected her intended career goals because “it solidified the fact that I want to get a PHD in public health after serving as a PA for a few years. I want to be a part of the movement to get health care to all people in our country. It shouldn’t matter who you are, where you come from, or what you believe; everyone deserves access to quality health care.” Ronnie Sloan, who desires to be an urban planner, said she “learned that it is more than just building a nice looking city. It is about joining forces with people in the community to discover the demands of the population and meet them with the plans to transform the city.”
The ambassadors from Breckinridge Capital Advisors, Katie Sacharuk and Sarah Turpin, sat down with Courier staff to reflect on their Diversity Impact experience, as well. “My initial opinion going in was thinking that in healthcare they really just provide care. Here we learned that Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Midwives, they really play a role of social worker and patient advocate. They don’t just provide care. They provide support, and I didn’t know that,” said Katie. Sarah reflected on how coming to this conference exposed her to new ideas she had never experienced living in the northeastern United States her whole life. “It brought to light both the different issues that are happening within the United States and then also the wide range of people that are getting involved in the healthcare field and how they’re using their experiences to then solve it.” Both ambassadors remarked that every person they spoke with, including faculty members, took time to check back in with them throughout the weekend. Katie said, “as an outsider coming in, I think you can really tell is that everyone is so different… but the one thing you can really tell is that they all had the same goal. It is to kind of unite [and] help their own community at home. So, whatever they’re learning, they want to bring it back, and they want to implement it.”
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).