The Frontier community is proud to have students and alumni serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the next few weeks, we are committed to sharing their stories in order to provide insight, hope and encouragement. Thank you to all the health care workers who are risking their own well-being daily to serve our nation. Click here to read more stories of courage and dedication.
In times of crisis, it is easy to see the bad; however, it is during these times that finding the good is the most important. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are fortunate to be able to celebrate the heroic efforts of those on the front lines. One of those heroes is Frontier Nursing University (FNU) graduate and current Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student Heather Friend, MSN, FNP, DNP Class 36.
While she was originally born in the tiny coastal town of Crescent City, CA, Heather has lived in the greater Medford southern Oregon area since birth. In 2005, Heather became a registered nurse (RN) and worked in the emergency room and as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. Currently pursuing her DNP at FNU, she is also X-Waivered, allowing her to treat patients with opioid use disorder. She currently works at the La Clinica Wellness Center, a federally qualified health center in southern Oregon where she has been for nearly two years.
“The center continues to be a key asset in the COVID-19 response,” Heather said. La Clinica Wellness Center is located in Jackson County, which was the number one county in Oregon for testing per population capita and number five in the nation for testing per capita at the time of this interview.
“Frontier cultivated a resilience to press on even when daunting tasks are flung in the path such as this pandemic,” she said. “FNU taught me to be open to change, to think with a big picture view, and to ask the tough questions to make successful transformations in how we approach and care for our communities.”
As Heather and La Clinica face the COVID-19 pandemic, they are learning valuable lessons, as they take safety precautions to protect themselves and patients. The staff at La Clinica are wearing masks and implementing temperature checks. However, they are reusing masks due to the limited supply of personal protective equipment.
In this time of unprecedented fear, Heather makes addressing her patient’s concerns and needs a priority. She says that Mary Breckinridge’s legacy drives her to continue the challenging work. In fact, she chose La Clinica Wellness Center, the only place that she applied because she feels that it represents the mission of Frontier. The position, especially during the pandemic, has allowed her to utilize the skills that Frontier has taught her.
“The pandemic has forced us to make many rapid changes, sometimes several in one day,” she said. One such change is implementing Telehealth visits, which she says occasionally take place on her farm so that she can manage her responsibilities as a mother and a practitioner. Roosters, alpacas, goats, and sheep make musical melodies as she visits with patients digitally.
While COVID-19 has presented issues, La Clinica Wellness Center focused on experimenting with innovative measures early on. The clinic has designed outreach protocols with the most at-risk patients as the highest priority. These measures include calling mental health and substance use patients weekly.
Despite the challenges, Heather has found a silver lining in the situation: “Oregon is one of the best states to work as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Our autonomy has allowed us to make huge contributions to the care of our patients as well as other provider’s panels when they are not in the clinic. The new law allowing NPs to sign home health orders has been a lifesaver.”
She continued, “All of these changes have pushed me far outside my comfort level but it has truly advanced my practice into a new world of technology as well as building resilience through hardships.”
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).