The Frontier community is proud to have students and alumni serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.
Sometimes “answer the call” means literally answering the call. When the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) called this spring, Julian Williams, RN, CMSRN, FNP-C, Bridge 144, answered. Julian was already on a FEMA assignment at the Woodhull Medical Center of Brooklyn where he was working in the inpatient internal medicine department when the pandemic swept the country and FEMA contacted him for COVID-19 disaster response. He began working at Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing in New York City.
“I came into this position knowing the inherent risks associated with exposure to COVID-19,” Julian said. “I won’t lie and say that I did not have my reservations given my own risk factor — an underlying heart abnormality — but I knew that my training, clinical expertise, and my commitment to healthcare necessitated my need to respond and help my new community. FNU taught me to ‘Answer the Call’ whenever and wherever I am needed. This was no exception. It was my pleasure and duty to respond when called.”
Julian was born in Bridgeport, Conn., but spent most of his youth in North Carolina before moving to New York after college. When he’s not on contract with FEMA, Julian works at South Shore Family Medical Associates in Inwood, NY. There, his scope of practice is within the realm of family medicine. The practice provides preventative health maintenance, chronic disease management, acute illness management, as well as in-house services via specialists. Julian estimates that the typical outpatient volume is 25-plus visits per day.
“Prior to COVID-19, life was a bit simpler,” Julian said. “Besides treatment for the more common viral/bacterial illnesses, and/or chronic disease management, the healthcare burden was not as amplified as it has been recently. Things have certainly improved, but there is not a single day that COVID-19 is not a topic of discussion within our panel of providers. Prior to beginning my current assignment at the post-acute care facility, COVID swept through the facility like a whirlwind; there were some deaths, and we now appear to be on a decline of COVID positive patients. However, our daily discussions focus on COVID case tracking, quarantine protocols, and learning how to better synthesize laboratory data as it pertains to COVID infection and symptom/disease remission.”
In addition to wearing the appropriate PPE, Julian is swabbed twice per week for COVID-19 infection. He credits that diligence and his own personal health routines for helping him to stay healthy thus far.
“I think my judiciousness toward implementing the safety precautions has helped me remain healthy,” Julian said. “However, I still take my daily multivitamins, vitamin B12, Zinc, and Vitamin C for good measure. One cannot be too careful.”
Further precaution includes the FEMA mandate that the healthcare workers stay in a local hotel to reduce the risk of spreading the virus to the public. At Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing, Julian has been working in an inpatient setting as well as in post-acute care.
“FNU prepared me for COVID by equipping me with the clinical knowledge, confidence, and skills necessary to care for the acutely ill during this pandemic,” Julian said. “While I have seen my fair share of deaths due to COVID infection, I would say that my experience has been a bit different, especially in the post-acute care setting, as many of the patients have been COVID positive, but completely asymptomatic and otherwise healthy. I tell my patients that there is still much to learn about COVID-19, and as recommendations change, so will our approach to treatment; however, in the meantime we will continue to focus on tightly managing your chronic conditions, as well as provide evidence-based treatment to mitigate the effects of health decline secondary to COVID.”
While there are still more questions than answers regarding the pandemic, one thing remains clear. When the call for help comes, Julian will be there to answer 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).