Frontier Nursing University (FNU) continued its initiative for fostering a more diverse, culturally-conscious health care workforce through the 9th annual Diversity Impact Student Conference, held from June 6-9, 2019.
The conference, hosted by FNU’s Diversity Impact Program, had over 60 attendees and was open to any FNU students, alumni, faculty or staff who want to make a difference in providing care to rural, diverse and underserved communities.
The theme for Diversity Impact 2019, Every Voice, Every Story: 80 Years and Beyond, coincides with the “$.80 for 80” campaign celebrating 80 years of service FNU graduates have provided to mothers, babies, and families across the globe.
The four-day program was designed with workshops and activities to help attendees explore how to fully experience, live and create meaningful connections within diverse communities.
Presenters at this year’s conference spoke on positive marginality, psychiatric-mental health, LGBTQI, Hawaiian culture, expression and storytelling through creative movement, intersectionality/diversity, and indigenous/Native American midwives.
This year’s Diversity Impact Event was highlighted by an inspiring lineup of speakers:
- FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FAAN, FACNM
- Keynote Speaker Nicolle L. Gonzales, BSN, RN, MSN, CNM
- Premier Speaker Dr. Heather Shlosser, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC
- Dr. Sheri Sesay-Tuffour, CEO of American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM)
- Jane F. Houston, FACNM, DNP, CNM
- Nena R. Harris, Ph.D., FNP-BC, CNM, CNE
- Kalena Lanuza, DNP, FNP-C
- Devon Peterika, MS, BA
- Ralph Newell and Sydnee Reese, Diversity in Higher Education Workshop
The conference programming also included interactive learning opportunities for attendees. On the second day of the conference, Trance4mation Games, LLC & Diverse: Issues in Higher Education facilitated an activity that engaged attendees to open up and speak their truth in civil discourse to one another, while also understanding the importance of expressing empathy towards others.
During this session, attendees participated in The Keep It Real RX game where they were challenged to go beyond ordinary conversation into deeper understanding of one another. The Keep It Real RX game facilitated meaningful dialogue, spontaneity, relaxation, bonding, a full range of communication, and mutual enjoyment. In a fun and entertaining way, participants were able to explore their imaginations, express emotion, overcome shyness, develop creativity, reflect on and share their beliefs and experiences, take risks and loosen inhibitions. They heard different points of view and ways of handling things which gave them new perspectives and helped them to gain confidence in speaking in front of a group, while having a great time listening and sharing with one another.
Another group activity promoted a cultural excursion allowing attendees to “Discover the Gift of Aloha”! In this session, participants were taken on a journey into the art of creating Hawaiian leis while exploring the cultural history of Hawaii and its origins in Polynesian culture.
New at this year’s conference was an on-site counselor for one-on-one interaction with students and group debriefing sessions, which was very beneficial and very well received.
To wrap up the conference, students engaged in a collaborative activity by using storytelling through creative movement. Groups presented a role and created a skit to show expression and storytelling through dance.
To learn more about FNU’s Diversity Impact program, visit Frontier.edu/Diversity.
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- 2019 DI Weekend Group Photo
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- Keeping It Real
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- Keeping It Real
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- Kalena Kaluza at DI Weekend
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- Keep It Real Game
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- Diversity Rocks at DI Weekend
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- Honoring President Stone for all her DI initiatives
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- Dr. Valentin-Welch Kicking Off the Event
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- Honoring Wilvena for Her Years of Service
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- Lifting spirits
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- Circling Up
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- Honoring Our Diversity Counselor Ms. Daisy Brown
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- Expression Dance
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- Expression Unity Dance
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- Expression Dance Activity
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- Leis
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- Hawaiian Leis Group
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- Honoring Memories of Loved Ones
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- Honoring the Memories of Our Loved Ones
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).