Frontier Nursing University (FNU) alumna and faculty member Mary Ellen Biggerstaff, MSN, DNP, has a heart for serving her community struggling with opioid addiction.
Mary Ellen takes on many roles: she is an FNU regional clinical faculty member for Washington, Alaska and Hawaii; she is an Evidence-Based Practice course faculty member; and she practices in a family clinic where she has served for the past ten years.
Mary Ellen’s community of Olympia, Wa. was formed as a hub for the logging industry. With the industry’s decline, the community has suffered high rates of unemployment and an economic downturn. This has led to an increase in patients dealing with opiate addictions as they try to cope with their hardships.
A new resource recently became available to help combat opiate dependency and addiction, and Mary Ellen has embraced it with open arms. Suboxone, a combination of buprenorphine, a narcotic, and naloxone, which blocks the effects of opioid medication, has emerged as an effective opioid addiction combatant.
Last year, Mary Ellen obtained her waiver to prescribe Suboxone through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)’s 24 hour Suboxone waiver training.
Soon after she obtained her waiver, Mary Ellen’s practice implemented a low-barrier medication-assisted therapy clinic. The clinic offers daily drop-in hours with a mission of treating addiction with radical empathy and acceptance for patients. A team of experienced registered nurses (RNs) and patient advocates assist the prescribing clinicians in the clinic.
“Anyone who has worked with opiate addiction knows how incredibly challenging this work can be, not only because of its difficulty in treating it, but the behaviors that go along with the addiction,” she said.
The clinic puts a strong emphasis on outreach to vulnerable communities, especially homeless and incarcerated populations. Mary Ellen has seen a dramatic improvement in extremely ill patients after only a week or two of Suboxone treatments.
“Our goal at this clinic is to treat everyone compassionately and meet them where they are to get them the help they need.”
Mary Ellen obtained her Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) through FNU back in 2009. She began working at a family-based clinic where she still serves as a clinician. Ten years at Summit Pacific Medical Center has allowed Mary Ellen to build relationships with patients and have a lasting impact on her community.
A few years ago, Mary Ellen knew she wanted to take the next step in providing better care to her patients. She enrolled in FNU’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program because of her past success in the MSN program.
“I’m a big believer in FNU’s mission, and the DNP program worked with both my work schedule and my crazy family schedule,” Mary Ellen said.
In her role as regional clinical faculty for FNU, Mary Ellen has mentored many FNU students through their coursework and clinicals.
“I train people to be excellent nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners, especially to rural and vulnerable populations,” she said. “I love to see students I mentored impacting their communities.”
Thank you, Mary Ellen, for your work with both FNU students and vulnerable populations!
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).