At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented community of students, graduates, faculty, staff, Couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to work with all people, with an emphasis on rural and underserved communities.
Frontier Nursing University Associate Professor Dr. Joanne Keefe, DNP, MPH, FNP-c, CNE, was recently selected as a member of the 2026 cohort of Rural Health Fellows by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA), a reflection of her commitment to providing quality care to rural and underserved communities. Following a competitive review process, 18 fellows were selected to participate in this yearlong program, which is designed to cultivate national leaders who can champion a clear and compelling vision for rural America.
“I look forward to connecting with and sharing strategies with others who strive to improve rural healthcare and impact policy,” Dr. Keefe said. “When I applied, my focus was on my local community, but I also understood that working locally supports national efforts, and vice versa. I hope to bring the things I learn to the FNU community as well. We are the strongest and benefit the greatest number of people when we work together.”
For Dr. Keefe, improving access to rural healthcare is a daily commitment. She is the co-founder and director of Catron County Cares (CCC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit with the focus of increasing access to healthcare in Catron County, New Mexico. Dr. Keefe founded the nonprofit in January 2025 with four likeminded professionals to identify and address and raise awareness of healthcare gaps, and to collaborate with community and external partners to improve the county’s healthcare access.
CCC offers free CPR and First Aid training to anyone in the community and is preparing to launch an initiative in which CCC Emergency Kiosks will be placed around the community. The kiosks will house an AED, first aid kit, pulse oximeter, naloxone, and other triage equipment.
“People in my rural community are suffering, dying, and have worse overall outcomes than the rest of the nation because they do not have access to healthcare,” Dr. Keefe said. “There is no hospice, no home health, no PT/OT or pharmacy, and currently, the only primary health clinic in the 7,000-square-mile county operates out of a hotel room. In 2025, it is inconceivable that where you live affects how long and how well you live, but it does.”
Dr. Keefe has been a faculty member at Frontier since 2015 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Doctor of Nursing (DNP) program. She received the Frontier Student Choice Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018 and was presented with a DAISY Award in 2020, an international recognition program that honors nurses for compassionate, skillful care. In her role at FNU, she enjoys fostering success, especially with challenging content such as Epidemiology and Biostatistics
“Meaningful teaching, to me, means focusing on what is important and ensuring that students can apply it in the future to enhance their practice and provide excellent care to their patients,” she said. “There is a lot of guidance around what is important; that part is fairly easy. The joy is in devising ways to make it interesting, understandable, and accessible so that students can successfully gain the tools they need to be outstanding providers.”
Dr. Keefe’s relationship with FNU goes far beyond her role as a faculty member. She is a two-time FNU graduate, earning her Family Nurse Practitioner MSN and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in 2013 and 2014, respectively. She obtained her Associates Degree in Nursing from Montgomery College in Takoma Park, MD, Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Phoenix (1999) and Master’s in Public Health from the University of New Mexico (2005).
“The history of the FNS (Frontier Nursing Service) and Mary Breckinridge has resonated with me since my first orientation to Frontier Nursing University at Frontier Bound,” Dr. Keefe said. “What incredible lineage and history we share.”
At FNU, Dr. Keefe is a 2025-2026 President’s Academic Fellow, a selective program that offers faculty members the opportunity to engage in focused leadership development alongside a small cohort of esteemed colleagues. The diverse perspectives within the cohort contributed meaningfully to strategic planning efforts and the formation of additional collaborative groups.
Dr. Keefe also volunteered as a speaker for the Office of Student Engagement’s speaker series, where she highlighted challenges facing rural and frontier communities and shared the work of CCC. She said the presentation revealed strong interest in continued conversation and collaboration around rural healthcare within the FNU community. In response, she plans to create a shared space at FNU for discussing interventions, seeking support, and exchanging resources.
“I look forward to further collaboration as we join forces and work together in our local communities, significantly improving healthcare access on a larger scale,” she said. “I am excited to see where this goes. Truly, we can be like the Banyan Tree in rural healthcare, growing roots far and wide, as Mary Breckinridge envisioned.”
In addition, Dr. Keefe said she is grateful for Frontier Nursing University’s Chi Pi Chapter of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, along with FNU colleagues, administration, Board members and others, for their guidance and support.
“There is an incredible network of support around taking care of people, and I feel grateful and hopeful about this work,” she said.
Along with her work with FNU and CCC, Dr. Keefe also holds memberships in numerous nursing and health associations, including the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council, the American Nurses Association, the National Organization for Nurse Practitioner Faculty, and the National Rural Health Association. She has also been an Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing peer evaluator since September 2024.
Dr. Keefe said she is grateful for organizations like these, along with the Quemado Auxiliary, Catron County Historical Society and the NRHA for their enduring support. She said when CCC was being established, the organization was awarded assistance from NRHA through the Rural Health Community Capacity Academy to help with year-long coaching and a grant-writing class.
“All organizations, from local to national, offer rich opportunities for networking and collaboration, particularly when approached with a humble attitude,” she said.
Dr. Keefe said her background, which spans nursing, public health, academia, and community leadership, have coalesced in ways she could have never envisioned.
“The experiences and education I have been privileged to access provide me with an understanding of tools and systems to measure and solve problems effectively and efficiently, and give me the confidence to try,” she said. “Living in a rural/frontier community, however, has been the best teacher about current issues with rural healthcare.”
Looking toward her future with CCC and as a Rural Health Fellow, Dr. Keefe said her vision is to “expand the work.”
“I don’t know exactly what this will look like, but it will include true collaboration, sharing, policy work, novel approaches, and increasing partnership areas to make it happen,” she said. “This is not a time to shrink and accept what is; this is a time to realize our power. We can, and will, do this better together.”
Thank you, Joanne, for your unwavering commitment to serving rural communities and for inspiring others through your compassion, dedication, and commitment to the values that define FNU.
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).