In communities across the country, access to quality care is dependent on a highly skilled, trusted provider: the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). Serving patients across the lifespan, FNPs are advanced practice registered nurses who provide comprehensive, patient-centered care to individuals and families.
For health care professionals, becoming an FNP opens the door to a wide range of practice settings, patient populations, and focus areas. FNPs provide ongoing, comprehensive care in primary care clinics and private practices; serve as essential providers in rural and frontier health clinics; and work within hospital and health system settings, including outpatient clinics and collaborative care teams. Many FNPs also practice in community health centers caring for underserved populations; deliver care through telehealth and virtual platforms; and support older adults in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities.
While grounded in primary care, many FNPs pursue specialized areas of interest that allow them to shape their careers around their passions. These areas may include chronic disease management, preventive and wellness care, women’s and men’s health, geriatric care, behavioral and mental health, and population-focused care initiatives. Because of their broad training, FNPs may serve infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults, as well as families and multigenerational households.
Whether serving as a primary care provider in a rural clinic, leading a community health initiative, or launching an independent practice, Family Nurse Practitioners play a vital role in improving access to high-quality, patient-centered care.
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) has been at the forefront of family nursing education since introducing the first FNP program in the United States in 1970. The FNP curriculum is built on a strong academic and clinical foundation and is designed to develop not only skilled practitioners, but also healthcare leaders and entrepreneurs.
“Our graduates are well-prepared clinicians who are improving health care across the country,” said Audra Cave, DNP, FNP-BC, Department Chair of Frontier’s Department of Family Nursing. “Frontier students gain firsthand insight into the needs of their communities and learn the skills necessary to start their own practices, if that’s the path they choose.”
FNU’s accredited community-based, distance-learning FNP program offers affordable tuition, flexible online coursework, supportive faculty and staff, and dedicated clinical placement services. Frontier graduates consistently excel on the national certification exams administered by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). In 2025, 99% of FNP MSN graduates and 100% of FNP PGC graduates passed the AANP exam, while 100% of both FNP MSN and PGC graduates passed the ANCC exam in 2024 — far surpassing the national pass rate of 83% recorded for both exams in 2024.
Frontier students can enroll full– or part-time and complete 100 percent of their coursework online, with clinical practicums carried out in their own communities. Before diving into didactic and clinical work, students come together for two brief on-campus immersion experiences designed to help them connect with peers and faculty and build a support network that carries them through the program. After earning an MSN, graduates may continue to complete a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) at FNU with just 30 additional credit hours.
To learn more about FNU’s online FNP program, visit frontier.edu/family-nurse-practitioner.
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).