Frontier Nursing University (FNU) graduate Junise Belizaire, FNP is working to change the way people think about healthcare access in Wesley Chapel, Fla. Belizaire has made it her mission to bring quality healthcare to an underserved population.
After working as a nurse for several years, Belizaire knew that she wanted to do more within the healthcare field. She enrolled in FNU’s Family Nurse Practitioner program and went on to earn her Master of Science in Nursing from FNU.
“I chose Frontier because their model encompasses everything that I believe in: family, community, and a passion for the underserved,” Belizaire said. “And, when you attend Frontier, you quickly see that the school is so much more than a well-written mission statement; the Frontier community is truly united in their passion for improving the healthcare field. The people of FNU ignited a fire in me that helped to fuel my career and lead me to where I am today.”
Upon graduation, Belizaire found herself in many jobs as a nurse practitioner. While she loved caring for patients, she found herself frustrated with the healthcare system and longed for a more personal approach to patient care.
“I became a nurse practitioner so I could make a greater difference in my patients’ lives and a greater impact in the healthcare system. I wanted to be a part of the solution by breaking down health care disparities and reaching more individuals. In more traditional roles, I felt like I wasn’t able to meet my full potential as a provider,” Belizaire said.
With that in mind, Belizaire launched Bay Area Mobile Clinic, a house call practice. Through this new practice, Belizaire uses her mobile clinic to provide services to individuals, families, and underinsured employees to bring cost-efficient healthcare to everyone.
“Whether a person is homebound, has transportation difficulties, or simply needs convenience, everyone deserves quality, affordable care,” Belizaire said.
Belizaire is attending to patients who often went without care before her services arrived.
“Many of my patients have not seen a provider in years,” Belizaire said. “My hope is that by bringing care to these individuals, I can decrease the number of healthcare disparities within my community.”
Belizaire said that opening the practice has been the highlight of her professional career because, through this clinic, she can bring compassion and caring to patients without the rush and disconnect of more traditional medical settings.
Frontier educates its students with the primary goal of assuring that they are well prepared to serve rural and underserved populations. The need is great and the challenges are many as the U.S. continues to face healthcare crises, disparities, and provider shortages. Women of color die from pregnancy-related illness at three times the rate of white women, mental health issues plague our country, and suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control. In addition, more than 130 people die each day from opioid-related illnesses.
“We must create a diverse healthcare workforce, a workforce that can competently serve persons and families from many different cultures that are representative of our United States,” said Dr. Susan Stone, FNU president.
Frontier encourages students to be leaders and entrepreneurs, just like Belizaire.
Thank you, Junise, for your dedication to the Bay Area, your commitment to the Frontier mission, and the hope you are bringing to your community. We are proud to have you as a member of the FNU community!
If you are interested in reading more stories about the fantastic work of FNU alumni members, visit the FNU Alumni stories page.
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).