FNU Fellows at the ACNM 2018 Reception
A record number of attendees was tallied at The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) 63rd Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Savannah, Ga. from May 20-24, 2018. Over 2100 were in attendance – among them, several Frontier Nursing University (FNU) representatives. Faculty, staff, alumni, students, preceptors and friends of FNU attended the four-day conference, as well as FNU PRIDE ambassadors and student mentees that helped out at the FNU exhibition booth.
The booth was open for exhibiting from Monday evening until Wednesday afternoon and the conference ended on Thursday morning. FNU’s theme for 2018: “It’s no SECRET, we want you to answer the call to SERVICE.”
FNU “Secret Service” Exhibition booth
The chosen theme reflected FNU President Dr. Susan Stone’s induction as the President of ACNM on the last day of the conference. The booth was outfitted in secret service decor, complete with “Answer the Call” badges, microfiber cloths, and pens to give away to booth visitors.
Just as the legacy of FNU founder Mary Breckinridge demonstrated nearly 80 years ago, “answering the call” to service manifests itself in many different ways. Even if an attendee did not have Frontier ties, FNU representatives urged all Nurse-Midwives to answer the call to service, whether in education, precepting, or serving their community.
Photos with Kitty Ernst
FNU representatives in “Secret Service” gear
During the exhibition time, more than a dozen attendees expressed interest in precepting FNU students. FNU gifted sunglasses to those who showed interest in precepting as well as its current preceptors. Many other booth visitors inquired about getting a Doctor of Nursing Practice or a Post-Graduate Certificate in Psychiatric-Mental Health.
The FNU booth also boasted interactive activities, including taking photos with FNU legend Kitty Ernst and entering answers to the question “How are you answering the call to service?” through FNU’s app. Attendees could text their answer or enter it in using the provided laptop at the booth, and responses were then displayed on the monitor in a word cloud.
Word cloud created from attendees’ answers
In addition to the “Answer the Call” activity, FNU showed a historic timeline video on the booth monitor.
As an ACNM industry partner, FNU enjoyed several benefits during this year’s conference.
FNU hosted an Alumni and Friends Frontier Reception on Monday night. FNU Associate Dean of Midwifery and Family Nursing, Dr. Tonya Nicholson, preempted the reception with a Facebook Live event, interviewing many of the FNU faculty and staff leading up to the start of the reception. You can see the video here. There were nearly 200 attendees, including alumni, faculty, staff, students, preceptors and friends at the reception. The FNU Development unit showcased their new fundraising video to help relay the theme of answering the call to service.
FNU “Nurse-Midwife” t-shirts for sale
FNU also took part in the Midwifery Market, which was open from Tuesday to Wednesday during exhibiting hours. For sale at the market were Nurse-Midwifery T-shirts, Frontier Logo T-shirts, plush horses, and several Alumni items. FNU hit record-high sales this year, selling over 90 T-shirts.
Wednesday night, FNU representatives attended the ACNM Gala, where several FNU community members were awarded based on their outstanding service. The vast number of award winners created a strong recognition among conference attendees of how FNU community members work together to uphold the FNU mission and “answer the call” every day. All award winners will be posted on ACNM’s website.
On the last morning of the conference, FNU hosted the Frontier Breakfast for faculty and staff in attendance. The conference concluded with the ACNM Business Meeting, during which Dr. Stone was officially inducted as the ACNM President.
With new preceptors, potential student inquiries, and FNU’s own Dr. Stone now serving as its president, the 2018 conference was a success for all involved.
See more: View the FNU photo gallery from the 63rd Annual ACNM Annual Meeting
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).