Frontier Nursing University (FNU) attended the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) annual conference May 20-24 in Chicago. As always, Frontier had a HUGE presence at the conference, and it was even larger this year as FNU President Susan Stone was inducted as ACNM president-elect. We also had many students, alumni and faculty members receive awards and recognition for their hard work.
FNU Superheros Spotted at ACNM
Our main goal at ACNM this year was to recruit preceptors and what better way than with a superhero theme in our exhibit booth! We awarded those who signed up to be a preceptor with a superhero cape and had a Cape Fitting Station (photo booth) onsite. Other goodies included FNU cups and bags for alumni who are current FNU preceptors and those who signed up to become a preceptor. We’re excited to share great results from all this fun…we received 20 preceptor inquiries and set a new record for this conference!
Our interactive booth also had several activities to attract attendee participation. New for 2017 was an interactive map. We asked FNU students, graduates, preceptors and faculty members to pin their location on the map to show our presence at the ACNM conference this year.
We showcased our nurse-midwife, psychiatric-mental health and DNP programs as well. We talked to many people about Frontier’s DNP program, many of whom were interested in making changes in their communities. Many of the preceptor superheros were also interested in receiving information on our DNP program.
Celebrations at the Annual Reception
Frontier Nursing University hosted our annual reception on Monday, May 22. Nearly 200 people attended. Guests congratulated Dr. Stone on being the ACNM president-elect and celebrated the 10th anniversary of FNU’s ADN Bridge Entry Option. Special preceptor awards including oldest preceptor in attendance, local preceptors, preceptor from earliest CNEP class and others were recognized with a gift of handcrafted bowls from our Hyden,KY artisan, Boone. Attendees also received information on the new psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner program and Frontier’s new campus property. It was an uplifting event, and we were happy to network with the FNU community that traveled to the conference.
PRIDE Student Ambassadors Take over ACNM
FNU’s Diversity PRIDE Program hosted an essay contest and awarded two students with an expense covered trip to the ACNM annual meeting. The two PRIDE student ambassadors were Essence Williams and Shoba Monteserin Narayana. The ambassadors attended many sessions and the Midwives of Color Committee (MOCC) reception where Essence Williams was awarded the first ever Midwives of Color Committee Student Appreciation Award!
Additionally, student Krystal Wilkins won a stipend to attend the conference and FNU PRIDE students Heidi Carter and Paris Maloof-Bury both received a stipend to attend the conference to receive a Varney Award. It is a tremendous honor to have BOTH recipients of this award be FNU students. Overall, FNU PRIDE Ambassadors had a big presence at ACNM this year! Click here to read more details about the PRIDE student experiences at ACNM.
FNU Honors and Presentations
We were honored to celebrate the induction of Susan Stone as ACNM President-Elect. We are fortunate to have such an inspirational president at FNU, and we look forward to supporting her as she takes on ACNM presidential duties in the near future.
Many faculty members, graduates and students were recognized and/or presented sessions and posters during the ACNM conference:
Student Kudos
- Heidi Carter – Varney Award Recipient, PAC student representative, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health Care Scholarship
- Paris Maloof-Bury – Varney Award Recipient
- Essence Williams – Midwives of Color Committee (MOCC) Student Appreciation Award
- Jeanine Valrie-Logan – Midwives of Color Watson Scholarship recipient
- Karen Ojeda – Midwives of Color Watson Scholarship recipient
- Andrea Phillips-Hall – PAC student representative
- Nancy Reinhart- Student/New Midwives Section representative
- Andrew Youmans- ACNM Board of Directors
Faculty Kudos
- Niessa Meier – Immunization Champion Award
- Becky Faye – ACNM Exemplary Affiliate Award for Region 4 – Arkansas
- Kim Baraona – Teaching Excellence Award
- Kathryn Schrag – Distinguished Service Award
- Jill Alliman- Inducted as Fellow of ACNM
- Eileen Thrower- Program Committee for 2018 ACNM Annual Meeting, Savannah, GA
- Tonya Nicholson- Chair, ACNM Nominating Committee
- Katie Moriarty- ACNM, Board of Directors
- Joani Slager, ACNM, Board of Directors
- Susan Stone, ACNM- President- Elect
Inducted as Fellows
- Jill Alliman DNP Alumnus and Faculty
- Mayri Leslie Alumnus
- Leslie Rathbun Preceptor
- Kate Fouquier Alumnus 1996
- Sherilyn Gibbs, CNM, DNP, RNC-OB – Alumnus
Alumni Kudos
- Nadene Brunk – Distinguished Service Award, founder of Midwives for Haiti!
- Mary Bradish – Distinguished Service Award, author of a beautiful book of memoirs. She practiced full scope until she was 78.
- Melody Shambley – Outstanding Preceptor Award.
- Jessica Brumley – FNU Outstanding Preceptor Award
Sessions and Poster Presentations
- Susan Stone -Leadership: An Imperative for the Profession of Midwifery
- Tonya Nicholson, Tanya Tanner and Joani Slager – The Leader Within
- Tonya Nicholson – Struggling Students (Preceptor Workshop)
- Kim Barona- Smoking Cessation During Pregnancy: Brief Intervention for a Busy Practice
- Rebeca Barroso and Katya Simon – Breastfeeding Support After a Postpartum Hemorrhage: Evidence-Based Midwifery Approach.
- Tia Andrighetti and Janelle Komorowski -Creating Realistic Homebirth Simulation Workshop
- Heather Clarke – Pre and perinatal psychology 101
- Tanya Tanner – Sleep and midwifery practice
- Tanya Tanner – Developing and Promoting Your Quality Midwifery Practice
- Kate Moriarty – Affiliate Leadership Workshop
- Linda Cole and Kathryn Schrag – Book signing– Freestanding Birth Centers: Innovation, Evidence,Optimal Outcomes
- FNU alumna – Laura J. Valle DNP, APRN-CNM – Waterbirth and Neonatal Outcomes: An Integrative Review and Toolkit/Waterbirth Updates
- FNU alumni – Catherine Folker-Maglaya DNP, APN-CNM, IBCLC – Table Talk: Facilitating learning About Breastfeeding in a Community College Nursing Program
If you would like to see more photos from the ACNM reception and booth please click HERE.
For any FNU alumni, students, faculty or students who received awards or honors at ACNM that are not noted here, please contact FNUnews@frontier.edu and we will be happy to add it!
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).