Each fall, Frontier Nursing University’s (FNU) Chi Pi Chapter of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (STTI) awards several students with a $750 scholarship. To qualify for STTI membership, students must have completed at least a quarter of their degree program, hold a 3.5 or higher grade point average and demonstrate academic excellence.
Congratulations to the Fall 2019 Chi Pi scholarship recipients:
- Kara Crispin
- Debora Lundgren-Walls
- Sally Sanchez
- Meagan Tremblay
- Melanie Laub
- Carrie Hernandez
- Shannon Theiss
- Jenny Ownbey
Best of luck to these students as they continue their educational journeys! Here is what FNU students said about receiving the Chi Pi scholarship:
“Due to the generosity of the Chi Pi Chapter, I am one step financially closer to reaching my goal of becoming a family nurse practitioner. I have used a portion of the scholarship money to register for the Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and Nurse-Midwives annual conference in order to engage with my local nurse practitioner community, follow legislative decisions impacting my future practice, and participate in lifelong learning. In the remaining portion, I am setting aside to cover my expenses for Clinical Bound in July. Thank you Chi Pi for investing in my future.” -Kara Crispin
“The Chi Pi Scholarship arrived at a very opportune time. I was off work for three months after surgery and this scholarship provided some much appreciated financial support for the winter term. I am extremely grateful for the financial help and proud of the accomplishments I have achieved that allowed me to qualify for this scholarship. Thank you Chi Pi and Sigma Theta Tau.” -Melanie Laub
“The 2019 Fall Scholarship allowed me to spend more time concentrating on my studies during the DNP program and less time worrying about how to pay for it. In a time of financial need, this scholarship helped to slightly ease the financial burden. I am honored to have received a scholarship during the fall 2019 term and extremely grateful to the Chi Phi Honor Society for providing me with this opportunity.” -Meagan Tremblay
“Receiving a scholarship from Chi Pi was truly a blessing to my family. Two days before I received notice that I was awarded the fall scholarship, my husband and I had been discussing finances. We discussed whether I should continue in school and take out more school loans vs. taking a break to pay off what I had accrued. Also, my seven-year-old son was in need of oral surgery, and everything just seemed to be piling up, financially speaking. The scholarship boosted my spirits and allowed wiggle room for us to afford my son’s surgery. I am very honored to have received the Chi Pi scholarship.” -Carrie Hernandez
“As one of the recent Chi Pi scholarship recipients, I would like to reach out and thank the honor society and its members for their financial support through this scholarship. I chose to continue my education at Frontier Nursing University because their values aligned with mine, wanting to serve the families around me. My education here has been wonderful, and I have gained not only the knowledge and skill needed to become a future midwife, but also a family.
“I am currently going into my final terms at FNU and am in the midst of clinicals. We had an unexpected setback, and I lost my first and second clinical placements. I have had to relocate away from my family to finish clinicals and my degree. This has placed a huge financial burden on my family, and just when I thought I might have to drop out for a while, my extended family came to my assistance. Your financial support will assist me in continuing my required clinical hours and help me complete my MSN degree here at FNU. My family and I appreciate your support, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.” -Shannon Theiss
To find out more about Chi Pi and apply for the 2020 scholarship, visit Frontier.edu/Honor-Society.
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).
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