The Jonas Center for Nursing and 
Veterans Healthcare culminated its 10th anniversary year by recognizing champions of nursing across the healthcare system at an awards luncheon in New York City on December 6, 2016. The awards honored accomplishments of individuals and organizations dedicated to advancing the nursing profession through outstanding leadership in a field so essential to our health and well-being. Frontier Nursing University was honored to be an award recipient.
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) received the Jonas Nursing Education Award. This award was given to FNU for its unwavering service to preparing the next generation of nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners. With more than 77 years of experience, FNU is the largest continually operating nurse-midwifery education program in the U.S., started the first family nurse practitioner program in the U.S. and has graduated nearly 5,000 nurses and midwives representing every state and many foreign countries.
“Our honorees represent exceptional professionals from a variety of fields, including philanthropy, academia and arts,” said Donald Jonas, who co-founded the Center with his wife, Barbara Jonas. “It is of paramount importance that we recognize and support their continuous efforts to advance nursing through innovation, education, awareness building and promoting nursing leadership.”
Dr. Susan Stone, President of FNU, accepted the Jonas Nursing Education Award on behalf of alumni and students. In her remarks, Stone noted, “We have been honored to have six Jonas Scholars graduate from Frontier Nursing University, and we have recently enrolled another four Scholars for the 2016 cohort. As a community-based program, our Scholars are from across the United States – Alaska, Maine, Montana, Idaho and Hawaii.” The Jonas program has had a very positive impact on these Scholars and their doctoral projects, introducing them to leaders in their chosen fields and interests, and connecting them to a powerful network of support. Stone’s remarks described the current enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, 59% from rural areas and 75% from health professional shortage areas, that are helping to meet FNU’s mission to educate nurses to become competent, entrepreneurial, ethical and compassionate nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners who are leaders in the primary care of women and families with an emphasis on underserved and rural populations.
Joining Dr. Stone at the awards luncheon were several honored guests including Susan Graham, descendant of FNU’s founder Mary Breckinridge, and her husband Jon Kucera; Noel Smith Fernandez, former Social Services Secretary for the Frontier Nursing Service; and Ruth and Bill Lubic, national leaders in the midwifery field. Dr. Julie Marfell, Dean of Nursing, and Denise Barrett, Director of Development, were also present to accept this award.
Awards were also presented to the following individuals and organizations to recognize their outstanding contributions to nursing.
Ms. Blaustein is an Emeritus assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She was one of the original founders and a board member of the Baltimore Rape Crisis Center and the Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Maryland, and is the past president of the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, a longtime partner of the Jonas Center.
Started in 2007 as an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under the leadership of Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN and Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Center to Champion Nursing in America believes that everyone in America can live a healthier life, supported by a system in which nurses are essential partners in providing health care and promoting health.
Dr. Fagin, Dean Emerita and Leadership Professor Emerita of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, is an Ambassador to the Jonas Scholar program and provides guidance for the Center’s strategic planning.
Under the leadership of Executive Director Ahrin Mishan, the Foundation’s education initiatives center on the development of research and nurse-led innovation targeting areas of need, such as management of chronic illness, reducing disparities in care, and care for the aging population.
Ms. Jones is the creator of a book and film, The American Nurse, focused on raising the volume of the nurse’s voice in this country, and the forthcoming film Defining Hope, which examines the dying experience through the eyes of nurses, and is supported in part by the Jonas Center.
“We congratulate and sincerely thank this year’s honorees for their professional and outstanding contributions to the vitally important field of nursing,” said Darlene J. Curley, CEO of The Jonas Family Fund and Executive Director of the Jonas Center.
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).