Officially, William “Bill” Corley has been a part of Frontier Nursing University since 2019. That’s when he became a trustee. Two years later, he joined the Board of Directors. Unofficially, his connection to Frontier began 57 years ago in 1969.
At that time, it was known as the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery, and the campus was in Hyden, Kentucky. A year later, with the launch of the Family Nurse Practitioner program, the name would change to the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native Bill Corley earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary and obtained his master’s degree in hospital administration from Duke University. He then began his career as the administrative director at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC from 1966 to 1967. He served as the director of plans and operations for the 3rd Field Hospital for the US Army in Saigon, Vietnam.
He returned to the United States in 1968 to work as a consultant with the Chicago-based firm of Booz Allen Hamilton. One of his visits in that role was to Hyden and the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS).
“One of my first jobs was to look at FNS,” he said. “They were giving the midwives a paper certificate with no academic connection. We were trying to see whether or not FNS could affiliate with a university. We got a green light from Case Western University, so the degree or training was from a nursing school, and they could be ‘real’ nurse-midwives, even though they already were real nurse-midwives, just without the degree.”
Corley became a frequent visitor to campus and developed an appreciation and affection for the people and the area.
“I respected the nurses because they not only took care of the babies, but they took care of everybody,” he said.
Corley went on to accept a position as the Associate Hospital Director at the Albert B Chandler Medical Center at the University of Kentucky from 1971 to 1975. In 1975, he was named hospital director of Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In 1978 he was hired as president and CEO of Akron General Medical Center in Ohio.
Then, from 1984 to 2009, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Community Health Network in Indianapolis. The non-profit health system had more than 200 sites of care and affiliates throughout Central Indiana, Community Health’s full continuum of care integrates hundreds of physicians, specialty and acute care hospitals, surgery centers, home care services, MedChecks, behavioral health, and employer health services. By the end of his tenure, Community realized a 68% reduction in Serious Safety Event Rate (SSER) as part of Community’s commitment to creating an exceptional patient experience beginning with protecting patients from harm.
In 1990, Corley received the highest honor bestowed on individuals by Indiana’s Governor Evan Bayh — The Sagamore of the Wabash, which is given to those who have rendered distinguished service to the state or to the governor.
Corley retired from the Community Health Network in 2010 but stayed active, volunteering, consulting, refereeing high school basketball games, and spending time with his family, which includes one daughter, one son, and four grandchildren.
In 2015, he and his wife Angela were driving through Kentucky on their way to visit friends in Tennessee. He was reminded of Frontier and took a detour, spending a day in Hyden where he learned of the transformation from FNS to FNU and the subsequent growth and success of the university.
“It was the same as when I was there in 1969. I met a person who took me around and I saw all the places I had been before. He told me how it went from FNS to FNU and I thought, ‘Wow, I had just a little bit to do with that.’ And I gave him a $10,000 check.”
In the fall of 2019, Corley returned to Frontier, this time visiting the new campus in Versailles.
“I came to Versailles and started seeing what you’re doing there and I said, ‘This is story that needs to be told’. People need to know about Frontier Nursing University. There is a shortage of primary care physicians. I predict that nurse practitioners will be the replacement for family physicians in the future. I want to somehow help Frontier Nursing University to become known throughout the United States. No organization can do what they are doing now. FNU is in the right place at the right time.”
Corley’s belief in Frontier’s vision and mission led him to accept a position on the FNU Board of Directors in 2021. In 2023, Corley funded a scholarship in support of the university mission and its particular focus on preparing nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to serve rural and underserved areas. The scholarship provided $50,000 over a two-year period to fully cover tuition, and expenses for a Frontier student who demonstrated financial need.
“People need to know about Frontier Nursing University,” Corley said at the time. “I am happy to be able to provide this scholarship because I know how important the work being done at Frontier and by their graduates is in so many underserved communities across the country. We see the shortage of hospitals and doctors, particularly in rural and underserved areas. More than ever, it is important to have very educated nurses in these areas. You have to keep helping other people because there are a lot of people who need to be helped.”
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).