As FNU has settled into its campus in Versailles, Ky., university staff and faculty have become very active locally while extending our Culture of Caring to those who live in our community. Here are a few of the ways we have engaged with our community over the past few months:
Supporting Future Nurses
Lisa Colletti-Jones, Director of Annual Giving and Courier Programs, presented a scholarship to Woodford County High School graduate Falyn Gooslin. Each year Frontier Nursing University provides a $1,000 scholarship to a graduating Woodford County High School senior who has committed to study nursing. FNU is dedicated to cultivating future nurses in our home community and around the nation.
Preserving History
Frontier Nursing University sponsored the Pisgah Farms and Furlongs 1/2 Mare-athon and 10K race through the horse farms of Central Kentucky. FNU’s Director of Clinical Outreach and Placement Stephanie Boyd participated and won second place in her age group. This race is orchestrated by residents and members of the Pisgah Community Historic Association, and 100% of the proceeds and donations benefit their mission of preserving this historic community.
The 10K runs through Ashbrook Farm and WinStar Farm. The Half Mare-athon course runs through Ashbrook Farm, Ashview Farm, Buck Pond Farm, and WinStar Farm.
Thought Leadership
Frontier sponsors the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce’s monthly Health + Wellness Roundtable in Versailles, Ky., home to FNU’s campus. Dr. Stone discussed the maternal mortality crisis in the U.S. at the roundtable this summer. Key takeaways included:
- According to 2022 data from the CDC, more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. from 2017-2019 were preventable by improving health care practices.
- Non-Hispanic Black women experience maternal mortality at more than 2.5 times the rate of white women.
- According to 2023 research, 88% of maternal deaths in Kentucky were deemed preventable.
- There were a total of 402 maternal deaths in Kentucky from 2013 to 2020, 191 of which were natural, 157 were accidental, 32 were due to homicide and 22 were due to suicide.
Leadership Programs
FNU Clinical Credentialing Coordinator Amanda Revely graduated from Leadership Central Kentucky, and four FNU staff members recently graduated from Leadership Woodford County: Eileen Frazier, Brittany Bachman, Erica Schroeder, and Megan Cadwell.
Protecting the Earth
We celebrated Earth Day on campus by planting seedlings and a pollinator strip in our new bird sanctuary area!
Courier Program Public Health Internship
Frontier’s seven-week Courier Program Public Health Internship wrapped up in August. Eight students, with an interest in public health, healthcare, social work, or a related field, participated in this hybrid service-learning program. Students gained insight into the challenges and opportunities of providing healthcare in rural and underserved areas through summer readings, group discussions, and volunteering. Their clinical observation sites were located in Frontier’s home state of Kentucky.
An Age-Friendly University
Frontier was accepted into the Age-Friendly University Global Network, a collective platform for institutes of higher education committed to creating inclusive and supportive environments across the lifespan. A significant component of Frontier’s university-wide commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, the university is dedicated to fostering lifelong learning opportunities and promoting active participation among older adults.
We’ve so enjoyed connecting with others this spring and summer through community involvement, and we’re looking forward to several more activities this year!
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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).