The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) is hosting its 11th annual Diversity Impact Conference as a virtual event on June 24-26, 2021.
The Diversity Impact Conference brings together national thought-leaders and speakers to engage with the FNU community on important topics facing the nursing and midwifery workforce. The purpose of this conference is to increase awareness of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in healthcare and underserved and rural communities and recognize trailblazing nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners who have been influential in integrating DEI into healthcare.
This year’s conference theme is Dismantling Systemic Racism and Discrimination in Healthcare – Our Roles and Responsibilities. The goal of this year’s event is to explore the history of healthcare systems as a vehicle for promoting racism, sexism and other forms of oppression. The hope is that these discussions will bring awareness to problems within the healthcare system and empower the FNU community to lead inclusiveness within healthcare to new heights.
This year’s event has 4 main objectives:
- Identify ways to show compassion using diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Describe behavior changes essential to encouraging unity and improving the health outcomes of underserved and rural communities.
- Identify strategies to dismantle racism, sexism, heteronormativity, and classism in health care.
- Facilitate student confidence in their ability to find their place in the changing world.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Menah Pratt-Clarke, a writer, scholar, activist, and advocate. Pratt-Clarke is the Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity and Professor of Education (full professor with tenure) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her keynote address on June 25 will discuss “Social Justice through Extraordinary Compassion.”
On June 26, Dr. Judy Myers, the conference’s premiere speaker, will present on “The History of Eugenics.” Myers has held a lifelong passion for understanding the psycho-social aspects of health and healing in vulnerable populations. She currently serves on the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky advisory board and is a trustee for Frontier Nursing University. She has received many awards for her community service efforts, including the Spectrum Nursing Excellence Award for Community Service and the IU Service Learning and Community Engagement Award.
Sarika Bhakta,
a Certified Diversity Executive, will present” Effective Cultural Communications-Beyond Words,” also on June 25. Bhakta is a multi-faceted and multicultural executive who has over 20 years of experience empowering diverse talent and population groups to maximize their leadership potential while increasing their cultural competency and global perspective. Bhakta transforms organizational cultures enterprise-wide by utilizing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Engagement business solutions, driving innovation and sustainable outcomes.
The conference will come to a close on June 26 following “A Path to Healing: Cultivating AntiRacism as a Daily Practice,” hosted by Kirsten Ivey-Colson and Lynn Turner as The AntiRacist Table. The AntiRacist Table was created in response to the Racial Reckoning in America, as a way to bring AntiRacism into daily life as a daily practice.
This group works to educate Americans about African American history and the Black experience, along with rehumanizing Black people and motivating action to help create an AntiRacist America.
These discussions and sharing of ideas and experiences promise to be insightful, informative and thought-provoking. Frontier Nursing University has made a fundamental commitment to be an active leader for change. We are striving daily to be an anti-racist university. We believe, being anti-racist is not about who we say we are; it is about actions that we take. Anti-racism requires active and conscious efforts to end racial inequities in our daily lives and committing to interrupting racism when we see it. To all our students, preceptors, alumni and other committed partners, thank you for your commitment to our mission. We are all working hard together to make this world a better and more equitable place.
Find all 2021 Diversity Impact Conference Speaker bios here. FNU students, alumni, faculty, and staff can learn more and sign up to attend the Diversity Impact Conference here.
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).