Frontier Nursing University (FNU) is excited to share this spring’s Circle of Caring winners. The University’s Circle of Caring Award recognizes FNU faculty and staff members who go above and beyond in upholding our mission and contributing to our Culture of Caring.
Nominations for this award are considered based on the following Culture of Caring characteristics: professionalism, mutual support, respect, positive communication and inclusivity.
This term’s faculty winner is FNU instructor of four years, Katie Moriarty, PhD, CNM, FACNM, CAFCI, RN. The spring staff winner is Aimee Niles, FNU library technician, serving on the library service team for six years.
The age of COVID-19 has been full of challenges for the nursing community, yet so many FNU staff and faculty members have used it as a chance to grow and support one another. Moriarty is an excellent example of that mindset. Here is what her nominator wrote when discussing her dedication to her students and team over the past year:
“Katie has displayed extraordinary kindness and thoughtfulness since the pandemic started. She has been amazingly supportive of students, developing an excellent handout of mental health resources that she has shared with the students and faculty each term. Katie encouraged faculty to watch ‘Trauma-Informed Teaching’ by Inman Mays to understand and better help our students.
She also suggested and started live ‘Drop-in’ sessions for the students and a ‘Self-care and Self-Calming Activities’ Discussion Board that has been immensely popular among the students and faculty. Finally, Katie has gone out of her way to be available to students and meet with them as many times as they need to help them get through this period. She has been the model of supportiveness, kindness, and making sure every person feels included and welcome in her course.”
Upon receiving the award, Moriarty responded:
“It was an honor to receive the Circle of Caring Award for the Spring 2021 term–it is an entire team effort and award! Our faculty is a coordinated unit that works to facilitate and optimize the didactic course material, elevating the learning experiences of our students. COVID-19 and many current disasters have added elements that complicate life and many individuals’ ability to function. These challenges have had an impact on everyone on a personal and a community level. No one has been exempt from the ups and downs.
Within our course, we are constantly rethinking how to help our students to learn and retain the course information. We have tried and encouraged varied techniques, platforms and strategies that we believe have created an environment that helps with adaptation. We have worked to embrace a trauma-informed pedagogy.”
Similarly, Niles has been incredibly accommodating, positive, and kind as she interacts with co-workers, faculty and students in her daily work. Here is what her nominator had to say about Niles:
“It is hard to pick just one instance or interaction that exemplifies my communication with Aimee. I often need several articles that have to be obtained via interlibrary loan service, and Aimee is always so helpful with these. She is always kind and patient, even when some articles prove challenging to obtain. Aimee goes above and beyond ensuring our course readings are all updated and correct every term, and I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to get this many faculty to meet a deadline, but Aimee does it with grace. She has a quiet serenity that she willingly shares in our communications, and you always get the impression that you are the only one she provides services for when in reality, there are at least a hundred others who need her to do things for them, too.”
In response to her award, Niles said, “I felt truly honored and humbled by receiving the Circle of Caring Award. I am so moved by the generosity of my coworkers and forever grateful as well.”
Thank you to Katie and Aimee for being excellent examples of FNU’s Culture of Caring!
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).