Faculty, staff, preceptors and students of Frontier Nursing University (FNU) had the opportunity to attend the 66th Annual American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Meeting, held virtually from Sunday, May 23 to Tuesday, May 25, 2021. FNU is excited to highlight the many FNU representatives who were recognized and received awards during this year’s ACNM Conference. We commend all of these individuals for their excellent work as nurse-midwifery leaders.
Awards, Honors and ACNM Leadership:
Heather Clarke inducted as President-Elect
Charlotte Morris inducted as At-Large Midwife of Color Board Representative
Nena Harris, Linda McDaniel, Dwynn Golden – ACNM Nominating Committee Members
Anne Cockerham – Excellence in Teaching Award
Cathy Collins-Fulea will assist Heather Clarke in her transition to ACNM president while carrying out the remainder of her role until 2022. Read more about the 2021 ACNM Election Winners.
Newly Inducted ACNM Fellows:
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- Laura Manns-James
- Ann Schaeffer
- Kim Baraona
- Donna Barisich
- Linda McDaniel
- Shaughanassee Vines
Linda McDaniel – ACNM Midwives of Color Committee (MOCC) Mentoring Award
Eileen Thrower – Incoming Program Committee Chair
Jane Houston – ACNM Planning Committee – Racism and Health Disparities Track Co-Chair, recipient of ICM scholarship
Shaughanassee Vines – ACNM Program Committee – Racism and Health Disparities Track Co-Chair
Mary Kay Miller – PAC board member and PAC rally
Faculty/Alumni Presentations:
Audrey Perry, Tanya Belcheff, Erin Tenney, Dwynn Golden, Katie Moriarty & Noelle Jacobsen: The Language of Interprofessional Communication
Tia Andrighetti: Interprofessional Education With Midwifery Students and Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents: What Difference Does It Make?
Charlotte Morris: Panel Discussion – Second Victim Phenomenon
Julie Daniels and Dawn Lovelace: Asthma: A Primer for Midwives
Diana Jolles and Minyon Outlaw: Safely Reducing Cesarean Sections Utilizing the PROVIDE Toolbox in a Faith-Based Hospital with a special thanks to Elliott Fields, IT Support Services Manager, for his assistance with videography.
Diana Jolles: Doctoral Degrees for Midwives: The Need and Value – Selecting the Degree That is Right for You
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- Featured faculty, alumni, and current students:
- Lauren Arrington DNP, CNM (FNU faculty)
- Onidis Lopez DNP, CNM (DNP grad)
- Minyon Outlaw DNP, CNM (DNP grad)
- Andrew Youmans, CNM, Ph.D. student (CNEP Grad)
- Protegenie Reed CNM (DNP Student)
- Leslie Kwiatowski, FNP (DNP Student)
- In memory of Susan Marie Hanafin MSN CNM (FNU Preceptor)
- Featured faculty, alumni, and current students:
Donna Barisich: Affiliate Leader Workshop and track
Linda McDaniel: Affiliate Leader Workshop & Affiliate DEI work
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- Second Victim Trauma & Resilience
- Equitable Midwifery Care for Women of Color with Breast Cancer with Dwynn Golden and Dawn Lovelace
- Diversity Statements & the Learning Context
Eileen Thrower:
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- Virtual Delivery: Practicing Birth Skills and Building Community in a Distance-Learning Format
- Oral Histories: Empowerment through Preserving Our Voices
Kendra Faucett: Stand up and be Counted! Why Ensuring Birth Certificate Accuracy Should Be the Priority of Every Midwife
Lauren Arrington: Launching Perinatal Health Equity: A Quality Improvement Project
Becky Fay, Charlotte Swint, Eileen Thrower: Development of an Interprofessional Scholarship Workgroup: Systematic Process for Creating and Disseminating Midwifery and Nursing Knowledge
Becky Fay: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) 101 for Midwives
Kate Woeber:
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- Structural Anti-Racism Strategy to Prevent Pregnancy Complications
- Workforce and Practice Effects of State Midwifery Licensure and Regulation During the Pandemic
- Maternity Care Changes in Response to Pandemic
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).