Dr. Joan Slager has lived the full Frontier Nursing University experience. As a student, she was part of Frontier’s first Community-based Nurse-Midwifery Education Program (CNEP) graduating class in 1991, led by fellow Alumni Hall of Fame inductee Kitty Ernst. As a practitioner, she precepted over 100 FNU students. As an instructor and administrator, she returned to Frontier, serving first as a faculty member and Director of the Doctor of Nursing Program, and then as the Dean of Nursing before retiring in February 2025.
“I am so thankful for the support and friendship I have received from the FNU community,” Dr. Slager said in announcing her retirement. “My journey as a nurse-midwife began with Frontier and it has been so rewarding to have had the opportunity to come full circle back to FNU at the end of a satisfying and fulfilling career.”
Strangely enough, that career started in a barn. Growing up on a farm in Lake Odessa, Michigan, Dr. Slager was drawn to the wonders of the birthing process. She would frequently help care for the cows during the calving season and grew to love the experience.
“It was fascinating to me, and I just loved being there and watching. I think that’s what drew me to midwifery,” she said.
She earned her Bachelor of Nursing Science (BSN) in 1980 from Nazareth College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She enjoyed the maternal/child rotations and worked in the neonatal intensive care unit after graduation. She subsequently worked three years (1981-83) with the Kalamazoo County Health Department clinics and later took a position as a staff nurse at the Borgess Medical Center Family Birthing Center (1984-91).
While at the birth center, she worked with Kalamazoo’s first midwife and was inspired to become a midwife herself. Having heard about Frontier’s new Community-based Nurse-Midwifery Education Program (CNEP) from fellow Alumni Hall of Fame inductee Kerri Schuiling, she applied and became part of Class 1.
“I was intrigued that I didn’t have to travel 150-plus miles to go to school, and I could complete my education in my home community. It sounded too good to be true,” she said.
Dr. Slager was part of Frontier’s first CNEP graduating class in 1991. She began working as a nurse-midwife in Battle Creek, Michigan, eventually becoming the Director of Nurse-Midwifery at the Family Health Center of Battle Creek. She assisted Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo in developing a midwifery-led service in 1993, where she served as the Director of Nurse-Midwifery at the Bronson Women’s Service for 27 years, helping build it into one of the largest midwifery practices in the country.
Bronson also became a frequent location for Frontier students to find a preceptor, a role which Dr. Slager was happy to play.
“Each of us has our own reasons for why we chose a career in healthcare, but common amongst us is a shared desire to serve others,” she said of precepting. “We are heartened by the mission of Frontier Nursing University to care for underserved people and provide care to all those in need. We all chose to answer the call to serve. It is not an easy road to travel, and all of us relied on the support of others – friends, family, classmates, instructors, and preceptors – to achieve our goal of becoming nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives. How can we thank all the people who helped us achieve our goals? We can thank them by being devoted and skilled professionals, yes, but also by paying it forward to those who come after us.”
For Dr. Slager, paying it forward also meant helping other midwifery practices. She learned how to run a business, including the complicated world of knowing how to use billing codes accurately, and shared her knowledge via the Slager Consulting Business, which she established in 2000 while maintaining her everyday role as a nurse-midwife.
After 28 years as a practicing nurse-midwife, Dr. Slager contacted CNEP Class 1 classmate and fellow Alumni Hall of Fame inducted Dr. Susan Stone about a faculty position at Frontier. She was hired as the Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, then became the Interim Dean of Nursing and finally the Dean of Nursing in August 2018.
“Dr. Slager’s expertise and leadership were essential in helping guide Frontier during a difficult time in our history,” said. Dr. Stone. “We were in the process of moving to the Versailles campus and dealing with the COVID pandemic. Dr. Slager’s calm professionalism and extensive experience were invaluable to the university.”
“It was very emotional for me to have that first group come to the new campus,” Dr. Slager said. “After all the planning and the waiting through the pandemic, we finally had students on campus. That was probably one of the most notable accomplishments at Frontier that I was able to be a part of.”
Dr. Slager’s long list of accomplishments include being honored as the Dorothea Lang Pioneer Award recipient from the American College of Nurse-Midwives Foundation in 2008 and the Distinguished Service to Alma Mater award recipient from Frontier Nursing University in 2015.
She served two terms as Chair of the Business Section of the Division of Standards and Practice for the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) and four years as the Division Chair. She was a member of the ACNM’s Finance and Audit committee for 12 years including six years as Treasurer on the Board of Directors. She is a Fellow of the ACNM as well as the American Academy of Nursing. In 2007, she was presented with the Best Book of the Year Award for her Administrative Manual for Midwifery Practices by ACNM.
Now, she is a proud and deserving member of Frontier Nursing University’s Alumni Hall of Fame.
“First, it’s an honor to be included in such an auspicious group,” Dr. Slager said. “Second, I think we all share a nearly lifelong commitment to and love for midwifery and Frontier — and for Sue (Stone), Kerri (Schuiling), and me the inability to say ‘no’ to Kitty (Ernst)! Third, attaining ‘fame’ or becoming ‘famous’ was never a goal for any of us. The career pathways we chose don’t typically lead to notoriety, except for whenever or wherever we could make a difference for the families or students that we touched along the way.”
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).