As a Doctor of Nursing Science, Family Nurse Practitioner, and Certified Nurse-Midwife, Dr. Pat Caudle was educated and prepared for most anything during her career as a nurse practitioner, full scope nurse-midwife, and instructor. But she wasn’t prepared for the call she received informing her that she was selected to be inducted into the Frontier Nursing University Alumni Hall of Fame.
“My first reaction was, ‘Golly, why pick me?’” Dr. Caudle said “Of all the graduates of Frontier… I mean, my gosh, look at the stars you have. Fabulous people. Why me?”
The answer to that question is woven through the fabric of Dr. Caudles’ journey in nursing and as a faculty member at Frontier.
Dr. Caudle grew up in Ballinger, Texas. During her senior year of high school, she took a career test that suggested she should become a teacher or a nurse. She chose nursing and took a job as a nurse’s aide right after graduating and soon began training as a nurse at a diploma school.
“It’s not like going to college,” she said. “It’s an apprentice-like program, on-the-job training.”
She graduated second in her class from Shannon West Texas Memorial Hospital of Nursing in San Angelo, Texas, in 1968. She went on to attend Texas Christian University where she earned her BSN.
She served as a nurse in the U.S. Air Force from 1969-71, beginning as a second lieutenant and finishing as first lieutenant. Shortly after she was honorably discharged from the Air Force, the first of her two sons was born in an Air Force hospital. After her second son was born, she earned her master’s degree at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and went on to teach at the University of Louisiana in Alexandria while her husband worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She also taught at Northwestern in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Her interest in women’s healthcare led her to become a family nurse practitioner focused on women’s health, and she became certified in 1981.
“We were blessed with a move to California in 1985, and I was able to go to the University of San Diego for my doctorate in nursing science,” Dr. Caudle said. “We were there for six years and then came back to Arkansas where we had property in Heber Springs. While in the doctoral program I took a history research course, and my focus was on midwifery because of a long-held interest in the profession. To become a nurse-midwife in California, I would have had to move or commute 300 or 400 miles because there was not a school in San Diego. When I got back to Arkansas, I discovered Frontier’s Community-based Nurse-midwifery Education Program (CNEP) through a colleague of mine, Joni Yarnell, who was in Class 1 of CNEP. She served as my preceptor. I was 48 years old and already had my doctorate when I started CNEP (Class 9) and I was 50 when I finished.”But her time at Frontier had only just begun. Upon an invitation from former FNU Dean and President Dr. Susan Stone, Dr. Caudle joined the Frontier faculty in May 2000. She taught at Frontier for 18 years before retiring at the age of 71.
Dr. Caudle was beloved and respected as an instructor. She was a six-time recipient of a Student Choice Award (2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2013, and 2015) recognizing the students’ favorite instructors. One of her many former students is current FNU President Dr. Brooke A. Flinders.
“Pat was an incredible educator who supported and inspired us as students as we were beginning our journeys at Frontier,” Dr. Flinders said. “I’ll never forget Pat’s ability to translate pathophysiology content so that I felt capable and confident in learning it. I remember calling her before taking my proctored exams — not to review detailed course material, but to hear her voice and her encouragement that I could do it. Pat washed my hands at Wendover as a symbolic welcome into the midwifery community. Pat encouraged me at an American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) conference to come back to Frontier to complete my DNP. Pat welcomed me to Frontier when I came back to FNU to serve as President. She has been such an influence on me throughout my growth as a practitioner, educator, and nurse leader.”
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” Dr. Caudle said of her time as an FNU instructor. “The first two years I was in Hyden and caught babies there in the hospital. When the hospital decided not to have midwifery anymore, we went to Manchester and caught babies there. The last birth I attended was in June 2002. I moved back to Arkansas in November 2002 because my husband had developed heart problems. From then on, I went back and forth to Hyden for the Bounds. Each time it was like coming home.”
Frontier Bound is an immersive on-campus experience for new FNU students. Students later return to campus for Clinical Bound, which is a hands-on learning experience that prepares them for their clinical practicum.
In 2024, Dr. Caudle came “home” again, visiting Frontier’s former campus in Hyden.
“I went to Hyden because it marked the 30th year since I rode that little yellow school bus up the hill to go to school,” Dr. Caudle said. She also visited the new home of FNU at the Versailles campus in May of 2025, marking the 25th anniversary of her hire date as an FNU faculty member.
Dr. Caudle’s contributions to the professions of nursing, midwifery, and education are enduring. She has shared her extensive knowledge and passion for the nursing profession with countless students across the country and the globe, authoring chapters in medical-surgical, prenatal-postnatal, and pharmacology books. She also served on the American Midwifery Certification Board for seven years, including two years as secretary.
She continues to give back to the profession in general and to Frontier in particular as a donor and supporter.
“Frontier was very good to me,” she said. “I support Frontier because of their mission and what they are trying to do, in regards particularly to helping women of color and women of other languages and cultures to achieve midwifery. I think that’s a very important goal and I’m pleased to be able to help. And I support Frontier because I want to see more midwives and family nurse practitioners in this country.”
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).