Frontier Nursing University (FNU) announced its annual award recipients for 2024. These awards are presented to FNU alumni who have gone on to make significant contributions to their communities or to the university. The awards were presented at a ceremony during FNU’s Homecoming event on March 23.
FNU was founded in 1939 as the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery. FNU has since grown to become one of the largest nonprofit universities in the United States for advanced nursing and midwifery education. As a pioneer in graduate nursing and nurse-midwifery education, FNU remains at the forefront of innovation and technology with top-ranked, accredited programs delivered via community-based distance education. Frontier Nursing University offers a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree, and post-graduate certificates leading to education as a certified nurse-midwife (CNM), family nurse practitioner (FNP), women’s health care nurse practitioner (WHNP) and/or psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP).
“So many of our alumni have gone on to do amazing things in communities all across the country and even the world,” said FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc, FAAN, FACNM. “I am so proud of the way they represent and support Frontier Nursing University. Their dedication, commitment, and generosity are truly inspiring.”
Distinguished Service to Society Award
The Distinguished Service to Society award recognizes an alumnus who goes above and beyond to provide exceptional service in his or her community. The 2024 recipients of this award are Dr. Francis Aho, DNP, CNM, and Christopher Davis, MSN, FNP-C, ENP-C.
Dr. Francis Aho is the director of the Africa Mission Services Community Health Clinic and Women’s Health Center serving the Maasai tribe of Kenya. Born in Switzerland, Aho moved to the United States when she was 4 years old and spent most of her childhood in western Tennessee. After obtaining her RN, she worked as an ER nurse for four years before resigning and traveling to Honduras, where she assisted in a medical capacity in clinics as a nurse.
Christopher Davis is a United States Public Health Service (UPHS) officer assigned to the Department of Justice. He currently works in a medium-security prison in his home state of South Carolina, treating adult male patients who have been incarcerated. Hepatitis C, HIV, and opioid use disorder are among the common conditions he treats. Davis began his career in health care as a paramedic, during which time his responsibilities included 911 responses, critical care transports, and flight medicine.
Distinguished Service to Alma Mater Award
The Distinguished Service to Alma Mater honors an alumnus who has continued to provide support to Frontier through volunteer efforts and/or philanthropy. The 2024 recipient is Dr. Tia Andrighetti, CNM, APRN, CHSE-A, CNE, FACNM.
Dr. Tia Andrighetti has been a faculty member at Frontier Nursing University for 20 years. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at FNU and is also the university’s Innovation Coach and Simulation Coordinator. Andrighetti grew up in Connecticut and attended Penn State University as a pre-med student but ultimately chose to become a nurse instead. She obtained her MSN from Case Western University and her nurse-midwifery certificate from Frontier in 1997. After doing her clinicals in Florida, Andrighetti moved to Connecticut, where she worked in private practice while her husband went to law school. She left practice for a few years to have children, then became regional clinical faculty (RCF) at Frontier and went on to obtain her DNP from Frontier in 2010.
Unbridled Spirit Award
The Unbridled Spirit Award is given annually to a former Courier who is dedicated to serving others, has ongoing, longstanding stewardship of Frontier; and has demonstrated conviction, courage, and a zest for adventure. The Courier Program Public Health Internship is an eight-week rural and public health summer service-learning program for college students with an interest in public health, healthcare, or a related field. The 2024 recipient is Dr. Elia R. Cole.
Dr. Cole is a Family Medicine physician with Northwest Permanente. In her current practice, she sees patients virtually, providing a blend of urgent and primary care to patients in Washington and Oregon. Cole is a member of her local executive board of the Washington Association of Family Physicians. She was born in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York. As a young girl, Dr. Cole’s mother was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. An all-female medical team became a decisive influence when Cole realized she wanted to be a doctor, too.
Lifetime Service Award
The Lifetime Service Award recognizes an individual or organization providing long-standing support and commitment to the mission and work of Frontier Nursing Service and Frontier Nursing University. The 2024 recipient of this award is Janice L. Bovée, MSN, CNM.
In her 46 years as a Registered Nurse, Bovée “caught” 1,867 babies, assisted physicians in more than 500 cesarean sections, and mentored hundreds of nurses and student nurse-midwives. It is the career she dreamed of even as a child. Born in Mesa, Arizona, she attended high school in Phoenix and became a candy-striper through the American Red Cross program when she was 16. She married shortly after graduating from high school and had her first child while enrolled in a junior college nursing program. A year after the birth of her second child, Bovée graduated with an associate degree in nursing in 1978 and began working as an RN in a small rural hospital.
Distinguished Preceptor Award
The Distinguished Preceptor Award recognizes an alumnus providing long-standing support and commitment to the mission and work of Frontier Nursing Service and Frontier Nursing University through precepting students. The 2024 recipient of this award is Dr. Sandi Mellor, DNP, APRN, FNP.
Dr. Mellor was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she now owns Neighborhood Medical Clinic, a combined family and urgent care practice. She knew at an early age that she wanted to pursue a medical career and took a medical-surgical nursing class while still in high school. She worked towards her associate degree in nursing and worked as a nurse for three years for the National Health Authority in Bedford, England, where her husband was stationed as a member of the U.S. Air Force. Upon returning to the United States, she completed her bachelor of science in nursing degree in 1998. While raising two sons, she worked in the cardiac intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, and neonatal intensive care unit, as well as the trauma and emergency room.
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).