Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success
Paula Alexander-Delpech, Ph.D., PMHNP-BC, APRN
Bio
Frontier Nursing University’s current Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech, Ph.D., PMHNP-BC, APRN, has been selected as the university’s first Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success. Dr. Alexander-Delpech was named the university’s CDIO in 2022.
The role of the Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success is to fully incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to promote student success and retention throughout the FNU community. The creation of this high-level leadership position is an innovative step to centralize all of the university’s student services, such as orientation, academic advising, registration, retention, student activities and organizations, counseling, and more.
“Dr. Alexander-Delpech’s leadership of Frontier’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives have been exemplary,” said FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FACNM, FAAN. “Utilizing her expertise as our first Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success is an essential step in infusing DEI efforts throughout the university’s operations. We are confident that this will enhance our already impactful student services to provide even higher levels of support than ever before.”
Dr. Alexander-Delpech is co-chair of the President’s Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She is also co-chair of the Faculty, Staff, and Preceptor Development and Retention sub-committee of the DEI Task Force. Dr. Alexander-Delpech created and implemented the DEI Faculty Fellow and the DEI Staff Ambassador programs. Each program rejects the traditional DEI approach and instead uses an individualized peer education model to facilitate the development of skills and knowledge to address systemic racism and pervasive healthcare inequities.
“I am honored to be appointed to this new role as the Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “We have a great responsibility and opportunity to further Frontier Nursing University’s longstanding history and commitment to ensure the success of our students and prepare them to be skilled, ethical, and compassionate leaders in their communities. Many of our students represent rural and underserved communities, making their presence all the more impactful in providing culturally competent healthcare.”
Dr. Alexander-Delpech is a Board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She is an appointed member of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) diversity committee; an inaugural member of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty (NONPF) diversity committee; a member of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA); the President-elect of the Florida chapter of the APNA; a member of the South Florida Council of Advanced Practice Nurses; and a member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).
FNU’s enrollment of students of color has risen from 9 percent in 2010 to over 30 percent today. During that span, the university created the CDIO position, the three-person Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and has held its annual Diversity Impact Conference every year beginning in 2010. FNU has been awarded the Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine each of the past six years (2018-2023) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Advancing Diversity, Inclusion, and Sustainability in Academic Nursing Award in 2021 and 2023.
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).