Frontier Nursing University (FNU) has a long history of caring for and serving women and families. Students who are new to Frontier can expect to find a community of nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners, and educators who celebrate a Culture of Caring with an emphasis on underserved and rural populations.
Through FNU’s distance learning program, students can earn a graduate degree in their community while being supported by a passionate faculty, staff and student network. Early coursework is completed in the student’s own home, on their time, with a workload of around 40 hours per week for full-time students, and approximately 30 hours per week for part-time students. The structure allows students to balance their current life and commitments with their desire to further their healthcare education through distance learning.
Although students work remotely, they don’t work in isolation. FNU programs emphasize community and students enjoy the support of instructors, mentors, and classmates.
“I don’t believe that anyone will find this same relationship that we all have in any other school, on-campus or distance,” said nurse-midwifery alumna Kate Lawrence.
Nearly all FNU faculty are also nurse practitioners or nurse-midwives, and half still actively practice in addition to teaching. These leaders understand the challenges that students face and are always available to answer questions and support them throughout their Frontier journey.
Frontier recently added an office to support students in their search for clinical sites. The clinical outreach and placement unit helps students as they seek the optimal clinical site, preceptors, and experiences. This team collaborates with our Regional Clinical Faculty and Credentialing Department to make the transition into clinical as seamless as possible.
Another vital resource offered to FNU students is the Alice Whitman Memorial Library. Our library is home to a wide range of useful resources, including books, journals and databases that can all be accessed online. The library boasts an excellent staff of librarians that answer reference calls and email inquiries throughout the week. FNU’s library is just one more way we aim to give students the support they need as they complete their studies at home.
Despite the physical separation that comes with the distance learning model, we want our students to feel connected to their peers and faculty. It is for this reason that Frontier strives to provide students with the same level of social support and leadership opportunities that would be available through a traditional on-campus program.
“It’s not like any typical online program, in Frontier you interact over webinars… on a weekly basis. Instructors are always by my side, monitoring and assisting my way to success,” said FNU alumna Avnit Kainth, BSN.
As a Frontier student, you may participate in peer mentoring, student council, and our Wide Neighborhoods Ambassador Program. FNU also hosts active chapters of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society Of Nursing and The Institute of Healthcare Improvement. Students seeking a high level of involvement will have plenty of opportunities to engage in the many programs FNU offers.
“Frontier emphasizes how to recognize the need in your community. They teach you to be an entrepreneur with the intent of seeking out those in need and serving them,” said FNU alumna Jennifer Cameron, MSN, CNM.
At FNU, our goal is to cultivate compassionate leaders and healthcare professionals. With dedicated faculty and staff, an excellent student network, and a variety of online resources, students have everything they need to build a foundation of knowledge that will lead to a long successful career. Go here to learn more about the FNU student experience.
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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).