Frontier Nursing University recently announced that two new members have been appointed to the university’s President’s Cabinet. FNU Regional Clinical Faculty (RCF) Jenkins Michelle Lawhorn, DNP, CNM, RNC-OB, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Coordinator Chris Turley, MS, BS, will serve on the President’s Cabinet throughout 2025.
FNU’s President’s Cabinet collaborates with the Board of Directors and university leadership to offer internal guidance and expertise on initiatives, policies, and operations that support FNU’s mission, vision, and culture of caring. To expand diverse perspectives within the Cabinet, FNU adds two members on a rotating basis, one faculty and one staff member, to serve for a one-year term. Nomination and selection criteria prioritize candidates capable of offering insights currently underrepresented within the Cabinet. Dr. Lawhorn and Turley will also be mentored by the members of the President’s Cabinet throughout the year, facilitating transparency and education about how leadership decisions are made.
Dr. Lawhorn is a two-time FNU graduate, obtaining a Master of Science in Nursing with an emphasis in midwifery and a Doctor of Nursing Practice. A graduate of Clemson University, she holds additional certifications in inpatient obstetrics nursing and electronic fetal monitoring.
In addition to serving as a faculty member, Lawhorn continues to practice as a nurse-midwife at the University of North Carolina Health. She provides full-scope midwifery care in both the community and hospital settings. “As a former student, current preceptor, and faculty member at Frontier Nursing University, I hope to share my viewpoint based on my diverse connections with the university to help influence future decision-making,” Dr. Lawhorn said.
“As an FNU Student Mentor, Student Interest Group Advisor, and Clinical Bound Team Lead, I plan to bring the transparent voice of our students to the Cabinet since they are the ones we serve. As a young faculty member, I would love to witness multiple leaders in action and learn from their complementary styles, strengthening my leadership style and skills.”
DEI Coordinator Chris Turley joined FNU in May 2019. He holds a Master of Science in Sports Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Sports Management from Eastern Kentucky University. Chris has over ten years of experience with federal grant management, program development, and marketing.
Turley earned the governor’s prestigious designation of a “Kentucky Colonel” for his community engagement work. He developed programs to help over 2,500 At-Promise participants gain vocational/technical skills to advance their careers and expand their opportunities.
While at Frontier, Turley has been instrumental in the execution of the Diversity Impact Conference, the quarterly speaker series, and in facilitating federal grant scholarship and stipend programs. He completed the inaugural DEI staff ambassador program at FNU. He has co-chaired the faculty/staff council and the Mission and Philosophy committee. Currently, he is the chair of the Diversity Impact Planning Ad-hoc Committee and serves on the Culture of Caring and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging committees.
Turley has a strong base dealing with issues concerning race relations, as he had to deal with similar problems growing up in a marginalized community in Kentucky. He was a part of a task force that dealt with those issues in a small hometown in Kentucky. This was the first of many steps into educating and empowering others regarding diversity and inclusion.
“As a staff member in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Frontier Nursing University, I hope to bring my shared professional and life experiences and diverse connections with FNU to help influence future policies and decision-making from the President’s Cabinet,” Turley said. “As an FNU DEI staff ambassador and DEI professional, I plan to be a voice for continued growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion for our students, faculty, and staff at the university.”
With their extensive backgrounds, these new President’s Cabinet members will help provide perspective and emphasize DEI initiatives and goals.
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).