A Message from Dean of Nursing Dr. Joan Slager
The Winter 2023 issue of the Frontier Quarterly Bulletin celebrates preceptors and the essential role they play for our students. It included a special message from Dean of Nursing Dr. Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN, who explains the importance of preceptors and lists the main reasons to be a preceptor. Read Dr. Slager’s message below.
Dean of Nursing
Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN
Bio
Each of us has our own reasons for why we chose a career in healthcare, but common amongst us is a shared desire to serve others. We are heartened by the mission of Frontier Nursing University to care for underserved people and provide care to all those in need. We all chose to answer the call to serve. It is not an easy road to travel, and all of us relied on the support of others – friends, family, classmates, instructors, and preceptors – to achieve our goal of becoming nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives.
How can we thank all the people who helped us achieve our goals? We can thank them by being devoted and skilled professionals, yes, but also by paying it forward to those who come after us. Even with our more than 8,700 alumni, Frontier Nursing University cannot meet the needs of all of the healthcare deserts in our country. That is why we continue to educate and prepare 2,500 students per year to answer the same call we did. Those are 2,500 students who are reliant upon the support of their friends, family, instructors, and, yes, preceptors.
Frontier’s Clinical Outreach and Placement Services team is ready to answer your questions and guide you through the process. That process begins by simply registering to be a potential preceptor. You are eligible to do so one year after you have graduated from your educational program.
Registering as a potential preceptor comes with no commitment other than being open to a student contacting you about possibly having you as their preceptor. As you know, FNU students come into the clinical setting highly trained and well-prepared, which is supported by our preceptor survey results. Precepting comes with an honorarium and free CEs, but mostly it comes with the satisfaction of giving back to those who supported you by paying it forward. It is a rewarding experience and one that is vital to each and every FNU student.
Even if every FNU alumnus precepted just one FNU student, think of the impact that would have on our communities across the country. So, we are asking you to once again answer the call to serve, this time as a preceptor sharing your knowledge, expertise, experience, and dedication to students so that they, too, might provide excellent and compassionate care in their own communities.
Thank you for representing FNU every day through your passion and commitment to your patients. Thank you also, in advance, for registering as a potential preceptor for FNU students. I assure you that you won’t regret it.
With gratitude,
Dr. Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN Dean of Nursing
Dr. Slager’s Top Reasons to Precept
- Seeing a student’s “light bulb” come on is so exciting.
- You get to evaluate potential new hires.
- Someone needs YOU as badly as you needed your preceptor.
- Taking a student is an inexpensive investment in your practice’s future.
- Opportunity to be a role model.
- Students bring the most up-to-date information to your practice.
- Students’ enthusiasm breathes energy into a practice.
- Your patients love the added attention – they get two for the price of one!
- Having trouble finding the perfect partner for your practice? Take a student (or three) and see if there is a match.
To learn more about becoming a preceptor for Frontier Nursing University, visit our website.
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).