The commitment of a university or any other organization to a cause or goal requires contributions and commitment from many people. In 2006, Frontier Nursing University intentionally decided to increase the diversity of its student population. Among the many reasons for this and the subsequent initiatives and programs was the undeniable data demonstrating that healthcare disparities could be dramatically reduced via culturally concordant care.
FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, drove this commitment. With the full support of the FNU Board of Directors and Frontier faculty and staff, much progress has been made over the ensuing years. From the establishment of the PRIDE (Promoting Recruitment and Retention to Increase Diversity) Program in 2010 to the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer position and 13 years of the Diversity Impact Conference, Dr. Stone has championed the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, creating a culture that promises to live on long beyond her impending transition to the Distinguished Chair of Midwifery and Nursing.
“Dr. Stone’s commitment to FNU’s DEI agenda began over a decade ago with the initiation of the PRIDE Program and the Diversity Impact Conference,” said FNU Dean of Nursing Dr. Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN. More recently, she bravely and transparently formed a task force to examine FNU’s past and how that knowledge impacts our current culture and informs our future DEI position, policies, and initiatives.”
By establishing goals, developing an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and creating several committees garnering input from all corners of the university, Dr. Stone has helped make DEI part of the fabric of the university.
“Dr. Stone’s understanding of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion led her to make DEI an integral part of the university’s strategic plan and the implementation of the President DEI task force,” said FNU Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech, Ph.D., PMHNP-BC, APRN. “Her devotion to DEI is admirable and empowers everyone at FNU to succeed more as we achieve our goals as a university.”
“Change doesn’t happen overnight, and it takes more than one university to make it happen,” said Dr. Stone. “Nonetheless, Frontier has long been committed to being a leader for change. We have prioritized increasing the diversity of our student population. Our enrollment of students of color has grown from 9 percent in 2010 to over 30 percent today. We have a three-person Diversity and Inclusion Office, a Board of Directors Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, faculty and staff DEI Fellowship programs, student interest groups, and many other DEI-focused initiatives. All of these are ongoing – we have not reached the finish line. Like the rest of the world, we are a work in progress, and progress is indeed being made at Frontier Nursing University.”
Save the Date
FNU’s Diversity Impact Conference, “Representation Matters: Breaking Down Contributing Factors of Health Inequities,” will be held on July 18-19, 2024, on the Zoom platform! FNU is extremely excited about this year’s conference. The DIPA Committee has been diligently working on planning an innovative, interactive, online version of the conference. Registration will open soon for the event.
A Timeline of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Frontier
2006: Objectives included in the strategic plan to increase the diversity of the student body
2010: Established goal to increase minority enrollment to 15% by 2010.
2010: PRIDE (Promoting Recruitment and Retention to Increase Diversity) Program was established.
2010: Annual Diversity Impact Conference established
2018: Established goal to increase student of color enrollment to 30%
2018: Established goal to increase student of color retention rate from an average of 66% to an average of 80% by June 2021
2018: Established the Director of Diversity and Inclusion and made the person in that position a member of the President’s Cabinet
2021: Created the President’s DEI Task Force to identify, implement, and evaluate initiatives to address diversity, equity, and inclusion within the FNU community
2021: Created 7 subcommittees of the President’s DEI Task Force:
• Subcommittee on Faculty, Staff, and Preceptor Development and Retention
• Subcommittee on Curriculum and Learning
• Subcommittee on Climate and Belonging
• Subcommittee on Retention of Underrepresented Students
• Subcommittee on Policies, Statements, Reports, Reviews, Planning and Evaluation
• Subcommittee on Infrastructure, System Strengthening, and Capacity Building
• Subcommittee on Recruitment Across the Entire University
2021: Created the Anti-Racism and Bias Advisory Council
2021: Board of Directors Created their own DEI Committee
2021: Board of Directors established a $2 million endowed fund for scholarships for underrepresented students
2022: Bias Incident Report Advisory Council formed
2022: Land Acknowledgment Ceremony and sign to acknowledge that Versailles, Kentucky is the traditional territory of the Shawnee and Cherokee people.
2023: Launched DEI Faculty Fellows program
2023: Launched DEI Staff Ambassador program
2023: Established Safe Space for Students Initiative
2023: Dr. Tanya Belcheff named Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
2023: Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech named the University’s First Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Student Success
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards
2018-23: Insight Into Diversity Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award (6 consecutive years)
2021: Diversity, Inclusion, and Sustainability in Nursing Education Leadership Award presented by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing
2023: Inclusive Excellence, Belonging, and Sustainability in Nursing Education Award presented by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing
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).