At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community who are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality healthcare to underserved and rural populations.
For Frontier Nursing University (FNU) student Chantel Haynes, advocacy has always been a critical part of her journey and career in healthcare. A resident of Sedalia, Missouri, Haynes has been a staunch advocate for informed choice and autonomy among birthing people, Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC), and for acceptable working conditions among nurses and healthcare providers.
“I have found that advocacy is an essential part of birth work and nursing care,” she said.
Haynes is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Nursing in Nurse-Midwifery and is on track to graduate in 2024. She also works as a PRN nurse with a freestanding birth center in Kansas and a substance abuse clinic in Missouri. Throughout her career in nursing, Haynes has worked as a doula, LDRPN nurse and birth center nurse.
Advocating for Nurses and Better Care
Before becoming a PRN nurse, Haynes served as an acute bedside nurse in a hospital setting for 12 years. After she left this position in March 2022, she heightened her advocacy work for better acute care through safe staffing ratios, safe work environments, and adequate pay for hospital-based and long-term care nurses. She was one the speakers at the Missouri Chapter of the National Nurse March in May 2022. She also advocates through social media, letters to newspapers, and by engaging with government representatives.
“Short staffing has created a dangerous patient care environment,” she said. “This is leading to increased provider workload and stress, which is leading to a lack of access to healthcare, especially for the underserved.”
Haynes also expresses concern for dangerous practice environments for nurses and providers.
“Nurses are being subjected to high patient ratios, unsafe patient care environments, and increased abuse from patients and family members,” she said. “The number of assaults on hospital staff has risen drastically with the degrading environment. Currently, I advocate for change by using my voice and resources to call attention to these horrendous conditions and support others who don’t feel like they have a voice.”
Haynes said she has wanted to earn her MSN in Nurse-Midwifery since becoming a doula in 2001. She decided to pursue her dream through FNU after discussing the program with a co-worker who earned her MSN at FNU.
A Year of Challenges
Haynes’ path to earning her degree has not been without challenges. In August 2021, she experienced severe complications from COVID-19. She was hospitalized for four days and was on oxygen for a total of four weeks. In November of that year, she tore her ACL and gastrocnemius muscle due to decompensation from the virus. These complications set her back two terms from her initial Clinical Bound date.
Amid these struggles, Haynes said staff at FNU have helped her navigate these obstacles in her course work every step of the way.
“My RCF and advisors have been available when I need them, and we have been able to find solutions,” she said. “2021 was a year of frustration between being a bedside nurse caring for COVID patients to becoming one myself. I have found patience at Frontier.”
Haynes is a wife of 30 years, mother of four adult children and has two grandchildren. Outside of her work, studies, and advocacy, she enjoys tending to her garden, taking care of her backyard flock of chickens and ducks, crafting, crocheting, participating in church activities and volunteering in her community.
Thank you, Chantel, for choosing FNU in your path toward earning your MSN in Nurse-Midwifery and for your devotion to healthcare advocacy.
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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).