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.
April Haneline, Frontier Nursing University (FNU) Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) student, has worked in nearly every setting as a nurse. Two years ago, she decided to advance her career by pursuing her Master’s of Science in Nursing (MSN) in FNU’s Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program. Shortly after starting at FNU, Haneline moved back home to rural Murray, Ky., and decided to switch programs after recognizing the lack of mental health providers, especially for queer people in Western Kentucky.
“I chose Frontier for its reputation and for its focus on underserved, rural communities,” Haneline said. “It fits where I’m from and where I want to be.”
“I chose Frontier for its reputation and for its focus on underserved, rural communities.”
– April Haneline, PMHNP Student
Currently, Haneline is working to wrap up her clinical experience. Haneline has worked with the same preceptor in three different settings – community mental-health, a therapist-led practice, and now a private practice.
“It has been very educational to see the different settings, but also to see how the different settings have affected my preceptor’s practice,” Haneline said.
It was important to Haneline to find a preceptor in an open environment who would be welcoming, supportive and affirming who was also willing to teach. She found just that in Dr. JJ Cansler, an FNU alumni and Regional Clinical Faculty.
After graduation, Haneline plans to continue practicing with Dr. Cansler at Cansler Health and hopes to help grow the new practice, serve the queer community, and work with the local university to provide for the mental health needs they may have.
“I’m so happy doing what I’m doing,” Haneline said.
Beyond making a difference in her community within a private practice, Haneline also decided to answer the call for more diverse representation in her community by running for city council.
Haneline hopes that with her progressive way of thinking, she may be able to help push some progessive initiatives forward within her community and be the voice for those who don’t always feel a sense of belonging within the community. She also hopes, if elected, to address mental health and health prognosis issues that are within the community and to address equity within her hometown.
“Health, equity and belonging, those are my reasons for running for city council,” Haneline said. “I never felt like I belonged here and I know that there are countless other people that are from here that don’t feel like they belong here and feel like they have to go somewhere else.”
Haneline is active in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work at FNU and will use that not only in her practice, but also as a person running for local office and getting more involved in other local organizations that fit her personal mission and goals.
“Those experiences absolutely have allowed me to be like, ‘okay April, you do have a voice and you can use it here’,” Haneline said. “If I didn’t have that FNU work with the Office of DEI, I don’t think I would have been nearly as primed and ready to step forward into this role in the community and to be doing this.”
Despite FNU being a leading distance-education institution, there are many ways our students can get involved like April.
“I encourage people, no matter where they are at, to get involved as much as they can, even though it’s an online institution,” Haneline said.
Thank you, April, for living out FNU’s mission by providing equitable care to those living in a rural community and serving the marginalized people.
If you are interested in pursuing your Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or a Post-Graduate Certificate (PGC) in psychiatric-mental health at a top ranked online university, visit our website to learn more about our PMHNP program.
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).
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