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.
Oʻahu can seem like paradise, with its stunning beaches and lush tropical environment, but the Hawaiian island’s remote location often results in a shortage of resources – including a shortage of healthcare providers in almost every specialty.
Mariam Fawaz, RN, works as a staff nurse in a telemetry unit located in suburban Oʻahu. Half of her patients are Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders, while the other half consists of military personnel or retirees who have immigrated from the contiguous United States.
As a registered nurse who is “borderline obsessed” with women’s healthcare, Fawaz couldn’t help but notice huge gaps in the healthcare system when it came to holistic methods, or to well-woman care in general.
“I was horrified at the number of patients I saw that experienced urinary incontinence as a baseline and were admitted to the hospital for complicated urinary tract infections (UTI) or urosepsis,” said Fawaz.
“With our doctors, the priority was to treat patients and get them out the door,” she continued. “No one was having bigger conversations about how urinary incontinence is not normal at any age and may be causing the UTIs.”
After working in critical care, Fawaz realized that she was better suited for clinical care and decided to become a Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner (WHNP). In that advanced practice role, she knew that she could intervene early on issues like urinary incontinence and endometriosis.
“Early intervention and treatment protects from secondary health care issues, improves quality of life, and lowers the need for intervention at a higher level of care,” Fawaz emphasized.
Fawaz is currently enrolled in the Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner Program at FNU and is set to graduate in 2025. She was particularly drawn to the distance learning aspect of the program, as comparable Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) specialty tracks were not available in Hawai‘i.
While Fawaz recalled being bullied and harassed while earning her Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN), her FNU experience has been the opposite, prompting her to fall in love with school again.
“I am so happy with my decision to become an FNU student,” said Fawaz. “I cannot tell you the number of times I have expressed gratitude for the support, encouragement, and the positive learning environment.”
The opportunity to attend the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) National Conference last May was especially significant for Fawaz, as doing so was a major step in helping her overcome imposter syndrome. Prior to attending FNU, she was afraid to join professional organizations like ACNM, but now she can’t imagine not being involved with them.
A true change-maker, Fawaz also leads a group of volunteer artists, nurses, and medical translators who make wound care fact sheets for Gxza Health, a nonprofit that sees telehealth patients in Gaza who have been injured or impacted by war. She has started seeing non-complicated wound care patients when a doctor is unable to see them and was able to help a refugee displaced in Egypt get access to insulin. Additionally, Fawaz is writing a paper about wound care during the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which she hopes to submit for publication next year.
Outside of school, Fawaz loves to bike, hike, snorkel, and travel. Last year, she and her husband ventured to Lebanon and Egypt, and they are now preparing for a trip to Mexico. Fawaz also enjoys visiting the zoo and botanical gardens whenever she can.
Thank you, Mariam, for choosing FNU in your healthcare journey and for providing quality care to underserved populations in your community!
Learn more about advanced nursing degrees and specialties at Frontier Nursing University, including our Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner Program. Subscribe to our blog for the latest news and events at FNU and to get inspired with stories featuring our alumni, students, faculty and staff!
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).