Nancy Reinhart, MPH, CNM, Class 155 knew what she was looking for, and was willing to travel as far as necessary to find it. Her journey has taken her from her hometown of Louisville to Hyden, Kentucky; Fort Hood, Texas; Shiprock, New Mexico; and, currently, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The common theme behind every choice and step she has made has been her drive to serve rural and underserved communities.
Even with that as her guide, however, Reinhart did not set out to be a nurse-midwife. That began to change when she participated in Frontier’s Courier program during the summer between her junior and senior years of college.
“My family has always been committed to helping people and giving service,” she said. “But the rural healthcare piece was inspired by my experience in the Courier program. I saw my first birth and it made a tremendous impact on me. I actually chose my master’s program because of that history.”
After her Courier experience — which included meeting current FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, who was the Midwifery Program Director at that time — Reinhart earned a masters’ degree in public health and began a job in social justice. Soon thereafter she was contacted by Frontier and offered the opportunity to run the Courier program.
“I just knew it was a good fit for me,” Reinhart said.
It was also the beginning of her journey to become a nurse-midwife. Like all staff and faculty members at FNU, Reinhart attended Frontier Bound as part of her orientation. That experience convinced her that her dream of becoming a nurse-midwife could be a reality.
“When I was at Frontier Bound I was so amazed at the diversity of people and ages that were starting this journey,” Reinhart said. “I had been thinking I was too old and too far along in life. I was putting up all these barriers against myself, but that dream just wasn’t leaving me and that really helped me to get over the hump. So I went ahead and started chipping away at the educational requirements while running the Courier program.”
One of those requirements — acquiring clinical hours — proved to be a bit of a challenge. She found opportunities close to home at the University of Louisville and the Tree of Life Birth Center in southern Indiana. She enjoyed working with Damara Jenkins, MSN, CMN, Class 48, her primary preceptor at both sites, but both sites were in very high demand with other student requests. She also wanted some of her training to be in a rural setting with a strong collaborative physician-midwife model. Determined to find the experience she was looking for, she decided to expand her search.
“There was an intense amount of clinical pressure on the sites local to me. As soon as I gave up a spot at both of the sites that I had for brief periods of time in Kentucky, they were taken by other students who needed clinical hours, particularly births,” Reinhart said. “I wanted to be at a higher volume site and one with a rural focus because that is how I envisioned practicing. That was a governing factor in why I chose to travel. It felt like to get what I was looking for, I was going to have to expand my horizons.”
That led her to the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas. There, her primary preceptor was FNU graduate Susan Clapp, MSN, CNM, Class 81. She next went to Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico, where she was primarily precepted by Venay Uecke, CNM, and another FNU graduate, Kerena Satlzgiver, MSN, CNM, Class 91.
“I traveled quite far,” Reinhart laughed. “We took our whole family on a roadshow from July to December in 2019.” Reinhart’s family consists of her husband, Dave Mitchell, who is a therapist, and three children ages 4, 9, and 11.
Reinhart expressed her gratitude to all the preceptors who taught her and to all the families who allowed her to participate in their births as a student. She said she learned a tremendous amount from the regional variation in midwifery practices that she saw across four states during clinical.
When the successful “roadshow” came to an end, it was time to find a full-time opportunity. Once again, the family had a vision for their desired next step.
“My husband and I were pretty clear about what our priorities were,” Reinhart said. “I prioritized rural health as something I was committed to serving. So we looked at what places and locations both had job openings, were rural serving underserved, and were relatively close to home, family, and friends. I had job opportunities in New Mexico and far afield, but we limited our search to Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. I wanted to serve women in a rural area through a full-scope midwifery position with a good work-life balance. I also wanted to be in a place with really supportive physicians. I know what it’s like for midwives when they don’t have supportive physicians to work with. Gettysburg fit all those things for us.”
Reinhart joined WellSpan OB/GYN in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as a full-scope nurse-midwife in July 2020. The practice, which consists of four nurse-midwives and four physicians, is the only one in the area that offers 24/7 nurse-midwifery care.
“We serve several surrounding, rural counties,” Reinhart said. “We have a largely low socioeconomic class of women and families that we serve. This is an orchard and farming area, so we serve migrant workers and their families as a part of our base. Just like anywhere that you have a diverse population, we have language barriers. One thing I really value about our hospital is that we have in-person Spanish language translators. It is such a nice human touch to have that for someone going through labor and often scary situations.”
The COVID-19 Pandemic has only added to the fear and stress of those situations, for both the patients and their caregivers.
“One of the things I love about birth is the intimacy that midwives provide before, during, and after labor,” Reinhart said. “The pandemic definitely disrupts that process. Most of our patients are good champs about it, but it is a different experience when you’re in labor and you see your healthcare provider covered from head to toe with protective equipment. I grieve that for my patients and I look forward to a time when we can be more physically connected.”
Reinhart went on to point out the mental health impact of the pandemic. Feelings of anxiety and isolation are understandably magnified when loved ones are not able to be as involved in welcoming a new addition to the family as they would like.
“Sometimes partners aren’t allowed in the appointments depending on the level of infection we have in our county,” Reinhart said. “Postpartum, the experience with so many partnerships and families trying to have this source of joy in their home and not being able to share that baby’s life with loved ones because of the pandemic is pretty tough on people.”
Even after the pandemic is over, there will be other challenges in healthcare and society in general. While serving as a certified nurse-midwife is enough, Reinhart is determined to do more to help others. Already involved in the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), she intends to increase her participation and to seek more ways to make a difference in her community.
“Frontier curriculum provided a high level of dedication to the aspects of public health, how the social determinants of health underlie our practice, identifying the political and practical trends that impact how we serve our clients,” Reinhart said. “That got me thinking about how I think of myself as a midwife outside of the hospital. What are the things I can be involved with in my community and ACNM to make a difference in the lives of the clients I serve to work to dismantle racism and other obstacles that people face to be able to be well and healthy? Frontier helped me see that bigger picture within the context of midwifery.”
Even though she’s only been in Gettysburg less than a year, Reinhart said she is considering applying to the local human relations commission and plans to start a perinatal loss support group. Further on the horizon, she would like to get her doctorate and eventually teach. No matter how long the route, Reinhart has proven she’s willing to put in the work — and the miles — to reach whatever goal is in her sights.
Editor’s note: Nancy’s father, Philmar Reinhart, a longtime supporter of Frontier who was very supportive of Nancy’s journey into midwifery, passed away during the time it took this story to come to print. We mourn with the family and are thankful for Nancy and her father, who attended many FNU events.
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).