Throughout 2025, Frontier Nursing University is celebrating the 100th anniversary since its inception. Originally founded as the Mary Breckinridge Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies in 1925, the organization was renamed as the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) in 1928.
In 1928, the Hyden (Kentucky) Hospital opened as FNS became the first organization in America to use nurses trained as midwives under the direction of a single physician. That same year, the FNS Courier program began. The Couriers assisted nurses with everyday chores such as delivering supplies to the clinics and caring for the horses that the nurses used to traverse the mountains to reach the women and children in their care. In 1933, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company published a summary of the first 1,000 FNS births. The summary concluded that the services provided by FNS significantly decrease maternal and neonatal mortality.
The Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery, since renamed as Frontier Nursing University, was founded in 1939 by FNS as a part of its demonstration project in the care of the mother and child in rural areas of Kentucky. Today, Frontier has more than 12,000 alumni from all 50 states and a current enrollment of 2,700 students.
“We are so excited to celebrate the incredible and impactful 100-year history of Frontier,” said FNU President Dr. Brooke A. Flinders. “This is a great opportunity to reflect on how we got here and be reminded of the importance of the work we are doing to educate and prepare nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to improve the healthcare in their communities across the country.”
FNU’s celebratory plans include an “Alumni & Friends” cruise in April and a nationwide presidential tour where alumni, students, and supporters can meet Dr. Flinders. FNU is also introducing a new series called “On the Trail”. This series of videos, which will be on FNU’s YouTube page, will take viewers behind the scenes for Frontier.
In September, FNU will induct its first Alumni Hall of Fame class and announce its annual service award recipients as part of commencement weekend.
The year-long celebration has already begun with the university’s “Century of Stories”. These stories, which will be posted throughout the year on the Frontier.edu website, feature the people, moments, initiatives, and stories that shaped Frontier’s first 100 years.
Former FNS nurse-midwife Delphine Jewell wrote the following letter in response to our call for stories for the Frontier Century of Stories project. She worked at Hyden Hospital from March 1956 to March 1957 and became a Certified Nurse-Midwife at Frontier. She went to do missionary work in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. She coordinated the establishment of an in-house birth center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Delphine was a maternal-newborn nurse educator, serving as chair of the nursing education program for 12 years. She retired in 1992. Delphine is currently 94 years old and lives in a retirement center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
I had many interesting experiences while at Frontier Nursing Service. One of the most important lessons learned while there was one of Mary Breckinridge’s requirements: 
The Oath in Action: When Jaime Westlund, DNP (Class 37), APRN, FNP-C (Class 156), moved with her family from her home state of Idaho to Hawaii in August 2019, she did so with the intent to serve the community, staying true to the history and mission of FNU. Little did she know at that time how quickly her commitment to the community would be tested.
In Hawaii, supplies are frequently in high demand, and they were even more so during the pandemic.
“Working in rural healthcare requires a unique blend of passion and resourcefulness,” Westlund continued. “It takes a special kind of person to thrive in this environment, where thinking outside the box is often necessary to overcome the limitations of available resources. I am dedicated to providing the very best care possible to my patients, and I take immense pride in my work. My love for the community drives me to strive every day to enhance the health and well-being of those I serve, making sure that they feel valued and supported in their healthcare journey. Together with my team, I am excited about the progress we are making and remain committed to fostering a healthier future for all in our community.”
FNU graduate Karen Tepper, DNP, ANP-BC, HHCNS-BCN/A, has consistently dedicated her three-decade career in healthcare to the betterment of underserved communities. Based in Massachusetts, Dr. Tepper’s passion for improving healthcare access and outcomes is rooted in her own family’s history—her parents, both immigrants, endured immense challenges, including her mother’s survival of World War II and her father’s family fleeing oppression in Eastern Europe.
Mobile Midwifery: 
Serving A Mennonite Community During the Pandemic: 
Today, Scott and Community Midwives continue to serve the Mennonite community in the Finger Lakes Region. The practice now employes three full-time nurse-midwives and one-part-time nurse-midwife, including fellow FNU graduate Lisa Benedetto, CNM (Class 50). They travel upward of 50 miles to see patients, attending over 100 births per year and providing well woman care, annual exams, family planning, and menopause management. They also have privileges at a community hospital for those patients who need to be transferred or choose a hospital birth.
With a goal of providing comprehensive care for all patients, Kristin “Kris” Swanson, BSN, RNC-MNN, IBCLC, is currently pursuing her 
“Relationships are so important in healthcare: a person’s relationship to their own health, their relationship with their community and family and their relationship with their health care provider,” she said. “The long-term relationship building in primary care is in line with my values of compassion, trauma-informed care, evidence-based practice and shared decision making.”
“Conferences can be overwhelming and it was helpful to have her guidance on where to go and how to manage time, as well as hear about her professional experience,” Swanson said. “I also got to connect more deeply with two classmates, which was perhaps the best part of the experience. Having peers and colleagues in the program has allowed me to stay more connected as I move into clinical, and I am happy to have made lifelong friends.”
In 2025, Frontier Nursing University celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the inception of the Frontier Nursing Service. We are grateful for the alumni, students, couriers, donors, volunteers, friends, and employees who have made an incredible impact on FNU’s century-long journey. We are celebrating this milestone year by capturing and sharing some of the countless stories that make up our history. Whatever your connection to FNU, we hope you enjoy these stories and are inspired to 
The Pat Tillman Foundation was founded by the family and friends of Pat Tillman, who, in 2002, put his National Football League career on hold to serve his country. Tillman died in April 2004 while serving with the 75th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan. The Tillman Foundation identifies remarkable military service members, veterans, and spouses, empowering them with academic scholarships, lifelong leadership development opportunities, and a diverse, global community of high-performing mentors and peers. Tillman Scholars make an impact as they lead through action in the fields of healthcare, business, public service, STEM, education, and the humanities.
Being a survivor of violence, Copp has made caring for others her lifelong passion. With 23 years of nursing experience, she currently works full-time as a forensic nurse examiner in Indianapolis. She specializes in trauma care and frequently is called to testify in court.
“In these trauma centers, I’m hoping to not only be able to provide a medical exam, but I’m also hoping that it is a one-stop shop,” Copp said, noting that her vision is for the trauma care centers to include access to social workers, connections to prosecutors, and rooms for emergency housing. “We can eliminate so many things for law enforcement. They can have more time on the street doing what they need to be doing to keep the community safe while we’re doing the back work. We can take the photos, collect and bag the evidence and get it to the crime lab. There are a lot of benefits all the way around. I hope to see a huge stride in this in the next 10 years.”
Dr. Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN, announced last fall that she will retire as Dean of Nursing on February 28, 2025. Dr. Slager’s tenure as Dean began in 2018, but her dream of becoming a nurse-midwife and her connection to Frontier Nursing University started long before.
Dr. Slager was part of Frontier’s first CNEP graduating class in 1991. She began working as a nurse-midwife in Battle Creek, Michigan, eventually becoming the Director of Nurse-Midwifery at the Family Health Center of Battle Creek. She assisted Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo in developing a midwifery-led service in 1993, where she served as the Director of Nurse-Midwifery at the Bronson Women’s Service for 27 years.
“It was very rewarding to help other midwifery practices demonstrate their value, improve salaries, and be able to grow and sustain their practices,” Dr. Slager said. “A lot of times, they (midwives) were working hard, but they were underbilling from a lack of knowledge of how to bill for all of the services they provided. It was important to me that midwives understand and learn to use billing codes accurately so that the work they did and the outcomes they achieved were documented.”
After 15 months as the DNP Director, Dr. Slager received another call from Dr. Stone, asking her to be the Interim Dean of Nursing. Dr. Slager was named the Interim Dean of Nursing in March 2018 and became the full-time Dean of Nursing in August 2018.
Renovating the new campus meant not only new buildings but planning for new offices, classrooms, simulation labs, dorms, a dining hall, and more. It also meant a lot of packing and moving items from the Hyden campus, all while maintaining normal university activities.
“The pandemic hit, so I didn’t dare leave the university at such a challenging time. Then President Sue Stone announced her retirement, so I chose to delay retiring a little bit longer to facilitate a smooth transition in leadership. With Dr. Flinders in her position, I feel so great about where Frontier is. I can very comfortably and confidently step away knowing the university is in great hands.”
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).