In 2025, Frontier Nursing University honored 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 celebrated 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.
When Patricia “Patsy” Lawrence joined Frontier’s Courier program in 1946, little did she know it would be the start of a life-long relationship with Frontier. Her Courier experience was so impactful that, according to Patsy, her father said she “went away for six weeks and matured six years.”
Patsy has been an instrumental figure in the Frontier Nursing Service and Frontier Nursing University through her efforts to share the mission and work of Frontier with colleagues and friends in Philadelphia and Boston. Patsy served as Chair of the Boston Committee for many years and is still actively involved with the Boston Committee events. The Boston Committee is made up of many Frontier alumni, former Couriers, and their friends who are passionate in their efforts to raise funds and awareness about Frontier. As part of her work leading the Boston Committee, Patsy also organized annual Boston events to bring together Frontier supporters and invite new supporters to join the work.
In 2015, she hosted a showing of “Forgotten Frontier,” and in 2024, she hosted a viewing of “Nurse-Midwives: Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis.” Through these events, Patsy shared her Frontier story and encouraged others to join her in support of the university.
Patsy and her husband Robert (Bob) committed $25,000 to establish the Patricia Perrin Lawrence Endowed Scholarship in support of FNU students. The first scholarship was awarded during the 2015 Commencement ceremony. That same year, FNU presented Patsy with the Courier Program Unbridled Spirit Award, which is given annually to a former Courier who has perpetuated the mission and spirit of Frontier in their own lives. The criteria for this award include dedication to serving others; ongoing, longstanding stewardship of Frontier; and demonstration of personal conviction, courage, and a zest for adventure.
Then, just two years later, Bob and Patsy made another donation after Frontier’s purchase of the Versailles property was finalized in October 2017. Their donation funded the construction of the Labor and Delivery Room (LDR) Birthing Simulation Room in the Academic Center on Frontier’s new campus.
In 2023, Patsy donated $50,000 to support the university, noting that she is very impressed with FNU and its students. FNU personnel visit Patsy and her daughter Fran in Boston every year to thank them for their support and to keep them up to date on the university’s latest happenings. The support Patsy and Robert have given to Frontier has played a significant role in helping the university continue to grow and evolve in service to its students and mission.
In 2025, Frontier Nursing University honored 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 celebrated 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.
“I’m most proud that we took this little, tiny school that was offering certificates and became an accredited university that are offering master’s degrees and doctoral degrees that we’ve been able to add programs as they were needed,” Dr. Stone said. “Here we are with a broad scope of practice and practitioners that can really provide the care, the caring that nurses do as well as highly-skilled healthcare to these rural and underserved families all across the nation. With over 10,000 graduates out there just from the distance learning program, we are really making an impact. That, I would have to say, is what I’m most proud of our accomplishments.
In 2025, Frontier Nursing University honored 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 celebrated 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.
Mrs. Breckinridge returned to the U.S. and studied Public Health Nursing at Columbia University. She formulated two goals: improving the health of children and pioneering a system of rural health care that could serve as a model for systems serving the most remote regions of the world.
Until 1939, the majority of the FNS nurse-midwives were British. When World War II began, many of those nurse-midwives returned home. In response, Mrs. Breckinridge established the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery in 1939, which is now known as Frontier Nursing University. Many of the FGSM nurse-midwives went on to staff the FNS.
The Fellowship runs from August 2024 through January 2025 and includes a $1,000 stipend for each student.
In 2025, Frontier Nursing University honors and celebrates 100 years of healthcare service and education since our inception as Frontier Nursing Service in 1925. That was the year that Mary Breckinridge founded the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) to provide care to mothers, children, and families in rural eastern Kentucky. In its early years, FNS offered scholarships to American nurses to go to Great Britain for training in nurse-midwifery and recruited British nurse-midwives. In 1939, FNS established the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery, now known as Frontier Nursing University (FNU).
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).