After more than four decades of dedication to nursing and over 20 years in academia, Frontier Nursing University’s Interim Dean of Nursing Dr. Diane John, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC, retired from her full-time faculty position in August. Dr. John is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Associate Professor whose career reflects her unwavering commitment to service. She earned her master’s degree from Florida Atlantic University, followed by a PhD from Barry University. Since joining the nursing profession over 40 years ago, she has served in a variety of roles, from clinical care to faculty mentorship to curriculum development.
Honoring a Legacy of Care:
Frontier Nursing University Named A “2025 Great College to Work For”
For the fifth consecutive year, Frontier Nursing University (FNU) has been recognized as one of the best universities in the nation to work for, according to the Great Colleges to Work For® program. The results, released today in a special insert of The Chronicle of Higher Education, are based on a survey of 199 colleges and universities. FNU was also named to the Great Colleges Honor Roll, a status granted to only 42 colleges each year who are highlighted most across the recognition categories.
Frontier Nursing University Receives Insight Into Academia 2025 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence and Distinction Award
Frontier Nursing University has been named a recipient of the 2025 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence and Distinction (HEED) Award from Insight Into Academia magazine. The annual Health Professions HEED Award is a national honor recognizing U.S. health colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to academic excellence, belonging, and community-building across all levels of campus life. This is the eighth consecutive year FNU has been named as a Health Professions HEED Award recipient.
Mary Bristow Willeford: Frontier Nurse-Midwife, Educator, and Researcher
In this year of centennial celebration of the founding of the Frontier Nursing Service, it is fitting to honor the pioneers who helped build the nursing service and lay the foundation for Frontier Nursing University. Mary Bristow Willeford (1900-1941) was one of the first nurse-midwives to join the Frontier Nursing Service in August of 1926 and became one of the first Assistant Directors of the organization, playing a key role in the development of the clinical nursing service and the university.
Holding on to the Star: Celebrating 100 Years of the Frontier Nursing Service (Part 3 of 3)
Holding on to the Star: Celebrating 100 Years of the Frontier Nursing Service is a three-part series covering the history of Frontier Nursing University. In this series, we explore the Frontier Nursing Service’s history from 1925 to 2025 through a chronological journey, highlighting the enduring themes that capture both the core mission that FNS stakeholders have consistently embraced, and the many ways that the service has changed. Read about the “Pressing Need for an Innovative Educational Shift” and “Frontier in the 21st Century” in this segment of the series.
Holding on to the Star: Celebrating 100 Years of the Frontier Nursing Service (Part 2 of 3)
Holding on to the Star: Celebrating 100 Years of the Frontier Nursing Service is a three-part series covering the history of Frontier Nursing University. In this series, we explore the Frontier Nursing Service’s history from 1925 to 2025 through a chronological journey, highlighting the enduring themes that capture both the core mission that FNS stakeholders have consistently embraced, and the many ways that the service has changed. Read about The War Years, Major Changes for the FNS Community at Midcentury and Family Nurse Practitioner Education in this segment of the series.
Holding on to the Star: Celebrating 100 Years of the Frontier Nursing Service (Part 1 of 3)
In this article, we explore the Frontier Nursing Service’s history from 1925 to 2025 through a chronological journey, highlighting the enduring themes that capture both the core mission that FNS stakeholders have consistently embraced, and the many ways that the service has changed. Indeed, whether we examine FNS leaders’ and staff members’ goals and accomplishments in the early years or recent years, we see throughlines of a focus on rural health, a dedication to primary care of the family, a commitment to graduate education of nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners, and flexibility and adaptiveness in navigating obstacles. This is the first article in a three-part series.
Nurturing a Sustainable and Healthy Campus
Frontier Nursing University’s Culture of Caring focuses on how members of the university treat and value one another. To a large degree, FNU has adopted the same caring approach to the Versailles, Kentucky, campus it calls home. When Frontier purchased the Versailles property in 2017 and began construction and renovations soon after, it did so with emphasis on efficiency and conservation. Led by the university’s Environmental Stewardship Committee, Frontier also implemented “no mow” zones, established a 5K walking trail, and strategically planted native plants while removing invasive flora.
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).