Faculty, staff, students, alumni and preceptors of Frontier Nursing University (FNU) attended the 2022 AANP National Conference from June 21 to June 26 in Orlando, Fla. The AANP National Conference is the largest nurse practitioner conference in the United States! FNU is excited to highlight the many FNU community members who presented or were recognized and received awards during this year’s conference. We commend all of these individuals for their excellent work as nurse practitioner leaders!
Awards and Honors
– Student Brett W. Jordan, BSN, RN, CEN: AANP Student Scholarship Winner
– Student Kirsty Joy Nomch, FNP-C: AANP Student Scholarship Winner
– Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech, PhD, PMHNP-BC, APRN and Dr. Audrey Perry, DNP, CNM, CNE, FACNM: Presentation – Leveraging the Voice of Nurse Practitioners to Facilitate Brave Conversations
– Dr. Sally Weiss, EdD, APRN, FNP-C, CNE, ANEF and Dr. Vicky Stone-Gale, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FNAP: Poster Presentation – Mast Cell Disorders: More Common Than You Think
– Dr. Vicky Stone-Gale: Awarded the 2022 AANP State Award for Excellence
In addition to our faculty and students, many FNU alumni members also presented during the conference.
Students Edalyn Shaw, Yasmin Alejandro, and Norah Ezike attended the conference with FNU faculty member Thomas George as part of FNU’s Professional Organizational Mentoring Program (POMP). POMP offers underrepresented nurse-midwifery students and nurse practitioner students the opportunity to be mentored by faculty members at designated conferences, such as the AANP National Conference. It expands students’ learning, educational and professional experiences.
FNU hosted an Alumni & Friends Breakfast Reception where alumni, faculty, staff, students and preceptors were able to gather, reconnect and share the work they are doing. Our exhibit booth was busy with prospective students connecting with the FNU community. Many people were able to stop by and take photos with our photo booth and our Top-Ranked Master’s Program banner.
It was great to be back in person again, and we can’t wait to see everyone again at the AANP National Conference next year in New Orleans!
* These photos were taken at the AANP Conference in Orlando, FL.
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) will celebrate the official opening of its new location on the beautiful, newly renovated Versailles Campus with a ribbon cutting and land acknowledgment ceremony on Friday, September 9, at 10:00 a.m. Founded in 1939 in Hyden, Kentucky, today FNU is one of the largest not-for-profit universities offering advanced nursing and midwifery education. In October 2017, FNU finalized the purchase of the 217-acre Versailles property previously occupied by The United Methodist Children’s Home to better serve its students and to continue its longstanding commitment to its mission. Renovation and construction for FNU’s new campus and the move from Hyden began in 2018. The opening of the Versailles campus to students was delayed by the pandemic until the Fall of 2021.
Since earning her 
“After my first phone conversation with a staff member at FNU, I knew Frontier was the place for me.”
“After my first phone conversation with a staff member at FNU, I knew Frontier was the place for me,” she said. “I grew up a small town girl here in the mountains of North Carolina and speaking with someone so humble and kind made me feel right at home. At that moment, I knew God had led me straight to FNU’s website after weeks of research.”
Rychlowski said she hopes to use her experience as a NICU nurse in her new role. She has advanced training and is certified in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C) through Postpartum Support International.
An essential component of every student’s path at Frontier Nursing University is Clinical Bound. 
Even as a child, FNU alumni Holly Howell, MSN, CNM, knew she wanted to be a nurse. It was a not-so-subtle nudge that pushed her in the right direction.
Today, Howell works as a nurse-midwife at two different locations in Las Vegas, both of which are part of the Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada. Her usual routine includes morning rounds at the hospital before arriving at the clinic between 8:45 and 9:00 a.m. The clinic includes three collaborating physician partners and two collaborating midwifery partners in addition to Howell. She sees between 25 and 35 patients per day.
“During labor and birth, I pride myself on making sure that I’m practicing in an evidence-based way and that I am giving family-centered and patient-centered care.”
As if the pandemic was not difficult enough to cope with, Howell and her wife Dana faced their own personal tragedy late last year.
“I pride myself on practicing in a trauma-informed way,” Howell said. “I always ask for consent and permission before I do any kind of pelvic or invasive exam. During labor and birth, I pride myself on making sure that I’m practicing in an evidence-based way and that I am giving family-centered and patient-centered care. I give patients options, and we have in-depth discussions before any interventions are completed, making sure that they are well educated about their bodies and their different options during labor and childbirth.”
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).