Faculty, staff, students, alumni and preceptors of Frontier Nursing University (FNU) had the opportunity to attend the 67th Annual American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Meeting and Exhibition from May 21 to May 25. ACNM was back in person for the first time in two years with a virtual option. FNU is excited to highlight the many FNU community members who presented or were recognized and received awards during this year’s ACNM Conference. We commend all of these individuals for their excellent work as nurse-midwifery leaders!
Awards & Honors:
Newly Inducted FNU ACNM Fellows:
- Cathy Cook
- Kendra Faucett
- Meghan Garland
- Nena R. Harris
- Jeneen Lomax
- Audrey Perry
- Dolores Polito
- Rebecca Wagschal
Photo by FergyPIX.com
Faculty & Student Presentations:
- Kendra Faucett – AMCB Boot Camp Test Prep Workshop & Test Taking Tips
- Laura Manns-James – Reducing Racism in Midwifery Education: Using the Program Content Toolkit
- Mary Kay Miller – Promoting Vaginal Intended Deliveries (PROVIDE) in Florida: Quality improvement lessons learned from three DNP Projects
- Cathy Cook – Implementing a Patient-Centered Virtual Wellness Program in a Select Population During a Global Pandemic
- Jill Alliman, Laura Manns-James, and Shaughanassee Vines – Racial Health Equity and Cesarean Birth in the Birth Center Model of Care
- Cindy Farina – Ibrexafungerp, A New Antifungal Agent for the Treatment of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis Poster Presentation
- Current DNP Students Oluwatope Alaofin and Adi Lazary-Dagan – Reproductive Justice to Adolescents in Texas: A Social Justice Analysis
FNU Presence:
FNU’s exhibit booth was busy with faculty, staff, students, alumni and preceptors! Our booth focused on ways the FNU community can give back, like by referring a colleague or friend to FNU, precepting FNU students, or by continuing schooling by getting your DNP.
Student Lauren Huggins attended the conference with FNU faculty member Dr. Michele Lawhorn 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 ACNM annual meeting. It expands students’ learning, educational and professional experiences.
FNU Dean of Nursing Dr. Joan Slager signed copies of the book “Administrative Manual for Midwifery Practices” for attendees. Dr. Slager authored the chapter on billing and coding.
On Sunday evening we held the FNU Alumni & Friends Reception where we celebrated the life of Kitty Ernst. We shared our Kitty Ernst tribute film. It was a wonderful evening remembering and honoring a wonderful leader and midwifery pioneer and reconnecting with the FNU community in person.
We also had the opportunity to recognize our dedicated preceptors during the reception.
Congratulations to FNU faculty member, Cathy Collins-Fulea, who served as President of ACNM for the last three years, and to the new ACNM President, Heather Clarke, who is a former FNU faculty member. Clarke was inducted on the last day of the convention. We appreciate your time and dedication to the advancement of midwifery.
We look forward to coming together again at ACNM next year in Orlando! You can view more photos of FNU’s presence at ACNM here.
If you are an FNU faculty, student, or alumni who was recognized at this year’s ACNM Annual Meeting & Exhibition and not included in this blog, please email your recognition or presentation to FNUNews@frontier.edu so we can include you.
Outside of her work with FNU, Cadwell, who lives in Lexington, enjoys spending time with her husband, toddler and dog. They enjoy spending time outside and visiting family. She said even outside of work, she tries to apply the Culture of Caring to her day-to-day life.
“The student’s peers observing the simulated patient interactions learn a lot from each other. SimIQ allows us to take what is happening on campus and put it in a virtual environment to facilitate participation and learning with a broader audience.”
In 2019, Davis presented an evidence-based proposal to the superintendent of the Webutuck Central School District concerning the need for and value of a school-based health center for students. He saw the need as over 60% of the population in his community meet the metric of being categorized as economically disadvantaged.
The school-based health center held it’s grand opening on May 14 with a ribbon cutting and an opportunity for the community to check out its newest healthcare resource.
“Where better to pursue an MSN-FNP than Frontier Nursing University, with its significant ethos and storied history of care, including training and educating individuals to provide healthcare to the underserved?” Davis said.
Kitty Ernst was a mentor, visionary, taskmaster, cheerleader, and dear friend to Frontier Nursing University (FNU). As we mourn the loss of this wonderful woman, educator, and pioneer for nurse-midwifery, we reflect on her life and the legacy that she leaves behind. Kitty planted the seeds for community-based midwifery and led the development and implementation of FNU’s Community-based Nurse-midwifery Education Program (CNEP) program.
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Awards and achievements were a common theme throughout the year. The university was named a recipient of the prestigious INSIGHT Into Diversity Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award for the fourth consecutive year. FNU’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives also were recognized by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), and the Diverse Organizational Impact and Transformation (DOIT) Certification Program. A leader in distance learning since 1989, Frontier also received an International Distance Learning Award, presented by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA). Additionally, the university was recognized as “A Great College to Work For” by the Great Colleges to Work For® program.
Deanna Hercik, Frontier Nursing University (FNU) 
“After researching schools with a PMHNP program, FNU pulled ahead of its competitors. I liked that admission was selective, the program was online, and there were programs to assist students in completing their degree. I liked the idea of both Frontier Bound and Clinical Bound to provide opportunities to connect with faculty and other students.”
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).