“I went back to school to reach the underserved population of rural south-central Kentucky that desperately needs compassionate and superior health care. The area has a large volume of health disparities that I am dedicated to making a difference in by assisting those in the community where I live and serve,” Percefull said.
Percefull graduated from FNU in 2019 with her DNP and recently published her DNP project in the 2020 Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. The article was written by Percefull and FNU assistant professor Judith Butler, DNP, CNM, WHNP, CNE, and is entitled “Improving mammography through effective screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment at a rural health center.”
Percefull’s project focused on the low rate of mammograms for eligible women at her clinical practice site. Before her project, only 25 percent of these women had received a mammogram in the past two years in an area where breast cancer rates rest above the state and country levels. During the 90 days of her project, Percefull raised these rates and saw screening and identification improve by 40 percent, patient engagement improve by 30 percent, and case management for “right care” more than double. Percefull implemented an electronic health record reminder for mammography screening, a patient mammography decision aid, a case management log, and weekly quality improvement team meetings to get these results. It is clear that by implementing these tools, providers have the opportunity to significantly increase the number of patients receiving necessary mammograms.
Since graduation, Percefull signed on as a provider with Family Medical Center of Hart County. She incorporates evidence-based guidelines while providing care to pediatric patients from birth to 18 years of age. She also collaborates with providers and ancillary staff to coordinate patient care and participates in quality improvement processes to find the best ways to encourage and assist her community. Additionally, Percefull often serves as a preceptor to FNP and DNP students in her area to further give back and support the future of quality patient care in the region.
Since the COVID-19 Pandemic began, Percefull has also worked with an interdisciplinary team within the clinic to create access to testing, implementing drive-through and in-office rapid testing clinics. She served as the primary source for research and provided current COVID education to providers, staff, and patients.
Percefull’s dedication is making a difference in the lives of the children in rural Kentucky, and FNU is proud to have her as an alumna. Keep up the excellent work! We can’t wait to see the wave of change that comes from your commitment to care.
Are you interested in becoming an FNP? FNU offers a graduate Family Nurse Practitioner specialty track that can be pursued full- or part-time while completing a Master of Science in Nursing or a Post-Graduate Certificate. To learn more, go here.
The American Academy of Nursing
The age of COVID-19 has been full of challenges for the nursing community, yet so many FNU staff and faculty members have used it as a chance to grow and support one another. Moriarty is an excellent example of that mindset. Here is what her nominator wrote when discussing her dedication to her students and team over the past year:
As everyone knows, 2020 was an incredibly eventful and often stressful year. With the pandemic, social justice and reform, and a volatile political climate, it was a year unlike any in recent memory. 
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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).