Versailles, Ky. – Nine college students will arrive in Hyden, Ky., on June 11, prepared for a summer of service to the communities and residents of rural eastern Kentucky. Every summer Frontier Nursing University (FNU) gives college students from around the country an opportunity to participate in the Courier Program.
In 1928, FNU founder Mary Breckinridge established the Courier Program, recruiting young people to work in the Kentucky Mountains and learn about service to humanity. Couriers escorted guests safely through remote terrain, delivered medical supplies to remote outpost clinics, and helped nurse-midwives during home visits and births. Frontier has benefited tremendously from the 1,600 Couriers who have served since 1928.
The Courier Program is a service-learning experience that provides an opportunity for students interested in public health, health care or related fields to see what it is like to provide medical care to an underserved population.
“We are very excited to welcome these fantastic students to the Courier Program,” said FNU Courier Program Coordinator Tara Dykes-Barnes. “We hope they have a rewarding experience serving in Appalachia. We are proud to welcome them to the FNU Courier family.”
Meet the nine students who are answering the call to serve in rural Kentucky this summer:
Sarah Baldree
Sarah is a 20-year-old attending Williams College in Massachusetts. Originally from Macon, Georgia, Sarah is working on a double major in biology and psychology and will be spending fall 2019 studying in Amsterdam.
Breanna Bowling
Breanna is a public health pre-med student at Eastern Kentucky University. She is involved in the honors program, the service council, and Alpha Phi Omega. She hopes to pursue an MD and Master of Public Health (MPH) dual degree.
Audrey Cameron
Audrey is a rising junior at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. She is studying honors philosophy with a minor in health and society. Audrey is part of her school’s first aid team, providing coverage at UBC community events. She also works with the education and outreach branch of the team, facilitating workshops on student health.
Emily Cross
Emily is a recent Skidmore College graduate from Andover, Massachusetts. She has a degree in neuroscience and a minor in theater. She spent the last year working on her thesis looking into maternal and paternal methamphetamine use in fruit flies. She has been an EMT for three years and has volunteered with several hospice organizations. She hopes to become a palliative care doctor or a forensic pathologist.
Daniel Goold
Daniel is a 22-year-old from northern California. He is currently a student at Brigham Young University. Daniel is passionate about the medical field and hopes to attend medical school after graduation.
Reilly Hail
Reilly is a 21-year-old from northern California but will be relocating to Franklin, Tennessee after completing the Courier Program to start a nursing program in August. She would like to become a nurse-midwife and is excited to learn from other nurse-midwives.
Eric Lakomek
Eric is a 20-year-old rising junior from Saint John, Indiana. He attends Wabash College, where he is majoring in psychology with a minor in global health and chemistry. His hope is to attend medical school. He is a member of Phi Delta Theta and has been involved in the Wabash Dance Marathon, Global Health Initiative, the Public Health Organization, and the baseball team.
Dorn McMahon
Originally from New Jersey, Dorn moved to Maine in the summer of 2001. Dorn is a junior in the nursing program at the University of Maine at Fort Kent and hopes to continue working in the medical field with a focus on population health.
HaLee Morgan
HaLee is from Hyden, Kentucky. FNU’s first official “local courier,” HaLee graduated from Leslie County High School in Hyden. She plans to obtain her RN license next year. After that, she hopes to attend FNU to obtain a master’s degree with a specialty as a family nurse practitioner. Her ultimate goal is to become a pediatric nurse practitioner and serve rural communities.
Read more about each 2019 Courier and see their photos at Frontier.edu/Meetthe2019Couriers.
About Frontier Nursing University:
The mission of FNU is to provide accessible nurse-midwifery and nurse practitioner education to prepare competent, entrepreneurial, ethical, and compassionate leaders in primary care to serve all individuals with an emphasis on women and families in diverse, rural, and underserved populations. FNU offers graduate Nurse-Midwifery and Nurse-Practitioner distance education programs that can be pursued full- or part-time with the student’s home community serving as the classroom. Degrees and options offered include Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Post-Graduate Certificates. To learn more about FNU and the programs and degrees offered, please visit Frontier.edu.
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).