Rankings by several top researchers and sources have recognized Frontier Nursing University (FNU) as one of the leading nursing education programs in the country, particularly in the category of distance education.
Released in January 2019, the US News & World Report ranked FNU as #47 of the Best Online Master’s in Nursing Programs. Programs were ranked based on factors such as graduation rates, academic and career support services offered to students and admissions selectivity.
US News & World Report’s rankings of Best Graduate Nursing Schools, released in March 2019, found FNU’s Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) master’s degree to be the #6 program in the country. Other FNU programs that earned rankings include the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), ranked at #54, and the Master’s degree, coming in at #64.
Other organizations have also recognized FNU’s distance programs on a national scale. Best Medical Degrees ranked FNU’s Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree as the #10 Best Value Online Nurse-Midwifery Program. The option to take additional credit hours post-MSN to receive a DNP degree was a major value-adding factor. The Best Medical Degrees rankings, released in April 2019, took into account appropriate accreditation, cost of tuition, program length by credit hours and amount of required on-campus participation.
FNU’s FNP Master of Science in Nursing program also earned a top spot in Best Medical Degrees’ Best Value Family Nurse Practitioner Online Programs, coming in at #17. The ability to complete clinical experiences in the student’s home area is a highlight of FNU’s FNP program. Like the nurse-midwifery master’s degree, the FNP can easily transition into FNU’s DNP program.
The Benefits of Distance Education at FNU
Online and distance education courses offer convenience and access that wasn’t possible with traditional programs in decades past. Now students can attend classes and complete coursework from anywhere with an internet connection. Students have the opportunity to serve their own communities by completing clinical hours locally.
A top priority of the staff at FNU is to ensure that distance education students feel a part of the FNU community despite their physical distance. One-three times throughout all distance education programs, students visit campus to take part in orientation, Clinical Bound, and graduation. “You come here for a few days a few times during the program, and it gets into your heart in a different way. We call it homecoming when we all come back. It’s a really special place,” said FNU graduate and staff member Neissa Meier, DNP, CNM.
FNU is dedicated to equipping our students with the tools to succeed, both during their education and after. The student experience at FNU is full of opportunities to connect, such as the SAGE peer mentoring network, the Diversity Impact student organization and the Wide Neighborhoods ambassador program.
The great thing about online nursing courses is that it’s never too late to start! FNU offers four admitting classes throughout the year. Choose from any of FNU’s online programs and start earning your degree today. Check out our degree and specialty offerings and fill out an application today.
Hyden, Ky. – On April 3, 2019, the 
Through funding granted by the Frontier Nursing Service Foundation, three scholarships totaling $1,000 will be given to students from this year’s Healthy Futures Fair. An essay contest was open to any Leslie County Schools student interested in pursuing careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. Contestants were asked to answer one of four questions in a short essay that focused on the ideas of healthy futures. The scholarship recipients will be featured in a news story next month, so be on the lookout in May!
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 post-graduation. During his time in college, he has been a member of Phi Delta Theta and has been involved in the Wabash Dance Marathon, Global Health Initiative, the Public Health Organization, and his school’s baseball team. Eric looks forward to beginning his journey as a 2019 Courier and is excited to learn this upcoming summer! 
HaLee OrLena Morgan is from Hyden, KY. She is FNU’s first official “Local Courier” and we are excited to welcome her aboard! HaLee is 20 years old and graduated from Leslie County High School in Hyden. She is in college but is looking to transfer somewhere where she can complete her degree. She plans to obtain her RN license next year. After that, she hopes to attend Frontier Nursing University to obtain her degree with an FNP specialty. Her ultimate goal is to become a pediatric nurse practitioner and serve rural communities such as Hyden. 
Dorn left suburban New Jersey in search of “The Way Life Should Be” and arrived in Maine in the summer of 2001. Since moving to Maine, he has acquired a deep appreciation for contra dancing, maple syrup, and farm-to-table cuisine. When Dorn is not working, studying or powerlifting he spends his time watching his nephew’s basketball games and reading books to his niece. Currently, 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. 
Emily Cross is a recent Skidmore College graduate from Andover, MA. 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. Last year, she lived in Denmark for six months while studying psychopharmacology at the Danish Institute of Study Abroad. Currently, she is applying for medical school in the hopes of becoming a palliative care doctor or a forensic pathologist. Emily enjoys Netflix binges with friends, scuba diving, her Birkenstocks and her dogs.
Breanna is a Public Health pre-med student at Eastern Kentucky University. She is passionate about being engaged in her campus and community through her involvement in the Honors program, the Service Council, and a service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. She also loves reading, art, yoga, hiking, and spending time with her friends and family. In the future, she wishes to pursue an MD, MPH dual degree to better her community and world. 
Audrey is a rising junior at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. She is studying Honours Philosophy with a minor in Health and Society. For the past year, Audrey has been involved with her school’s First Aid Team, providing first aid coverage at UBC community events, including mental health and substance use first aid. She also works with the Education and Outreach branch of the team, facilitating workshops on student health. As a College Advisor at UBC, Audrey acts as a mentor to first-year commuter students, helping to ensure a smooth transition, both academically and socially to university life. Audrey loves to explore the outdoors, read, play the violin and relax with friends. She is very much looking forward to working in the community this summer, making connections, learning well, and serving those around her. 
Daniel Goold is a 22-year-old from Northern California. He is currently a student at Brigham Young University. Some of his favorite hobbies are running, listening to music, cooking, playing Super Smash Brothers, or doing basically anything with a group of friends. Daniel is very passionate about the medical field and biology/chemistry in general – he loves to learn! He describes himself as very friendly and says he loves to make new friends.
Reilly is 21 years old and from Northern California, but will be relocating to Franklin, Tennessee after completing the Courier Program to start a nursing program in August. Reilly is very passionate about women’s health; she is working towards becoming a nurse-midwife. Reilly says that, given permission, she will talk your ear off about the Enneagram (I’m a true 4 wing 3), birth culture, the Liturgists podcast, BBC historical dramas and/or The Bachelor(ette). She is very excited about this opportunity to learn from people practicing the way that she sees herself practicing in the future, and she can’t wait to become more comfortable in a clinical setting. 
Sarah Baldree is 20 years old and attends Williams College in Massachusetts. Although she is attending college in the northeast, she is originally from Macon, Georgia. Sarah is working on a double major in Biology and Psychology and will be spending Fall 2019 studying in Amsterdam. Sarah is the youngest of three sisters and she loves sweet tea, silly puns, and her two dogs, Ollie and Belle.
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).