Since stepping into her role as president of Frontier Nursing University last year, Dr. Brooke A. Flinders has prioritized connecting with the FNU community. In 2025, she kicked off a Presidential Tour in the southeast region of the United States and plans to travel across the country throughout the year to meet with FNU graduates who are transforming healthcare in their communities. Each stop offers an opportunity to witness firsthand the meaningful impact of our alumni in a variety of clinical settings.
The first leg of the tour took Dr. Flinders and the FNU team through three states in three days: Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The trip started in Atlanta, where we met with Brandi Milton, a graduate of FNU’s Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program, who now runs her own aesthetics and wellness clinic. Dr. Flinders and Dr. Susan Piper, Clinical Director for FNU’s PMHNP Program, toured Milton’s clinic to learn how she is supporting mental health and wellness in her community.
While in Atlanta, Frontier held a Meet and Mingle at the historic Mary Mac’s Tea Room with students, alumni, and faculty for a lively evening of connection.
Next, the FNU team met Lauren Brannon, a family nurse practitioner who specializes in gender-affirming care at Atrium Health Primary Care Northcross, located near Charlotte, North Carolina. The final stop in this leg was in Statesville, NC at Natural Beginnings Birth & Wellness Center, where we met three passionate FNU graduates: nurse-midwives Haley Swift and Jennifer Johnson, and women’s health nurse practitioner Kristen Shaver.
The second leg of the tour took us throughout Florida with stops in Miami, Tampa, Kissimmee, Altamonte Springs, and Orlando. In Miami, the tour kicked off with a Meet and Mingle with graduates, students, and faculty at the Doral Yard, joined by Dean of Student Success Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech, Interim Dean of Nursing Dr. Diane John, and board member Peter Schwartz.
In Tampa, we had a chance to visit Lilia Passman at USF Midwifery in Tampa General Hospital. Notably, Passman’s team includes eight FNU graduates. Another meet-and-greet took place at Armature Works in Tampa, bringing together local graduates and students.
Dr. Flinders also spent time with Triana Boggs, a passionate homebirth nurse-midwife serving a diverse population with culturally centered care. Boggs shared insights on the importance of expanding birthing options and empowering patients through personalized care.
Further stops included a visit with FNU dual-graduate Auriel Cicarelli in Kissimmee, whose dedication as a nurse-midwife and preceptor exemplifies the Frontier spirit. We then joined graduate Kaleen Richards at Tree of Life Birthing Center in Altamonte Springs where FNU students presented a variety of cases they experienced during the clinical placement of their education.
The Presidential Tour will continue this month in the Northwest, with stops in California, Oregon and Washington. A Northeast tour will take place in August with stops in New York City and Philadelphia, while an Eastern tour will close out the year of travel in November with stops in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. We’ll be sharing highlights of the tour in our On the Trail Series on YouTube:
If you are an FNU graduate or student who would like to meet up with us on the Presidential Tour this year and share insights on your work in your community, please visit Frontier.edu for the full Presidential Tour schedule.
It is with extreme sorrow that we share the news of the passing of Dr. Michael Carter, who served as Chair of the Frontier Nursing University Board of Directors from 2009 to April 2025. Dr. Carter’s long history with Frontier Nursing University dates to 2003 when he joined what was then the Frontier Nursing Service Board of Governors. For more than fifteen years, Dr. Carter’s leadership was marked by his determination, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his extraordinary passion.
The story of the mission and founding of the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925 shines a light on the importance of providing healthcare to areas where there is little if any access to care. Mary (Strubhar) Showalter, MSN, CNM (Class 39) is among the many Frontier graduates who have been inspired by the mission to serve the underserved.
“It also was very special to me to follow in the footsteps of my aunt, Ruth Cressman, who had trained as a midwife with the Frontier Nursing Service in the early 1950s,” Showalter said. “Aunt Ruth was a classmate of and fellow graduate with Kitty Ernst.”
Perhaps one of the positives that emerged from the COVID pandemic was a heightened awareness of mental health and an understanding of the need for increased access to mental health care.
Wilk works in a fast-paced outpatient setting providing much-needed mental health care. She diagnosis and treats substance use disorders, persistent and severe mental illness, neuropsychiatric disorders, and more.
“In my day-to-day work, I work with uniformed services veterans from all walks of life who choose to access VA healthcare,” Wilk said. “As a USPHS officer, I serve the country by being prepared to respond to a public health emergency and promoting public health through federal agency work.”
FNU graduate Lauren Brannon has dedicated her career to championing accessible, affirming healthcare for underserved communities, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ community. Brannon obtained a 
Brannon deeply enjoys providing primary care to her community. “In my practice, I know our cultural norms,” she said. “I know our language, I know what our lives are. I just know there’s a different level of felt safety if you’re with a practitioner that’s from within your community. And I think it goes a long way. Community-based care is not just geographic,” she said.
Notably, during Hurricane Helene, Brannon and her team provided refills and other healthcare needs to people in her community who were affected by the storm.
Married physicians Drs. Susan Graham, MD, and Jon Kucera, MD, understand the importance of quality healthcare and the challenging lack of access that many people face. Dr. Graham is a cardiologist and Dr. Kucera is an Internist. Both have over 35 years of experience and practice primarily in Buffalo, New York.
“The FNU model builds on the strengths of the individual in their daily lives and local communities,” Dr. Graham said. “The students bring an understanding of the priorities and key drivers of health in their own practices. Working on methods and solutions is the immediate result of such shared experience. Health care barriers and patient needs have similarities across rural and underserved populations. Thus, with this focus and shared philosophy, the students, faculty, and alumni have a platform for communication, research, and advocacy. FNU graduates are energized, involved, and unafraid to think broadly, ask questions, and be part of new solutions.”
Michael Steinmetz served Frontier Nursing University from October 2009 to August 2022, when he retired. He was hired as the Chief Financial Officer, then became the Vice President of Finance, and then Executive Vice President for Finance and Facilities. 
His talents and expertise led him to financial leadership positions with entities such as Coopers & Lybrand, Hitachi Automotive Products, Studio Plus Hotels, FKI Logistex, and Lexmark International, Inc., among others. Each of these opportunities prepared him with a breadth of knowledge and experience in a variety of domestic and international industries.
For the many contributions that he made to Frontier and the lasting impact of his work, FNU presented Steinmetz with the honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration, Honoris Causa, in 2023. 
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).