Graduate Spotlight: Auriel Ciccarelli, CNM, WHNP, driven by calling to service and community

July 24, 2025 By Frontier Nursing University

At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, Couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to work with all people, with an emphasis on rural and underserved communities.

For Auriel Ciccarelli, CNM, WHNP, her journey in midwifery and women’s healthcare began with a passion for service and a deep understanding of the value of community, both of which were rooted in her upbringing.

“Even though we didn’t have a lot, we still gave back to our community,” she said of her family.

That early experience continues to shape the way she approaches her work today, whether it’s caring for patients or mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Ciccarelli earned both her Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP) Post-Graduate Certificate (PGC) from FNU. Now serving as a CNM for Women’s Health Centers in Orlando, she remains a strong advocate for accessible, compassionate care and for the continued growth of the midwifery profession.

Ciccarelli’s professional journey has taken her from working as a Registered Nurse (RN) in her home state of Pennsylvania to working as a CNM and ultimately as a WHNP. Along the way, she’s carried with her the spirit of connection and support she found at FNU.

“Frontier Nursing University is a family,” she said. “It’s a community that you have that has your back while you’re going through the program.”

Visiting with Auriel Ciccarelli in Orlando during FNU's Presidential Tour

L to R: Bobbi Silver, Quincy Fuehne, Auriel Ciccarelli, Dr. Brooke Flinders, Caitlin Rivard

Ciccarelli said her Frontier experience was shaped by moments of deep connection, like her time at Frontier Bound, where she bonded with fellow CNM, WHNP and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) students, many of whom she keeps in touch with today. She credits a Frontier graduate who precepted her during her undergraduate clinical practicum, for inspiring her to apply to FNU and for modeling what it means to mentor with purpose.

Now, Ciccarelli is serving as an FNU clinical preceptor herself.

“I feel like part of my higher calling is to precept my students and to precept the future of midwifery,” she said. “If we don’t take on that calling, we will not have nurse-midwives to help women to deliver their babies and to advocate for them for their health and for their wellbeing.”

At Frontier Nursing University, preceptors like Ciccarelli play a critical role in shaping students’ real-world learning. They serve not only as clinical supervisors and educators, but also as mentors who help students navigate their unique paths into advanced practice nursing.

“I think it’s important to understand that every student comes from a different background and that their experiences are unique, and I learn from students every day,” she said.

That sense of shared purpose is something she said carries into every aspect of her work.

“I love my job,” she said. “I can’t imagine doing anything else. I love my patients, I love my students, and it’s just a higher calling. Every day I’m thankful I’m able to do it.”

Thank you, Auriel, for your unwavering commitment to giving back to your community and for helping to train and inspire the next generation of healthcare professionals.

To read more graduate stories, visit the FNU graduate stories page.

Jake Mearse: Navy Veteran Navigates a Unique Role as a Male Nurse-Midwife

May 23, 2025 By Frontier Nursing University

Military personnel are known for their discipline, preparation, and commitment to service. As a former Naval Officer, Frontier Nursing University graduate Jake Mearse, CNM (Class 137), PMHNP, DNP, continues to display those same traits as he breaks down barriers in service to those in his community.

Today, Dr. Mearse is a certified nurse-midwife with his own practice, offering home births and clinical care in Midway, Georgia. Being a male nurse-midwife does not make him one of a kind, but he’s in rare territory. The American Midwifery Certification Board’s Demographic Report released in January 2024 found that less than 1 percent (88 out of 14,198) of all AMCB-certified midwives identified as male. There’s no data on how many of those 88 served in the U.S. Navy for 25 years, but it’s safe to assume it is an exclusive group.

“I’m third generation Navy, so that was kind of expected almost. That’s what our family does,” said Mearse, who grew up in Bend, Oregon, and joined the Navy when he was 18. “While I was in the Navy, I got into the medical field as a Navy Hospital Corpsman and served aboard submarines mostly in that role. Eventually, the Navy sent me to nursing school.”

The Navy’s Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program allows sailors and Marines to earn a nursing degree and become a Navy Nurse Corps Officer. Mearse utilized this opportunity to attend Hawaii Pacific University while stationed at Pearl Harbor.

“I had absolutely no interest in labor and delivery or midwifery or anything related to that,” Mearse said. “I spent most of my time as a nurse in the ER/trauma world. I loved the ER/trauma nursing. I was deployed in the Middle East a couple of times doing Mobile Trauma Bay. Once I got a commission, I worked as an RN full time.”

Mearse met his wife April in the Navy, and in 2004, they had their first child with the help of FNU graduate Michelle Munroe, DNP (Class 11), APRN, CNM, FACNM, FAAN.

“She was our midwife for two of our kids,” said Mearse, who now has seven children. “She’s the one who talked me into becoming a midwife. She pulled me aside during a prenatal visit and said, ‘I think you might want to look into doing this. You might be good at this.’ That seed that Michelle planted in my head just kept growing. Unfortunately, if you are a nurse and you’re a 6-1, 200-pound man, every time you say, ‘I want to go into labor and delivery’, they say, ‘That’s very nice, you’re going back to the ER.’ So, I had to do it on my own time.”

During his last few years in the Navy, Mearse used his accrued leave time to finish his midwifery training. He then entered the Navy’s “Duty Under Instruction” program in which participants stay in active duty while pursuing a degree. He attended the University of Washington with plans to become a nurse-midwife, but the Navy approved him for the psychiatric-mental health nursing curriculum instead.

“The whole time I was going through my DNP program studying psychiatric nursing, I was taking extra classes in women’s health, labor and delivery, trying to get as close into that world as I could,” Mearse said. “I wanted to be a midwife.”

Inspired by Dr. Munroe, Mearse approached FNU about enrolling in the nurse-midwifery program.

“Best decision I ever made,” Mearse said. “The biggest thing that was helpful with Frontier was the flexibility of the program. I was coming to them saying, look I’ve got my DNP in a field I don’t necessarily want to spend the rest of my life, and I’m active-duty military, so I’m going to have long stretches where I can’t do school and I’ll have to jump back into it. Frontier was the only school that said, ‘You know what, tell us what you need, and we’ll make it work.’ They were just incredible.”

Still, Mearse faced more hurdles before achieving his goal of becoming a nurse-midwife. He encountered significant pushback against the idea of a man being a midwife.

“On my very first day of clinical rotations, at my first clinical site, I was with a group practice, and one of the midwives in the group pulled me aside and said, “‘Just so you know, I don’t think men belong in midwifery. I do not want to help you. Please don’t ask me for anything.”’ It was a little discouraging Day 1,” Mearse said. “I had a very similar experience in a midwifery job that I took. One of my new partners pulled me aside and said, ‘I am not working with you. I am offended that you’re here. I don’t believe that men belong here, and I will do anything I can to get you out of here.’”

Mearse said that the only times he has experienced such gender discrimination, it has come from colleagues, not patients. He noted that patients who asked for a different provider cited cultural or religious reasons.

“For the most part, in my experience, patients don’t really care what your gender is. They just want to be taken care of,” Mearse said.

Mearse took a position at an Army hospital at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia, and he and his family fell in love with the area. In 2002, Mearse opened Coastal Midwifery and Women’s Health, which was a success from day one.

“Before I had even advertised or even posted on social media that I would be doing home births, we started getting calls,” he said. “We got full really fast. Now we are at a point where we are having to turn moms away every month because we are full.”

Mearse strives to keep his schedule to five or fewer home births per month, and the clinic is open three days a week. At the clinic, Mearse provides full-scope gynecology and primary care, including IUDs, contraception management, and colposcopies.

To make access to care as convenient and accessible as possible, the clinic is open from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m.

“Our hours are based on what I remember being a dad in the military and never getting to go to appointments because all of the OB offices were always open 9-5 Monday through Friday,” Mearse said. “We decided to do things a little differently. We are open from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., and we do two weekdays and Saturday because we really want families to be able to participate. We want to make this as family-friendly as we possibly can.”

Accordingly, running the clinic is very much a family project. Mearse’s wife, April, who is also a Navy veteran, is not medically trained but attends all the births to provide support and helps run the clinic.

“People come to the practice because they want a midwife. They stay with the practice because they meet April,” Mearse said. “Our kids are getting older now, but April is kind of the surrogate mom, especially to a lot of these young military moms who are 20, 21 years old, on the other side of the country from home. She helps set things up and take things down, but her most important role is being a hand-holder and encourager. She has that experienced mom energy where she can hold a young woman’s hand and say, ‘I’ve done this seven times. We’re going to get you through it. You’re going to be OK.’ I love the fact that a lot of our clients will text April instead of me.”

Yes, Jake and April have seven children, who are also active participants in the clinic’s day-to-day operations. They strip the beds, clean, and prepare rooms for the next client. They also help interact with the other children brought into the clinic, which features separate playrooms for older and younger children.

“We’re largely a military community, and we will have moms come in for their appointment, and they’ve got other little kids and the dad’s deployed,” Mearse said. “Because we have my kids there to help, moms can feel comfortable coming into their appointment they can relax and do their appointment without worrying about what the kids are doing.”

Mearse schedules 60-minute time slots for all his patients, ensuring ample time for questions and discussions about their care.

“We want our patients to be able to ask questions and get to know us and us to get to know them,” Mearse said. “I love the fact that we have a lot of moms who will come in and just hang out in the clinic even if they’re not being seen that day. They just want to come and sit and chat and drink coffee and be there. It’s wonderful.”

As veterans, Jake and April are particularly excited to be able to offer care to a large number of military families.

“When we first started this, one of the commitments we made is that we were going to try and make this affordable for military families,” Mearse said of the military discounts offered at Coastal Midwifery and Women’s Health. “We are just 10 minutes down the road from Fort Stewart. Even though we’re not able to do this for free for military families – I wish we could – they end up paying sometimes less than half of what they would pay elsewhere. If we’re making just enough to break even, I’m fine with that. We’re able to serve these people that are serving our country.”

Mearse hopes to be able to offer even greater access to care soon. He plans to hire another nurse-midwife as soon as she graduates.

“Right now, we are turning a number of moms away each month because we’re full, so it will be nice to be able to take more moms because there will be two of us,” Mearse said. “I’ve been on call 365 days a year for three-and-a-half years now. It will be amazing to be able to take a vacation and leave the practice in someone else’s hands for a little bit.”

Graduate Spotlight: Emily Levingston Luna, CNM, MSN, opens Vida Midwifery in rural New Mexico

April 14, 2025 By Frontier Nursing University

At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, Couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality health care to underserved and rural populations.

Frontier graduate Emily Levingston Luna, CNM, MSN, is making a significant impact on midwifery care in her home community of Las Cruces, New Mexico. As the founder of Vida Midwifery, she is dedicated to expanding access to quality maternal healthcare in the region. Luna earned her Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) with a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) specialty from FNU in 2018.

Her journey into midwifery began long before attending FNU. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from New Mexico State University in 2009, Luna gained extensive experience working as an RN in hospital settings. Starting as a float pool nurse, she developed skills across multiple specialties, including medical-surgical, postpartum, pediatrics, and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). After three years, she transitioned full-time to Labor and Delivery, where her passion for midwifery was solidified.

Luna said she dreamed of pursuing midwifery since her first experience with pregnancy and birth, which is what drove her to pursue nursing school with the eventual goal of becoming a Certified Nurse-Midwife.

“Midwifery stood out to me as a vocation that included many of the things I feel strongly about: bodily autonomy, trauma-informed care, and reproductive justice in particular,” she said. “I chose the CNM pathway to midwifery because I wanted to be able to offer the fullest scope of care possible.”

Luna said she was drawn to FNU’s program due to its rich history and accessible distance-learning model.

“I loved the history of the Frontier Nursing service and their work improving healthcare in rural communities,” she said. “The way FNU’s nurse-midwifery program was set up also just felt very accessible to me.”

In the summer of 2020, Luna launched Vida Midwifery as a home birth practice. By April 2023, the practice expanded into a group model with two additional midwifery professionals from the local community.

“We all had solo practices, and all agreed that we wanted to try to build something more sustainable, so we decided to try a practice model where we rotate through roles and have regular time off as well,” she said.

Vida Midwifery offers a wide range of services, including prenatal, birth, postpartum, newborn, gynecological, and contraceptive care, as well as lactation support. They are also preparing to introduce intrauterine insemination (IUI) services. Their service area extends about 1.5 hours from Las Cruces.

Recognizing the lack of obstetric providers in nearby Sierra County, Vida Midwifery partnered with the New Mexico Department of Health to launch a twice-monthly prenatal clinic at the Public Health Office. The practice is also committed to education, regularly precepting student midwives.

“I think midwives tread lightly and respectfully in some of the most significant and vulnerable experiences of our clients’ lives,” Luna said of her profession. “We’re extra mindful of the weight of that, and also we’re responsible for guarding safety and providing sound, evidence-based information and guidance. We take extra time and move a little more slowly in an effort to really get to know our clients and also in an effort to help them feel known and seen.”

Earlier this year, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced over $40 million in funding to enhance rural healthcare, with Vida Midwifery among the recipients. Through the Rural Healthcare Access Fund, they plan to establish the Vida Birth and Health Center, increase staff, expand capacity, and mentor more student midwives.

The new birth center will provide a centralized location for patients from rural communities while ensuring proximity to hospital services when needed. Luna said they also envision the center being a hub for community activities and support, offering classes and resources such as a clothing closet. The birth center is expected to be open late this year or early 2026.

Outside of her work with Vida Midwifery, Luna is involved with Border Area Midwives (BAM), which is a group of midwives and student midwives that live in and around Las Cruces, El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The group meets monthly, and holds an annual mini-conference, along with other training sessions. They also rely on each other for peer reviews and debriefing.

Outside of her career, Luna enjoys spending time with her husband, three children, and pets. She also enjoys traveling, a long walk-and-talk with a friend, playing music and writing.

Reflecting on her time at FNU, Luna credits the university with helping to shape her career.

“I had such a supportive experience as a student at FNU, and it was helpful to hear the experiences of faculty members,” she said. “I think the variety there really helped solidify for me that practicing midwifery could look lots of ways, and empowered me to really pursue what felt right for me. I loved Frontier Bound and Clinical Bound, and still keep in touch with some of the wonderful people I met those weeks.”

In addition to the education she has received, Luna said she is also thankful for the work of midwives who came before her and carved out a path forward, especially Indigenous and Grand Midwives, who she said were not treated with the enormous respect they deserved.

“I often think about how my work would not be possible without the vision and hard work of many others,” she said. “Like them, I hope to be part of building something that will outlast me.”

Thank you, Emily, for your dedication to midwifery, your commitment to expanding healthcare access in rural communities, and your passion for empowering future generations of midwives.

To read more graduate stories, visit the FNU graduate stories page.

2024 Distinguished Service to Alma Mater Award Recipient: Dr. Tia Andrighetti

November 1, 2024 By Frontier Nursing University

The Distinguished Service to Alma Mater honors an alumnus who has continued to provide support to Frontier through volunteer efforts and/or philanthropy. The 2024 recipient is Dr. Tia Andrighetti, CNM, APRN, CHSE-A, CNE, FACNM.

It is hard to imagine Dr. Tia Andrighetti, DNP, CNM, APRN, CHSE-A, CNE, FACNM, being anywhere but at Frontier Nursing University, where she has been a fixture for 20 years in a variety of capacities. But Andrighetti actually started as a pre-med student at Penn State University, planning to become an orthopedic surgeon.

“I was pre-med until I took calculus with the engineers,” said Andrighetti, who grew up in Connecticut the daughter of a nurse. “Let me tell you, I never worked so hard to pass a class in my life.”

But make no mistake, it wasn’t a lack of ability to pass the courses, but the number of years that lay ahead. Andrighetti met her future husband at Penn State and they were both eager to start their careers and their lives together. Andrighetti turned to nursing, and the rest is history. She went on to earn her BSN at Penn State.

“I found Frontier during my maternity rotation,” Andrighetti said. “I did a rotation with one of the original Frontier midwives and was just in awe of her. She was amazing, and I said, ‘Oh, I want to be a midwife!’ Everything she did with the education of patients and the empowerment of patients resonated with me. I said I only want to be a midwife, and I only want to be a Frontier midwife.”

Andrighetti obtained her MSN through Case Western Reserve University in 1997 while working toward her CNM at Frontier at the same time. During her clinical rotations, she lived with her grandparents to finish her clinical rotations.

“I chose a community hospital to do my clinicals because I wasn’t quite comfortable enough to go out of hospital, but I knew I wanted to be where clients were more empowered and a little bit lower risk for midwifery care,” Andrighetti said. “I did my clinicals there for quite a while until my midwife was let go. Then I worked with my RCF (regional clinical faculty), Betty Bradberry, who was one of the original Frontier midwives. She was able to find me a clinical site in a Federally Qualified Health Center. I worked with the gamut of patients and had a wonderful experience with those midwives doing birth in the local hospital.” While most of her classmates at Frontier were older, Andrighetti started when she was just 25.

“At that point, I was a baby of the class,” Andrighetti said. “Everybody that was in my class was at the other end of family life, so their kids were in high school, college, things like that. They were in their 40s and 50s. Here I was doing it prior to kids and life-altering adjustments. I still have some close friendships with the midwives I went to school with.”

After graduating from Frontier, Andrighetti worked in a private practice in New London, Connecticut, for a couple of years and then worked at a small community hospital while her husband attended law school. When Andrighetti was seven months pregnant, she left practice for a few years to stay home and raise her family. Her return to the workplace was a gradual one that well-suited Andrighetti’s work-life balance at the time.

She received a letter from Frontier in search of RCFs in her area. Andrighetti applied and eventually was hired as what she describes as a “part-time RCF” because she only had two students during her first year.

“I had one-and-a-half and three-year-old children at that time,” Andrighettti said. “I did the RCF role, and then I became a teaching associate. I was working with Amy Marowitz (DNP, CNM), and Deborah Karsnitz (DNP, CNM, FACNM) in their courses, and they both took leaves to get their doctorates. I was the one in charge of their courses while they were gone. So I kind of got sucked back into full-time work, and I could see the writing on the wall that we were all going to be getting doctorates. So then I came back and did the DNP program.”

Andrighetti credits FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, with helping her narrow her focus while in the DNP program, and eventually, she locked in on clinical simulations as her target area.

“I conducted research, and I developed the simulations that the midwives were going to use at Clinical Bound,” Andrighetti said. “I trained all the faculty how to run these and then ran them with the students and then conducted research on whether they were effective in helping them learn their new role.”

Soon, Andrighetti became the Clinical Bound team leader. She furthered her knowledge by participating in the National League for Nursing’s year-long simulation-leader program as well as a week-long training at Drexel University.

“Half of the week at Drexel was on the high fidelity mannequins, but on the other half of the week, it was with standardized patients,” Andrighetti said.

“That was my first exposure to standardized patients,” Andrighetti said. “There were four groups of us, and each group wrote a simulation for another group. So we learned how to write the simulations, but then we also had to be the students so we could see what it felt like from the student’s perspective. After that, I was sold on the fact that standardized patients were the key to what we needed. Our students need to practice that interaction. Yes, they need to do hand skills and things like that, but they need to practice talking to somebody while doing those skills also.”

To develop simulations at Frontier, faculty create the health care scenario and write a script for the standardized patient. The standardized patient interacts with the students to enact the role as if they were a real live patient. The result is an interaction between the student and patient in which the student acts as the health care provider under faculty supervision. The goal is for the student to collect information, diagnose, and provide a treatment plan as if it were a real patient-healthcare provider interaction. This practice environment is invaluable to the student’s learning experience.

Andrighetti combined her training in simulations with research to determine what simulations were most impactful for Frontier students.

“Part of the gap analysis I did during my doctorate was to look at some software we had back then to figure out what our students were getting exposed to during clinicals,” she said. “It was about 50 percent for shoulder dystocia and 50 percent for postpartum hemorrhage. Basically, half of our students did not have one of those two complications while they were students. That sold me on the fact that the first time they are going to have to manage these high acuity, high morbidity, and mortality events could potentially be on their own without a lot of resources. We have to have it the most lifelike we can because this may be their only practice ever before they are the ones who are in charge of doing it.”

Today, Andrighetti is an associate professor as well as FNU’s Innovation Coach and Simulation Coordinator working with all programs. She consults with other faculty to help determine what simulations are needed and also relies on student surveys and input to help adjust and improve the simulations.

“When we query the students, consistently what they will say is, ‘It was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve had to do, but I’m so glad on the other side of it that I got to have that experience in a safe environment where I’m not going to harm someone and I got to practice some skills that I might be less than ideal at.’”

As she celebrates her 20th anniversary at Frontier in March, Andrighetti eyes the future with the goal of continuing to grow and develop FNU’s simulations.

“This award is coming at a time when I feel the hard work that I’ve put into Frontier with the simulations is really coming to fruition. I really feel like we have a simulation program now,” she said. “When I eventually leave Frontier, I hope I leave it in really good shape so the simulation program continues well after I’m gone. It’s an established part of healthcare right now, and we are definitely on the forefront of how to deliver these simulations to our students.”

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Lourdes Prince focuses on empowerment of Hispanic nurses

September 30, 2024 By Frontier Nursing University

At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community who are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality healthcare to underserved and rural populations.

Dr. Lourdes Prince has been a champion of DEI throughout her career in healthcare and education. This summer, Dr. Prince became a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Faculty Fellow at FNU and served as a moderator during the Diversity Impact conference in July. She is also a reviewer for the Nursing Workforce Diversity grant scholarship and a member of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging; the Diversity Impact Planning; and the Culture of Caring committees at FNU.

As a Hispanic healthcare professional with extensive experience in DEI, Dr. Prince said an emphasis on DEI is crucial in advancing health in Hispanic communities. She said lack of access, lower socioeconomic status and language barriers often prevent many members of the Hispanic community from seeking care.

“Not only are services often out of reach for these families due to lack of insurance or proximity to these services, but they are often not culturally and linguistically tailored for this population,” she said. “Providers who share the same cultural background as their patients communicate more effectively. When a provider speaks the same language, health concerns are more likely to be heard and addressed in an adequate manner.”

According to the 2020 Census, Hispanics represent 18.7% of the U.S. population, yet only 7.4% of registered nurses, 5% of nurse practitioners, 4.8% of certified nurse-midwives, and 6.5% of physicians are Hispanic. Although access to interpreters is required through the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards, Hispanic patients with limited English proficiency often have to rely on family, friends, or other untrained individuals as interpreters.

Over her 24-year career as a Certified Nurse-Midwife, Dr. Lourdes Prince estimates she has delivered more than 4,000 babies.

Addressing disparities in healthcare among the Hispanic population is particularly important when it comes to midwifery care, Dr. Prince said. She said this is highlighted by the fact that the Hispanic community in the U.S. faces significant health disparities, particularly with higher rates of conditions such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and chronic liver disease, which can lead to pregnancy complications. Hispanic mothers also are at a greater risk of dying from infection and hemorrhage compared to other racial groups. Midwives, as licensed healthcare providers, play a crucial role in improving maternal care, leading to better outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Dr. Prince said advancing health in the Hispanic community can be supported by increasing the number of Hispanic providers who will become a part of those communities, noting that Hispanic providers can bring a more holistic understanding of their patient’s cultural history and the events that shape their healthcare experience. They can use this understanding to foster respect and better communication with their patients. In regards to maternal care, she said schools of nursing can help address health disparities by recruiting and retaining more Hispanic midwives who will understand their communities’ unique health needs.

“A diverse workforce understands that the language, culture, issues and needs of local patient populations can provide deeper insight that results in better decision-making about how to serve those communities,” she said. “Those decisions then have the potential to positively impact patient experience, safety and quality, and the communities’ overall health.”

To that end, Dr. Prince will address the empowerment of Hispanic nurses and the path to becoming a Nurse-Midwife during a presentation for the National Association of Hispanic Nurses in October. The presentation is a collaborative effort with Dr. Tanya Belcheff, FNU’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Dr. Lourdes Prince with her husband, Tom, and their third grandchild.

Along with her work in DEI, Dr. Prince also serves as a Regional Clinical Faculty (RCF) member. In this role, she supports Frontier students throughout their clinical journey. She advises, supports, educates, and evaluates students, meeting with them biweekly—or more frequently if needed—to guide them through course expectations and foster a positive learning environment. Dr. Prince also collaborates closely with preceptors to ensure students receive the best clinical experiences.

Before joining FNU, Dr. Prince built a career in midwifery and women’s health. She said her passion for midwifery is rooted in her family history, particularly the legacy of her great-great-grandmother, Monserrate Arroyo, a midwife and healer in Puerto Rico. Inspired by her ancestor’s dedication to caring for her community, Dr. Prince pursued midwifery to provide continuity of care to women throughout various stages of life—a cornerstone of the midwifery model that resonated deeply with her family values.

Dr. Prince worked as a labor and delivery nurse for 12 years before earning a Master of Science in nursing in 1998 and a Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2012 from the University of Florida. Over her 24-year career as a Certified Nurse-Midwife, she estimates she has delivered more than 4,000 babies.

“Earning a DNP demonstrates a commitment to learning at the highest level of nursing practice,” she said. “It expanded my knowledge base and professional capacity. With my DNP, my role as a certified nurse-midwife evolved and overlapped with the other area that sparked my passion: nursing education.”

Dr. Lourdes Prince in her home office with her dog, Lola.

After working as a labor and delivery nurse, Dr. Prince worked in a full scope private practice for four years before joining an OB-GYN Faculty practice with Orlando Health. At Orlando Health, Dr. Prince participated in the Perinatal Improvement Collaborative, testing interventions and protocols to reduce preventable deaths and complications among mothers and babies. She also supervised first-year OB-GYN residents with normal labor and birth.

Dr. Prince also helped launch the collaborative practice between Maternal Fetal Medicine and Certified Nurse-Midwives at Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando. Precepting graduate nursing students since 1999, Dr. Prince has been committed to improving healthcare by clinically preparing OB-GYN residents, nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives to serve their communities. This extensive experience in precepting led her to her career at FNU, she said.

“I had colleagues who were RCFs with FNU, and they felt that with my many years of work and precepting experience, I would be a good fit at FNU,” she said. “My passion for precepting students evolved into joining FNU as an RCF.”

Dr. Lourdes Prince after completing a half marathon.

Thank you, Lourdes, for your dedication to midwifery education, the Hispanic community and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in healthcare. Frontier is fortunate to have such an inspiring and passionate leader as part of our faculty.

Learn more about advanced nursing degrees and specialties at Frontier Nursing University. Subscribe to our blog for the latest news and events at FNU and to get inspired with stories featuring our alumni, students, faculty, preceptors and staff!

Featured Preceptor: Alneader (Neada) Kenner-Woodard, CNM, carries her nurse-midwifery philosophy forward through precepting

September 26, 2024 By Frontier Nursing University

After many years of compassionately serving patients as a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) and educating nursing students and new nurses, FNU graduate Alneader (Neada) Kenner-Woodard recently started precepting nurse-midwifery students. Her first was FNU student Valrie Haye-Smith.

As a registered nurse, Kenner-Woodard has had the opportunity to precept new nurses in the labor and delivery department. Later, as a nursing professor, she guided and supported nursing students as they pursued their licenses. When she was approached by Haye-Smith, she realized that precepting nurse-midwifery students was the next logical step in her nursing journey.

“A deep passion for nursing education and mentorship has consistently driven me,” she said. “I am committed to sharing my knowledge, empowering others, and contributing to advancing the nursing profession.”

Kenner-Woodard works with Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, Virginia. In her role, she provides patient-centered, holistic care for women throughout all stages of life. After earning a Bachelor of Science in biology from Old Dominion University and her Associate of Applied Science in nursing from Riverside College of Health Careers, Neada went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) in Nurse-Midwifery from FNU. She is certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board.

Although Kenner-Woodard has been a midwife since 2016, she said she was initially unsure about her ability to serve as a preceptor for student nurse-midwives. However, she said her education from FNU provided her with the motivation to mentor Haye-Smith.

“Throughout my midwifery education, Frontier emphasized the importance of fostering midwifery excellence and contributing to the growth of the profession,” she said. “I am glad that I was able to do my part in upholding that mission and I look forward to serving again in the future.”

As a preceptor, Kenner-Woodard said she derives great pleasure from understanding her students and helping them grow into who they aspire to be. This mutually beneficial connection fosters personal and professional development for both parties, she said.

“By assisting Valrie in honing her midwifery abilities and clinical judgment, I was able to make a lasting impact on her midwifery philosophy that will influence how she interacts with and cares for her patients,” she said. “Simultaneously, I enhanced my leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills by determining the best ways to support her.”

Kenner-Woodard said precepting is not just about helping one student, but the entire future of the midwifery profession.

“Each student you guide will carry a piece of your philosophy with them, which means that your unique approach to midwifery is reaching more women who need it,” she said. “Although it can be challenging at times, the impact you have on both your students and the families they serve makes it all worthwhile.”

While serving as a preceptor for Haye-Smith, Kenner-Woodard said she received invaluable support from FNU faculty member Liz Niederegger. According to Niederegger, Kenner-Woodard strives to form respectful, therapeutic relationships with her patients, and she effectively passed on these values in precepting her first nurse-midwifery student.

“This student needed a dedicated, driven, kind, compassionate, and persistent preceptor that could meet her where she was and allow her to truly find herself and blossom into the midwife she will be,” Niederegger said. “The transformation of this student has been miraculous, and I believe Neada deserves credit and recognition for every moment of effort.”

Thank you, Neada, for your unwavering dedication to nurturing the next generation of nurse-midwives and for your remarkable contributions to the field of midwifery.

Interested in becoming a preceptor? Complete our Preceptor Inquiry Form today!

Frontier expands clinical opportunities for students with Ob Hospitalist Group partnership

September 12, 2024 By Frontier Nursing University

Ob Hospitalist Group (OBHG) and Frontier Nursing University (FNU) are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to expand clinical opportunities for nurse-midwifery students nationwide. OBHG is the United States’ largest and only dedicated OB/GYN hospitalist provider, and FNU is a national graduate nursing university educating 40 percent of the United States’ nurse-midwives.

“The primary goal of the partnership is to simplify the process for nurse-midwives to secure their clinical rotations,” said Dr. Amanda Shafton, DNP, CNM, FACNM, OBHG’s National Director of Midwifery. “Nurse-midwives practicing at OBHG programs consistently strengthen the clinical team. This partnership helps to establish a steady pipeline of new nurse-midwives to expand and grow the profession.”

The partnership builds on the robust relationship between OBHG and FNU, which includes the current placement of 22 students in OBHG programs. The clinical education requirements for FNU’s nurse-midwifery students include a significant amount of time in a labor and delivery setting.

“This partnership is an exciting opportunity to expand our clinical site options for students, many of whom have to travel outside of their local communities to gain access to inpatient sites,” said Dr. Joan Slager, DNP, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, FNU’s Dean of Nursing. “Keeping our students in or near their home communities, and ultimately retaining them in the community as healthcare providers, has been the vision of the Community Based Nurse-Midwifery Program since its inception.”

The formalized agreement is expected to remove barriers to clinical placement by streamlining the contracts and documentation process to credential preceptors for student rotations. With OBHG operating in 39 states, FNU’s 2,700 students, who reside and work across all 50 states, gain access to more localized clinical opportunities.

“I had the privilege of working with two different certified nurse-midwife (CNM) preceptors at two different OBHG clinical sites and had different experiences with each,” said 2024 FNU graduate Megan Agardi, CNM. “I truly appreciate the knowledge and experience that OBHG providers brought to each clinical site. One clinical site had OBHG just in OB triage, and the other site was both in OB triage and as a laborist. Both experiences helped me feel confident in my transition from student to CNM.”

“There’s a misallocation of OB/GYN clinical resources in the U.S. today,” said Dr. Mark Simon, OBHG Chief Medical Officer. “Expanding access to midwifery services within hospitals offers significant benefits to patients. The partnership between Certified Nurse- Midwives and OB/GYNs ensures comprehensive, patient-centered care.”

“Midwifery care can improve outcomes – including lower morbidity and mortality among mothers and infants, said Dr. Amy VanBlaricom, OBHG’s Chief Clinical Officer. “OBHG is dedicated to integrating more Certified Nurse-Midwives into our hospital programs as another important way to address the maternal mortality crisis.”

The partnership is now in effect after a year of careful planning and development. Four state contracts are currently in place, with more expected soon. The agreement has been formalized without any time limit on the duration of the partnership.

About Ob Hospitalist Group:

Ob Hospitalist Group (OBHG) is the nation’s largest and only dedicated provider of OB/GYN hospitalist solutions, focused on improving access to care and ensuring all women receive timely, unconditional obstetric care. Our team partners with hospitals across the nation to improve maternal safety and outcomes and reduce physician burnout. As part of our dedicated women’s health focus, we ensure that every pregnant woman presenting to labor and delivery with unscheduled medical needs receives timely, expert care from a skilled clinician. Our 1,800+ clinicians partner closely with local OB/GYN physicians, providing collaborative, non-competitive support. Together, we deliver great patient care and clinicians passionate about their role in caring for pregnant women. OBHG is headquartered in Greenville, SC. For more information, visit www.OBHG.com.

About Frontier Nursing University:

The mission of Frontier Nursing University is to provide accessible nurse-midwifery and nurse practitioner education that integrates the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We transform healthcare by preparing innovative, ethical, compassionate, and entrepreneurial leaders to work with all people with an emphasis on rural and underserved communities. 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. Frontier has been named a “Great College to Work For” by the Great Colleges to Work For® program for each of the past three years (2021-2023). To learn more about FNU and the programs and degrees offered, please visit Frontier.edu.

Graduate Connie Becker supports Frontier through planned giving

August 13, 2024 By Frontier Nursing University

Connie’s first baby, “David” born in 1972, and a 16-year-old mother.

August is National “Make-a-Will” Month, a perfect opportunity to update your current will or to create one if you haven’t done so already. As a crucial estate-planning tool, a will simplifies the process of transferring assets to not only loved ones, but also charitable causes and institutions that matter to you.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a will can help you:

Appoint the guardian of your minor children.
Avoid a lengthy probate process.
Minimize estate taxes through gifts to family members and/or charitable organizations.
Decide who will be the executor of your estate to ensure your affairs are in order.
Make gifts or donations that reflect your personal values and interests.

Connie in her red jeep “Devon” on her way to a home visit.

For Connie Becker, CNM, FNU is one of those cherished institutions. A Frontier graduate, Becker was with the Frontier Nursing Service from 1971 to 1973. Her experience included four months in the second class of the Family Nurse Practitioner program and eight months in the Certified Nurse-Midwife course.

Becker then went on to become a part-time instructor for nurse practitioner and certified nurse-midwifery students, while also working part-time as a nurse in FNU’s original home of Hyden, Kentucky. Following her time at Frontier, Becker continued her career in various nurse-midwifery roles, retiring at 55 after over 30 years of service and the remarkable achievement of delivering 3,765 babies.

Even in retirement, Becker remains vibrant and active. She enjoys hiking, pickleball and traveling, with trips to South Africa and Scotland on the calendar.

Connie during a home visit with George and Elmira.

Appreciative of the education and experience she gained at Frontier, Becker has chosen to include FNU in her estate planning, ensuring that future generations will benefit from the institution that played such a significant role in her life. Connie’s estate gift will support a student from Kentucky who attends Frontier via a scholarship.

“I started with a financial planner, helping to make a lifelong plan,” she said. “As age crept up, I needed to get my affairs in order. I hired a lawyer and now have an estate and trust plan.”

Becker is among countless individuals from diverse backgrounds who have included FNU in their planned giving. Those who make a planned gift provide enduring support for future generations of healthcare professionals who will continue the legacy of caring for thousands of mothers, babies, and families, just as FNU and FNS alumni have done for a century.

Connie and her first baby “David” born in 1972.

There are various options to support FNU through planned giving, such as naming FNU in your will; designating FNU as a beneficiary of a retirement asset, life insurance policy, or gift annuity; or donating appreciated assets. You can direct your gift to particular funds or areas of greatest need, and our Advancement staff is available to assist you in creating a legacy that aligns with your values while supporting FNU students in achieving their goals.

For more information, please contact our Chief Advancement Officer Bobbi Silver at bobbi.silver@frontier.edu or at 859-251-4739. To learn more about ways to give to FNU, visit frontier.edu/give-to-fnu.