Kitty Ernst, a legendary figure at Frontier Nursing University, passed away in December 2021. The following September, FNU held a memorial ceremony in Kitty’s honor under the Ginkgo tree on the FNU campus. It was a fitting location for the ceremony, as it was Kitty who planted the seeds for community-based midwifery and led the development and implementation of FNU’s Community-based Nurse-midwifery Education Program (CNEP) program.
Kitty’s life was devoted to serving others. She taught, she led, and she lifted others up. She inspired everyone to pay it forward through service to the profession and to our communities. Her visionary leadership set Frontier on a course of innovation and expansion. Most of FNU’s more than 10,000 alumni were blessed with the opportunity to meet Kitty and be inspired by her.
“Kitty Ernst led with passion, perseverance, and commitment, and perhaps most importantly, by her presence,” said FNU Dean of Nursing Dr. Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN. “She always made herself available and tirelessly shared her wisdom and advice with students, alumni, and friends. As we celebrate her legacy, it is important that we continue to learn from her example and adopt the same vision for the future that she had. We support our present and future students with the same passion and dedication that Kitty did.”
It is fitting that Kitty decided to provide legacy support for FNU students through a gift made through her last will and testament. Her final gift to FNU was devoted to scholarship support for FNU students. Kitty’s vision for the future of Frontier lasted well beyond her lifetime and ours. She could foresee the important role that FNU would play in our nation’s health care for decades to come. She was a leader, innovator, and visionary. She was also a supporter. Her legacy gift provided to Frontier via her estate will financially support and inspire students for decades to come.
“I am so grateful to have received the Kitty Ernst Scholarship. This support will help me to be in a better position to serve my future patients,” said Casey Claussen (CNEP, Class 201)
Kitty’s legacy gift serves as a reminder of the importance of planned giving and how that gesture of kindness can provide support to FNU in perpetuity. August is recognized as National Make-A-Will Month, and we invite you to make your own legacy commitment to support FNU. Please inquire how you can make your own gift through estate planning by contacting Sarah Harlan, Senior Philanthropy and Alumni Relations Officer, at sarah.harlan@frontier.edu.
Kitty Ernst was a mentor, visionary, taskmaster, cheerleader, and dear friend to Frontier Nursing University (FNU). As we mourn the loss of this wonderful woman, educator, and pioneer for nurse-midwifery, we reflect on her life and the legacy that she leaves behind. Kitty planted the seeds for community-based midwifery and led the development and implementation of FNU’s Community-based Nurse-midwifery Education Program (CNEP) program.
The Spring 2021 issue of the Frontier Nursing University Quarterly Bulletin takes a close look at the many ways that FNU alumni, students, faculty, staff, volunteers, and donors impact the university and its mission. Leading the way is a tribute to Kitty Ernst, who announced her retirement from FNU earlier this year. She looks back at her remarkable career, including her 70 years of involvement with FNU, in her own words, while President Dr. Susan Stone and others share their own thoughts and memories about Kitty.
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).