FNU Quarterly Bulletin Spring 2021, Volume 96, Number 1

FRONTIER NURSING UNIVERSITY | VOL. 96, NUMBER 1 | SPRING 2021

QUARTERLY BULLETIN

Making a Lasting Impact

Also inside: Kitty Ernst Retires from FNU

VIRTUAL

Alumni & Courier HOMECOMING 2021!

President’s Cabinet

Join us Saturday, October 2, 2021, for the Virtual Alumni and Courier Homecoming! This all-day event is a wonderful opportunity for you to see old friends and meet new ones, learn about Dr. Stone’s plans for the future of Frontier, and applaud the accomplishments of fellow graduates. Plus there will be a free Continuing Education Course in the morning. When you register, we’ll send you information for logging into the all-day Zoom meeting and a special commemorative t-shirt. The cost for attending is $25 per person.

To view the full schedule of events and to easily make your reservation for Homecoming 2021, please visit:

Frontier.edu/FNUHomecoming2021.

The deadline for making a reservation is August 1, 2021.

So don’t delay, make your reservation today!

Alumni Collection Added to the Online Gift Shop!

Great news, FNU alumni and students: our online gift shop is now officially open! We’re excited to finally have a virtual storefront offering a variety of apparel and accessories from t-shirts to cotton masks for you to show your FNU pride. Frontier.edu/FNUalumnigear

Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FAAN, FACNM President Shelley Aldridge, BA Chief Operations Officer Angela Bailey, MA, CFRE Chief Advancement Officer Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM Dean of Nursing Michael Steinmetz, CPA, CMA, CSCA Executive Vice President for Finance and Facilities Geraldine Young, DNP, APRN, FNPBC, CDE, FAANP Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Academic Administration Jess Calohan, DNP, PMHNP-BC Department Chair of PsychiatricMental Health

frontier.edu/FNUgear

What is a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) and a Certified Midwife (CM)?

Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) are educated in two disciplines: midwifery and nursing. They earn graduate degrees, complete a midwifery education program accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME), and pass a national certification examination administered by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB) to receive the professional designation of CNM. Certified Midwives (CMs) are educated in the discipline of midwifery. They earn graduate degrees, meet health and science education requirements, complete a midwifery education program accredited by ACME, and pass the same national certification examination as CNMs to receive the professional designation of CM.

Lisa Chappell, Ph.D., FNP-BC Department Chair of Family Nursing Jane Houston, DNP, CNM DNP Director Rachel Mack, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, C-FNP, CNE Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Tonya Nicholson, DNP, CNM, WHNP-BC, CNE, FACNM Department Chair of Midwifery and Women’s Health

From the President

Contents From the President

Dear friends,

A Lasting Impact

2-7

Impacting Diversity in Nursing

8-9

Impacting Rural Communities

10-11

Impacting Community-Based Care 12-13 Impacting As Leaders

14-15

The Impact of Personal Health

16-17

An Impactful Legacy

18

The Impact of Giving

19

Alumni Notes

20-21

News and Notes

22-23

Trustees

23

Memorials and Tributes Board of Directors

This issue of the Quarterly Bulletin focuses on stories of impact. No one’s story better demonstrates the ability we all have to positively impact the lives and futures of others than that of Kitty Ernst, who recently announced her retirement after being connected to Frontier for more than 70 years. There is no way to adequately summarize the impact that Kitty has had during that time, but our special six-page tribute to Kitty is our earnest attempt to do so.

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24-25 25

A driving force behind the development and implementation of Frontier’s distance learning program, Kitty has inspired thousands of FNU students and graduates. As a member of the first distance learning class, Kitty has been my teacher, my friend, and my mentor for thirty years. Kitty opened the door for me and so many others to become nurse-midwives. She led the direction of the university, serving as an advisor, confidant, and member of the Board of Directors. Even bigger than her impact on Frontier, she advanced the profession of midwifery as an outspoken advocate and leader. You will read all about her amazing accomplishments, her farewell message, and our reflections on her time at Frontier in the following pages, but please know that no words, no amount of pages, will accurately reflect the impact of Kitty Ernst on Frontier Nursing University. We are forever indebted to her for her leadership, innovation, and commitment. We are eternally grateful for her friendship and mentorship, which we will continue to cherish even as she enjoys her well-earned retirement.

Within this issue, there are many other stories of impact and its presence at all levels of the university. Our faculty and staff impact the preparation of our students. Our leaders and decision-makers impact our policies and strategies that keep us focused on service to diverse, rural, and underserved populations. Our alumni impact the ultimate successful delivery of that service, and our donors impact our ability to fund our efforts and support our students.

Our impact can be difficult to measure, but we can see it in the awards and recognition the members of the FNU community receive from outside organizations. We can see it in the leadership roles our alumni take in their own practices, organizations, and communities. Most of all, we can see it in the legacies of legendary leaders like Kitty Ernst, Ruth Lubic, and Judith Rooks, who have led and inspired us all.

These stories exemplify the impact that everyone connected to FNU has the ability to make within our university, our communities, and our country. Please enjoy this issue and remember to share your own stories so that we may continue to be inspired by one another.

We thank each of you for your role at Frontier Nursing University and all that you do to carry on our mission.

2050 Lexington Road Versailles, KY 40383 FNU@frontier.edu

Frontier.edu

Sincerely,

Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc, FAAN, FACNM

Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc., FACNM, FAA Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 1

A Lasting Impact

Kitty Ernst Retires from FNU Kitty Ernst’s history with Frontier began in 1951 when she attended the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery, which was part of the Frontier Nursing Service. Her official retirement in May 2021 marks 70 years of dedicated service to Frontier Nursing University.

From 1954-58, Kitty also served as a nurse-midwife for the Maternity Center Association (MCA) in New York City.

After practicing as a nurse-midwife, Kitty turned her attention to advocating for nurse-midwives to play an important

Passionate about ensuring that all families receive the best possible care during pregnancy and birth, Kitty is a dynamic and committed pioneer in midwifery education and practice. Even as a young nurse, she knew that she wanted to work in a place where she could make a difference in the lives of women and families.

After graduating from the Waltham Hospital School of Nursing in Massachusetts in 1951, Kitty made the decision to attend the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), in Hyden, Kentucky. During her time as a midwifery student at FNS, Kitty realized the important relationship of midwifery care to the health of women and families. Throughout her life, Kitty often told the story of how awestruck she was when she first witnessed the power of a woman birthing in her own mountain home. Those first births Kitty witnessed as a midwifery student set her on a lifelong course of promoting and supporting normal birth, in a safe and comfortable setting, and educating midwifery students in these principles.

Following her time at FNS, Kitty went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in education from Hunter College in 1957 and a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University in 1959.

2 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

“Passionate about ensuring that all families receive the best possible care during pregnancy and birth, Kitty is a dynamic and committed pioneer in midwifery education and practice.” and respected role in our society’s health care system. During this time, Kitty began working as a parent educator, teaching some of the first childbirth education groups of the International Childbirth Education Association. As a

field consultant for MCA, she developed the family-centered maternity care model which was demonstrated by an obstetrician and nurse-midwife team at the Salvation Army Booth Maternity Center in Philadelphia.

Generations of midwives have learned from Kitty that birth centers are crucial to providing midwives with a place to practice true midwifery; as a safe, cost-effective, and satisfying place for families to grow; and as a part of the healthcare system. Kitty co-founded the National Association of Childbearing Centers (NACC) in 1983. As Director of the National Association of Childbearing Centers, she continued to be a leader in the effort to bring birth centers and midwives into the mainstream of health care delivery and helped to institute the Commission for Accreditation of Freestanding Birth Centers in 1985.

In the 1980s, Kitty became particularly concerned about two issues: the small number of nurse-midwives being educated each year, and the fact that the majority of nurse-midwives were being educated in large tertiary care centers and had a lack of out-of-hospital experience.

To address these issues, she led the design and implementation of the first distance education program for nurse-midwives, which was adopted by the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, now known as Frontier Nursing University (FNU). Starting with the inception of the distance program in 1989, Kitty graciously shared her personal story, her passion, and her vision with every single class of incoming FNU students.

Kitty, who often quotes one of the key beliefs of FNS that “all health care begins with the care and education of the mother,” has always maintained strong ties with FNU. She served on FNU’s Board of Directors and was awarded an honorary doctorate from FNU in 2011.

health clinical practice, education, administration, or research.”

The criteria for the ACNM Kitty Ernst Award is befitting of Kitty’s contributions to the profession. She was a leader in

Kitty’s impact spreads far and wide. She traveled across the U.S. and abroad to Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Russia, and Haiti to provide consultation and workshops on the midwifery model of care in birth centers.

Kitty is revered not only by FNU but by other institutions as well. She served as the president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) from

“All health care begins with the care and education of the mother.”

1961-63 and again from 2007-2008.

Beginning in 1998, ACNM annually presents the Kitty Ernst Award to “an exceptional, relatively new CNM/CM who is an ACNM member, has been certified for less than ten years and has demonstrated innovative, creative endeavors in midwifery and/or women’s

education and administration, conducting the first wave of accreditation for nursemidwifery education programs and developed the first “What is a NurseMidwife” brochure. Over the course of her career, she published valuable information defining the role of a nursemidwife and even played a crucial role in the first accreditation of nurse-midwife programs in the U.S. As the Director of the pilot Community-based NurseMidwifery Education Program (CNEP), she developed a model for meeting the overwhelming need for increased numbers of nurse-midwives who all understood the birth center model of care and were committed to providing innovative family-centered maternity care. She brought this model to a new arena as the chair of the ACNM National Commission on Nurse-Midwifery Education in 1992.

Kitty’s many accolades included the Martha Mae Elliot Award for Exceptional Health Service to Mothers and Children from the American Public Health Association. ACNM presented Kitty with the Hattie Hemschemeyer Award, which honors an exceptional certified nurse-midwife or certified midwife who is an ACNM member, has been certified for at least ten years, and has provided either continuous outstanding contributions or distinguished service to midwifery and/or maternal child health (MCH), or contributions of historical significance to the development and advancement of midwifery, ACNM, or MCH. She received the Childbirth Connection Medal for Distinguished Service and was awarded the Maternity Center Association’s Carola Warburg Rothschild Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the health and well-being of women and their families.

Kitty Ernst (left) with Dr. Susan Stone Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 3

A Lasting Impact Lifetime Achievement Award Presented to Kitty Ernst FNU has awarded Kitty the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, upon which the inscription aptly reads “In recognition of your Innovation, Leadership, and Guidance to all at Frontier Nursing University and your unwavering support for Mothers, Babies, and Families.”

“No one could be more deserving of the Lifetime Achievement Award than Kitty Ernst,” FNU President Dr. Susan Stone said. “Kitty has truly dedicated her entire life to the care of women and families and to the education and preparation of those who provide that care. For 70 years she has been an innovator, educator, and leader. Through her legendary accomplishments, she has shown us all the incredible impact one person can make.

She is an inspiration, a friend, and a most deserving recipient of this award.”

“No one could be more deserving of the Lifetime Achievement Award than Kitty Ernst”

4 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

A Message from Dr. Susan Stone Kitty Ernst is a legend and pioneer in every sense of the words. When she led the establishment of the Communitybased Nurse-midwifery Education Program (CNEP), she charted the course for the future of Frontier Nursing University. Simply put, FNU would not be what it is today without the innovation, leadership, and simple presence of Kitty.

and gracious to all. We are thankful for her countless contributions to FNU and to midwifery. Even in retirement, she will always be part of the Frontier Nursing University community.

There are no words to accurately describe the influence that she has had not only on nurse-midwifery and FNU but also on me personally. Kitty’s impact is significant and everlasting upon every person she has ever met and every organization she has served. She is a dear friend, loyal supporter, inspirational leader, and is kind

Sincerely,

Thank you, Kitty, for paving the way for so many of us, for your friendship, counsel, and inspiration. We are forever grateful and indebted.

Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc., Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc, FAAN, FACNM

FAC

Following is a transcript of a video message Kitty Ernst recorded announcing her retirement from FNU: Dear Frontier Students, Graduates, Faculty, Staff, and Board, I am proud of each of you and the promise of what you will accomplish.

I am proud of the people who joined me in starting CNEP and helped it grow into Frontier Nursing University, despite great odds and challenges. I am proud of reminding the powers-that-be of the needs of the students and of the mothers and the babies. I am proud to see YOU surpass all those whose shoulders you stand upon.

To everything, there is a season and it is time for me to retire from Frontier Nursing University. I have tried to retire several times over the last 20 years – and each time have been called back into service in some form or another.

I have answered the call to serve whenever asked.

As I am finally, actually retiring, at almost 95 years of age, I want to be very clear with you. I wish you all well. And please do not ask me to serve again, because you know I am not good at turning you away.

I want to also express appreciation for my family who always chipped in whenever I asked them to help with any project for nurses or midwives.

Just like the colleagues who joined CNEP as the first faculty members, mostly from the birth centers.

As some of you know, we are a strange lot who take pride in making something out of nothing, questioning the status quo, and building a more inclusive community. I am proud that YOU are challenging, expanding, and making that better. YOU are taking it further than we could. YOU are doing what YOU can do with YOUR gifts and YOUR perspectives. And we all hope that those you nurture, who come after you, will take it further still.

Despite many personal challenges, I am asking myself what’s next?

I am reminded of my training in the Cadet Nurse Corps, in World War II a program that only lasted five years but it reinvigorated the whole American health care system in a time of crisis by creating opportunities for people to serve.

Without that government-funded program to swiftly increase the number of nurses, it is unlikely I would have gone to nursing school.

In the Cadet Nurse Corps, I found myself vulnerable in the teetering post-war health care system. That vulnerability showed me opportunities to ask questions, as well as wonder how could it be different and better?

I looked at the past 14 months and see the numbers of nurses who died in service in their communities, and who report being burned out, and who plan to quit nursing. And I wonder if it is time for a modern Cadet Nurse Corps? Will YOU be part of shaping the future with YOUR wonderings? Your bold ideas?

Your energetic vision and spirit?

Lastly, in regalia familiar to you, I want you to know: I believe in YOU. You are my hope for our future.

Don’t be afraid to sing and dance and have fun while you’re doing your heart’s hard work. It will feed your soul.

I’ve done all I can. I had fun along the way – and I hope you do too.

The future is in your hands.

FNU Board of Directors photographed on the newly purchased Versailles campus in 2017. Front Row (L-R): May Wykle, Kitty Ernst, Susan Stone, Phyllis Leppert, Wallace Campbell. Back Row: Peter Schwartz, Kerri Schuiling, Michael Carter, Jean Johnson, Robert Montague.

“I’m Kitty Ernst, a public health nurse, a midwife, a mother, and a grandmother.”

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 5

A Lasting Impact

Kitty Ernst

By Phyllis Leppert, CNM, MD, PhD Professor Emerita, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University and President, The Campion Fund I met Kitty in 1963. She was then Kitty MacDonald and a member of the faculty at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Department of Nursing’s Nurse-Midwifery Program and I had just enrolled. Kitty was a breath of fresh air in a very traditional school. The fact that nursing was a department in a medical school in those days tells you a great deal about the way things were. It was a difficult place for nurse-midwifery.

Mothers in labor in Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York were admitted into a screening room. Then if they were in active labor, they were moved into a laboring room and for birth rushed into a delivery room down a hall and around the corner. The delivery rooms were very much like an operating room and most women had caudal anesthesia, an early form of epidural. All nurse-midwifery students had their first birth experiences there and there was a great deal of resistance to our management approach from the obstetric and gynecology residents. For our summer session we rotated to King’s County Hospital and to their established nurse-midwifery service.

At that hospital we were able to truly manage the experience of mothers and 6 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

babies as midwives. Kitty had prepared us well and we knew that our work was to facilitate each mother’s birth. “Mother the mother” throughout her whole childbearing time was her rallying cry.

Her lectures where she shared with us her work in eastern Kentucky at the Frontier Nursing Service were very influential to me, not only as a nurse-midwife but as a physician and physician-scientist. She presented us students with a different and important way of looking at each woman’s pregnancy and birth experience, one that emphasized that it was her birth and that she should be treated with dignity and love. I will never forget her pictures of all the families in the Kentucky mountains that she had cared for and her description

“She was one of the very few nurse-midwives who did not shun me when I made my decision to apply for admission to medical school. She stood up for me when many of my colleagues stopped speaking to me.

She told them that I would be in a position someday to support midwifery.” of the Frontier Nursing Service. The spirit of the love of each mother shown through all her teaching. Kitty also taught us that we needed to be certain that we always considered the physical safety of the mother as well. She told us about her experiences in remote places as a public health nurse caring for childbearing women and that if she had known then what she learned at the Frontier Nursing Service she would have done many things differently. That resonated with me. I had been a public health nurse in New York

City serving Central Harlem and had made the decision to apply for nursemidwifery education because I realized that I needed further knowledge and skills to truly help childbearing women and their babies.

Upon graduation I kept up a relationship with Kitty. She was one of the very few nurse-midwives who did not shun me when I made my decision to apply for admission to medical school. She stood up for me when many of my colleagues stopped speaking to me. She told them that I would be in a position someday to support midwifery. As a first -year medical student at Duke, I went to an ACMN annual meeting and while most of my fellow nurse-midwives were less than cordial, Kitty was very welcoming and in fact motherly. I will never forget her support. Our relationship continued over the years and when she started CNEP I was enthusiastic about the program. I followed the program carefully over the years and was pleased when CNEP and distance learning was incorporated into Frontier Nursing University. Over the years as a physician, I was happy to have CNEP students in our hospital and university programs and I was proud to encourage the establishment of a free- standing birth center in upstate New York. During my professional career I moved to many new faculty positions, always supporting midwifery and trying to be true to what Kitty had taught me in the early 1960s.

When I was in a junior faculty at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, I supported what Kitty and others were doing. Support for Childbirth Centers for me was a given, even though in the early days there were colleagues of mine in obstetrics and gynecology as well as pediatrics who were saying that they were unsafe. I helped as a consultant on the first study of outcomes of births in free standing birth centers published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

I was very proud of that paper. Kitty was the force behind the paper. She understood two important things. The first was that it was necessary to educate many nurse-midwives if we were to have any impact on childbearing in the United States as she understood that schools graduating small numbers each year would not be enough to ever make a difference in care of mothers and families. The

second important thing she understood was that we needed to study all the outcomes of nurse-midwifery care and to document and publish the data. Over the years I personally have been concerned that midwives in the United States were so unable to be as flexible as necessary in the education of midwives and that direct entry for motivated students, those who were not nurses first was important. The

“My colleague said to me: ‘it was not a delivery it was a birth.’ I knew then that the message that Kitty began years ago was on fertile ground. Her ideas have influenced the care of many.” divisions within midwifery circles upset me and I was very glad that Kitty kept her eye on the ball of the educational expansion of the profession. The ball we were to keep our eyes on was women and their families.

Many things have changed in obstetrics and gynecology since the 1960s.

Midwives have had a real impact. When one of my colleagues at Duke School of Medicine described a difficult labor that she managed that ended in a necessary C-Section she told me how the mother was awake, and that the baby’s father was there and that she gave the baby to the mother to hold immediately. The mother held her baby just after birth and while the surgery was being completed.

My colleague said to me: “it was not a delivery it was a birth.” I knew then that the message that Kitty began years ago was on fertile ground. Her ideas have influenced the care of many. Mothers birth babies she taught.

Kitty called me to say that she had proposed me as a member of the Board of Directors of Frontier Nursing University a number of years ago. I was nominated and appointed and was very pleased to serve in that capacity. It meant seeing more of Kitty and to know that she was true to her vision. Take care of the mothers, she said. That is her great and very important legacy.

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 7

Impacting Diversity in Nursing

Dr. Geraldine Young Selected As One of UAB School of Nursing’s “70 Visionary Leaders”

Geraldine Young, DNP, APRN, FNPBC, CDCES, FAANP

FNU Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Dr. Geraldine Young, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CDCES, FAANP, has been selected as one of “70 Visionary Leaders” by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing.

In the letter notifying Dr. Young of the recognition, UAB Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing Doreen C. Harper, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, stated that there were well over 100 nominations for the Visionary Leader honor. “As a Visionary Leader, you have been recognized by your peers for your exemplary leadership, innovation, and far-reaching impact on nursing and health care,” Dr. Harper wrote. “This elite recognition, given to outstanding graduates of the School of Nursing whose commitment and accomplishments have set them apart, has been bestowed on only 60 other alumni who were named Visionary Leaders in 2010.”

Dr. Young, whose service in the nursing profession spans over 20 years, joined FNU in the fall of 2019. She holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2010), an MSN from Alcorn State University (2005), and a BSN from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (2001). She is also a board-certified family nurse practitioner (FNP) (2005) and certified diabetes care and education specialist (2011).

“As a graduate of the UAB School of Nursing, I am truly honored to be selected as a Visionary Leader,” Dr. Young said. “I am so grateful to UAB

8 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

School of Nursing Associate Dean Ashley Hodges (Ph.D., CRNP, WHNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN) for nominating me. I am humbled to be a part of this impressive group of leaders.”

As a Visionary Leader Award recipient, Dr. Young will be honored at one of several virtual events to be held in April in celebration of the UAB School of Nursing’s 70th anniversary.

“We are incredibly proud to have Dr. Young at Frontier Nursing University,” said FNU President Dr. Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc, FAAN, FACNM. “As an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Dr. Young’s leadership and guidance are invaluable. As this award demonstrates, her impact reaches well beyond FNU. Her voice is highly respected, valued, and needed at FNU and throughout the nursing community.”

Dr. Young is a National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) Leadership Fellow and Fellow of the American Association of Nurse

Practitioners (FAANP). She has been deemed a content expert for one of the leading credentialing bodies for NPs, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). She serves on an array of national committees to advance nurse practitioner education, including the NONPF Curricular Leadership Committee and Conference Committee.

She is also a member of the NONPF Board of Directors and a member of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials Task Force.

As a member of the Essentials Task Force and NONPF Board of Directors, Dr. Young is ensuring cultural diversity and inclusion are at the forefront of nursing education to address the health disparities and inequalities that exist in our nation. She has effectively delivered models of clinical practice to improve the outcomes of underserved and minority populations with diabetes in conjunction with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS).

FNU Board Member Dr. Maria Small Receives Prestigious Award FNU Board of Directors member Maria Small, MD, MPH, has been selected as a recipient of the 2021 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. Winners of this award demonstrate compassion in the delivery of care, respect for patients, their families, and healthcare colleagues, as well as clinical excellence.

As a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist, Dr. Small is extensively involved in championing education and delivery of care to at-risk populations in the Durham community and beyond. She serves as Maria Small, Medical Director for the Durham County Health Department’s MD, MPH Division of Women’s Health Services. She dedicates her time to collaborative efforts with the Durham Academy of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy (DAMDP), the Old North State Medical Society (ONSS), and local and state organizations associated with the National Medical Association (NMA) – the oldest and largest Black physician organization in the U.S.

FNU Endows Scholarship Aimed at Increasing Diversity in Health Care Frontier Nursing University has endowed a new scholarship to support African American, Black, Native American, and Alaskan Native students. The scholarship, which will support 10 students per year, was established and approved by FNU’s Board of Directors during their quarterly meeting in April 2021.

The scholarship is in keeping with the University’s mission, which 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.” The University’s focus on diverse, rural, and underserved populations is in response to the persistent health care disparities in the United States.

“While our other endowed scholarships are needed by and available to students of all backgrounds, this particular scholarship is in direct response to the health disparities for the designated groups,” FNU President Dr. Susan Stone said. “Data demonstrates that culturally concordant care improves health care

FNU Board of Directors

outcomes, which is why we have made increasing the diversity of the health care workforce a strategic priority at FNU.”

non-Hispanic Black people, though this group accounts for only 12% of the total U.S. population.

A November 2020 study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, among women with a college education or higher, Black women have a pregnancyrelated mortality rate that is over five times higher than that of White women.

The pregnancy-related mortality rate for Black women with a completed college education or higher is 1.6 times higher than the rate for White women with less than a high school diploma.

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion have been a top priority at FNU for more than a decade,” FNU Board Chair Dr. Michael Carter said. “Not only do we know that these DEI initiatives are the right thing to do ethically, but the data clearly indicates that a well-prepared, diverse health care workforce is vital to improve medical outcomes for all people. The decision to endow this scholarship was data-driven and in direct alignment with the mission of the University.”

Disparities are also prevalent elsewhere.

A 2019 report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that non-Hispanic Black persons were more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic or Pacific Islander persons to die of heart disease in 2017. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that, in 2018, American Indians and Alaska Natives were 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than their white counterparts. The CDC also shared a report that found that 34% of COVID-19 deaths were among

To establish this scholarship, FNU will designate $2.5 million to provide $100,000 in scholarships per year. This will be used to deliver ten $10,000 scholarships annually. Additionally, the fund will grow over time from investment and ongoing fundraising targeted for scholarships.

The new scholarship joins a comprehensive list of financial support for FNU’s students. Through the generosity of its supporters and donors, FNU will provide nearly $500,000 in endowed scholarships to students in 2021.

“These scholarships are particularly important because, on average, despite our comparatively low tuition rates, many of our students graduate with nearly $60,000 in student loan debt,” Dr. Stone said. “Through awareness, fundraising efforts, and scholarships, we are committed to helping alleviate that burden. We want our graduates to be able to fully focus on being essential healthcare providers in their communities.

However, due to the startling health outcomes for these specific groups, we knew we needed to address the needs of these particular students.”

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 9

Impacting Rural Communities

Patty Coldiron Fills Urgent Need with Urgent Care

Patty Coldiron, MSN, FNP The inspirational success stories of FNU graduates are many. Very few, however, start with dropping out of high school.

Nonetheless, that is the way the story of how Patty Coldiron, MSN, FNP, Bridge 102, opened Hometown Urgent Care in January begins.

Born and raised in rural Harlan County, Kentucky, Coldiron dropped out of high school and, at the age of 16, gave birth to her son Joshua, who was born with spina bifida.

I received my licensed practical nurse degree. When the local community college bought the technical college, they came to me and asked if I would sign up for their Registered Nurse program.”

“He is the reason I went into nursing,” Coldiron said. “I wanted to know everything I could medically to be able to help him. Having knowledge in the field of nursing allowed me to help him physically and mentally, giving him the mindset he can do everything everyone else does, just a little differently.”

In 2003, she graduated from Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College with an associate’s degree in nursing. She worked in several areas, including on the medical/surgical floor and the ER, but her primary area was home health. With her career and goals coming into focus, Coldiron joined two of her friends in applying to FNU.

Three years after Joshua’s birth, Coldiron went back to school and earned her GED. At 25, she began working as a Certified Nursing Assistant and worked for four years before being laid off. Undeterred, she kept moving forward.

“I went to my local Community Action Agency and applied for the displaced worker’s program,” Coldiron said. “I was accepted and through that program,

“The knowledge I had from going to Frontier, without a doubt helped me care for him again, and let me keep him 14 more months after the accident.”

“We all three were accepted, but I was the only one who decided to follow through,” said Coldiron, who graduated in 2015.

During her last term, Joshua was in a motor vehicle accident and spent nearly a month in the ICU.

The 2021 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of Hometown Urgent Care.

10 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

“The days I had to work my mom (Pauline Boggs) would stay with him,” Coldiron said. “I sat in the hospital with him and would try to study and get ready for my boards. With the help of family and God, I finished and he eventually came home, but never the same. The knowledge I had from going to Frontier, without a doubt helped me care for him again, and let me keep him 14 more months after the accident.”

Joshua passed away on May 31, 2016. “He was the kindest, gentle, humble person you would ever meet,” Coldiron said. “He was wheelchair dependent but that didn’t stop him. He was an avid outdoorsman.

He loved to ride his ATV to hunt. He also loved to fish. He drove independently with gears fixed onto his car. He worked as a night watchman and in a factory making apparel for the armed forces. He lived a normal life.”

Patty’s other son, Kacy, has a master’s degree in Occupational Safety and works in Atlanta. He and his wife Kendra have a son, Emmerich.

Dealing with boards and Joshua’s passing, Coldiron pressed on. She worked at a local hospital as a family nursepractitioner until, in April 2020, she was one of many to be laid off due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. She began working for a private-owned urgent care provider and had to travel for work. That was the turning point.

employs two receptionists, three medical assistants, three nurse practitioners, and the office administrator. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. to be accessible to working families.

“The community has welcomed us with open arms,” Coldiron said. “Parents who work and struggle to get their children or themselves to a primary care provider are grateful for health care in hours that will work for them.”

Coldiron knows that there are other communities like Harlan in need of an urgent care facility and intends to help fill that void in the future.

“My goal is to open more Hometown Urgent Care clinics in other rural areas that have a need for this sort of clinic and are having to utilize the emergency rooms

for minor and urgent illness, especially after hours,” she said.

Coldiron’s drive and determination are apparent. With every setback, she seems to respond with even more resolve than ever. While that certainly comes from within, she credits FNU with developing her skills and preparing her to provide the care her community needs.

“Frontier Nursing University gave me the knowledge to make a profound impact in health care from pediatrics all the way to geriatrics,” she said. “Frontier taught me through the program experience, didactic course, and clinical skills, to be above standard. Frontier not only gave me knowledge, but they also gave me confidence in the assessment, diagnosis, and delivery of treatment.”

“The latter part of 2020 I decided if I am ever going to start my business now is the time,” Coldiron said. “I asked medical assistant Katie Pierce if she would help me. She jumped in and got the insurance and providers credentialed. We opened Hometown Urgent Care in Harlan County on January 4, 2021.”

Not only was opening her own practice what Coldiron needed, but it was also what the community needed as well.

“In Harlan, there is the emergency room and primary care offices,” Coldiron said.

“I knew from working the ER there was a need for urgent care. My community had never had an urgent care medical center.”

Proof of that need was seen immediately.

In the first five months of being open, Hometown Urgent Care has had more than 1,000 patients. The clinic

Patty Coldiron with sons Kacy (middle) and Joshua.

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 11

Impacting Community-Based Care

Dr. Rachel Sherman Connects with Community via DNP Project and Social Justice project as she neared completion of her DNP program. Students in FNU’s DNP program must complete a quality improvement project. This project, which is generally conducted with their patient population at their place of work, involves one term dedicated to identifying the project, collecting data, and recruiting participants. After the term break, the students then begin implementing the project, tracking the data and results which are included in a final paper.

Dr. Rachel Sherman It is no secret that 2020 was a very difficult and challenging year. The pandemic, social justice, and political unrest impacted everyone, including Dr. Rachel Sherman, DNP Class 36, APRN, FNP-BC. A DNP student last spring and now a DNP clinical faculty member at FNU, Sherman was working at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The hospital housed the highest number of COVID-positive patients in the state and, at the height of the pandemic, Dr. Sherman was losing five to six patients per day during her 10- to 12-hour shifts. The stress wasn’t left behind when the workday was over, as she has two children who were attending school from home. She also organized and attended daily social justice protests in the city. Her leadership was recognized as she was presented with the Rosa Parks Award for Excellence in Community Activism at the District 9 Prince George’s County Day of Service Awards this January.

In addition to dealing with all of those things, Sherman was also trying to complete her quality improvement

Due to the pandemic, many students like Sherman were no longer able to conduct their projects in a clinical setting.

Responding quickly, FNU faculty quickly developed four quality improvement projects which could be conducted virtually. This offered a chance for the students to continue without delaying their academic progress.

Sherman was one of the few who could have completed her project at her place of work, but she elected to pursue the virtual option out of concern for the safety of the project participants.

“I felt like it would be a disservice because it would take some of the attention away from the care I actually needed to provide to these COVID patients.”

“I felt like it would be a disservice because it would take some of the attention away from the care I actually needed to provide to these COVID patients,” she said. “It

12 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

was also safest for me to separate the two because I had to be in the ICU longer, exposed to COVID patients longer, I ran the risk of potentially taking COVID to another patient. It was better to do a virtual project.”

Sherman’s project was “Advance Care Planning -- A Patient-Centered Approach to Community-Based Advance Care Planning.” Her social activism heightened her social media presence and when she shared that she was offering a free advance care planning project, the volunteers rolled in. In total, 85 participants signed up for the project in which Sherman intended to help educate the volunteers on what an advance directive is and walk them through the process. To assist with the management of the project, Sherman’s team included another nurse practitioner, a licensed clinical social worker, and a community advocate.

“I was worried because I didn’t know how I was going to get people to volunteer to talk about advance care planning when they were already so consumed with everything else that is happening in the world,” Sherman said. “I was worried I wouldn’t have the response that I needed to have a good project. I’m watching my patients die through glass doors. I can’t hold their hands. I’m calling their family.

So I’m dealing with the trauma of that and I still have to maintain a focus on my project and my kids. At one point, I thought maybe I needed to sit out for a semester, but then I got so excited to see how things were coming along and the faculty supporting me. You could tell the faculty had a plan. I felt supported. No matter what, I was always going to have somebody to go to.”

While it wasn’t the quality improvement project she had planned to do prior to the pandemic, Sherman found that, in talking

to community members about advance care planning, she was able to play a much-needed role that she would never have been able to do in a clinical setting.

“I wasn’t serving in the role of clinician because these weren’t my patients, they were community members,” she said. “I wasn’t giving medical advice or writing prescriptions, so it was unique to step out of that role of white coat and prescription pad and be a community worker. That’s truly what community health looks like.”

The project began with a screening to gauge the participants’ interest in and awareness of advance care planning. The participants were asked how they liked to learn and the program was then customtailored to their preferences.

“I created a checklist so any person could go through it and essentially hit all of the required marks to inform someone about what an advance care plan is,” Sherman said. “We used this checklist to talk about what was a priority to our participants, how much they wanted their families to be involved in their medical decisions, and if there was anything that they were afraid of. A big part of advance care planning is looking at the person as a whole.”

The program included spiritual assessments, discussions about healthy living in general, education about COVID, and tools with information to assist in conversations with a medical provider. Additionally, an advance care planning checklist and health care proxy checklist accompanied access to the state form to complete an advance care plan.

Sherman and her team checked in with each participant two weeks after their initial telehealth visit to discuss their progress and any questions they had.

“We were finding that most people were excited because they understood it and

they were calling other family members to do their advance care plan,” Sherman said.

“That was the beauty of it. We gave the education and now all these people who are going out to the community to spread the word as well.”

“One of the more recurring themes was patients did not trust the local medical system. They would say, ‘I don’t trust that hospital. If I go in and I don’t have this plan or I don’t have someone to speak for me, they’re just going to kill me.”

that I didn’t initially set out to discover, but it became very apparent.”

Of the people who enrolled in the project, 85 percent completed an advance directive. Sherman suggested that the program’s success came from getting back to the basics of patient-centered care.

“Participants were very thankful because they felt like we always kept them at the center of the conversation,” Sherman said.

“It painted this overall picture that we have got to get back to patient-centered care and that you don’t necessarily need a medical provider to have these advanced care planning conversations.

Now we need to get our churches and other community organizations involved because this is something that can be done at a community level.”

Sherman has taken those lessons to heart and is doing more community-based care, with fewer hospital shifts.

“As a nurse, we get up and do this because this is our calling,” she said. “But I recognized my limits. Just seeing patients die in that capacity, I reached a point where I was either going to quit nursing altogether or I need to remove myself from situations.”

Sherman also asked her volunteers about their relationship with their medical provider and how comfortable they were having the advance care plan discussion with them.

“One of the more recurring themes was patients did not trust the local medical system,” Sherman said. “They would say, ‘I don’t trust that hospital. If I go in and I don’t have this plan or I don’t have someone to speak for me, they’re just going to kill me.’ They didn’t trust the local medical system. We found that more in our Black population -- that they did not trust the local health care system.

Even in our white population, who had Black family members or friends, they made comments about how they saw their loved ones of color treated in the medical system. That was a big recurring theme

Despite the obvious and understandable stress she was under, Sherman felt fully supported by FNU and, particularly Dr. Diana Jolles, who was her faculty advisor.

“Dr. Jolles was wonderful and very flexible,” Sherman said. “She was really passionate about everything I was doing from the social justice standpoint to working the actual project. I definitely feel like this program has shown me how to identify an issue and how to go about formulating ways to improve it.”

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 13

Impacting As Leaders

Dr. Diana Jolles Selected for 2021 National Quality Forum Leadership Consortium the continuum of care through strategic guidance on practical, action-oriented initiatives.

Dr. Jolles is recognized as a national leader, largely for the development of the Denver Health Medical Center inpatient midwifery service and her directorship of the Family Health and Birth Center in Washington, DC. In addition to her role as DNP faculty at FNU, Dr. Jolles works at El Rio Community Health Center in Tucson, Arizona, where she attends families at El Rio’s Birth and Women’s Health Center and Tucson Medical Center.

Dr. Diana Jolles, Ph.D., CNM FNU DNP clinical faculty Diana Jolles, Ph.D., CNM, has been selected to participate in the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) 2021 Leadership Consortium. NQF’s Leadership Consortium provides strategic guidance of current and future NQF programs and is committed to influencing meaningful and lasting change on the nation’s healthcare issues. Dr. Jolles, along with 30 other healthcare experts selected for the Consortium, will help determine the organization’s 2022 priorities.

The NQF Leadership Consortium includes patient partners, clinicians, health plans, and quality improvement experts. These experts and thought leaders leverage their collective expertise to identify actionable strategies and national policy levers to drive change for individuals and their families. Leadership Consortium participants are committed to influencing meaningful and lasting change on our nation’s highest priority and most complex healthcare issues across

FNU Faculty Elected to ACNM Board of Directors

The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACMN) recently announced the winners of this year’s election to the Board of Directors. Among the winners were FNU faculty members Charlotte Morris, and Dwynn Golden. The new Board members were sworn into office at the ACNM Annual Meeting, May 21-25.

At-Large Midwife of Color Board Representative:

Charlotte Morris, DNP, CNM, FACNM

FNU Assistant Professor Dr. Charlotte Morris is course faculty in two courses: Introduction to Independent Practice and Gynecologic Health. In addition

14 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

to her coursework, Dr. Morris serves as a tutor for students needing additional academic support. She also serves as the Co-Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, supporting the work of the Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion.

Dr. Morris has spent over 30 years in clinical practice committed to midwifery care for women in underserved communities. She established and served as Director of Temple Hospital’s Midwifery Practice in Philadelphia for over ten years. In 2012, she expanded her education and earned her DNP from Temple University. In ACNM, Dr. Morris has served as Chair of the Membership Committee and Secretary of the Midwives of Color Committee (MOCC) under two different chairs. She also served as an elected member of the Nominating Committee and serves on ACNM Liability Committee.

ACNM Nominating Committee Member:

Dwynn Golden, DNP, CNM Dr. Dwynn Golden has worked at Frontier Nursing University as clinical and didactic faculty for midwifery and women’s health nurse practitioner students since 2012. She has been a midwife since 1993. Dr. Golden was in a full-scope practice from 1992-2012, then was the manager at a prenatal clinic, where she brought Centering Pregnancy to the practice. Dr. Golden has been an active ACNM member since she became

a midwife and regularly attends regional and national meetings. She pursued this role to better serve the needs of midwives across the country and ensure the representation of all members.

Dr. Golden was the secretary of the Sigma Theta Tau chapter, Chi Pi, at Frontier Nursing University from 2016-2020 and attended the international congress of Sigma Theta Tau as a delegate in 2019.

Additionally, this year’s nominating committee for the ACNM elections included FNU faculty Dr. Nena Harris and Dr. Linda McDaniel. FNU Assistant Professor Dr. Cathy Collins-Fulea, DNP, CNM, FACNM, begins her second year as ACNM President with a focus on unifying midwives across the country while advocating for inclusion and celebrating diversity.

Donna Barisich, CNM, MS

Ann Schaeffer, CNM, DNP, MEd, CNE

FNU Faculty Inducted as ACNM Fellows

The following FNU faculty members will be inducted as ACNM Fellows at the American College of NurseMidwives (ACNM) virtual annual meeting, May 23-25:

Kim Baraona, CNM, DNP, CNE

Laura Manns-James, CNM, PhD, WHNP-BC, CNE

Linda McDaniel, CNM, DNP, RNFA

Shaughanassee Vines, CNM, DNP, CNE Fellowship in the American College of Nurse-Midwives is an honor bestowed upon those midwives whose demonstrated leadership within ACNM, clinical excellence, outstanding scholarship, and professional achievement have merited special recognition both within and outside of the midwifery profession. The ACNM Fellowship was first established in 1994. With the addition of the 2021 Fellows, there will be 558 FACNMs.

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 15

The Impact of Personal Health

Sybilla Myers’ DNP Project Focuses on Overall Wellness During the Pandemic at their place of work, involves one term dedicated to identifying the project, collecting data, and recruiting participants. After the term break, the students then begin implementing the project, tracking the data and results which are included in a final paper.

Like others in her class, Myers, DNP Class 33, APRN, FNP-C, had planned to do a completely different quality improvement project than the one she ended up doing.

Myers was born in Germany and moved to the United States when she was three.

Now an American citizen, she lives in Virginia but works in Washington, D.C.,

Sybilla Myers DNP As the COVID-19 Pandemic took hold of the country last spring, the protocols -- particularly in the first several months -- were to stay inside. Gyms were closed.

Many parks had limited access or no parking available. Finding ways to exercise regularly became a challenge.

Additionally, as businesses closed or reduced hours, more and more time was spent at home and, for many, a sedentary lifestyle became the norm.

It didn’t take long for the jokes and memes to begin and soon the “COVID-15” became the term for 15 pounds of weight gain due to the pandemic. Helping people find ways to alter their lifestyle during COVID and develop or renew healthy habits became the centerpiece of then-DNP student Sybilla Myers’ quality improvement project.

Students in FNU’s DNP program must complete a quality improvement project. This project, which is generally conducted with their patient population

“It didn’t take long for the jokes and memes to begin and soon the “COVID-15” became the term for 15 pounds of weight gain due to the pandemic. Helping people find ways to alter their lifestyle during COVID and develop or renew healthy habits became the centerpiece of then-DNP student Sybilla Myers’ quality improvement project.”

as an International Health Coordinator for a federal organization. She is also an adjunct professor of nursing at Stratford University and a mother of three children ranging in age from 9 to 15.

16 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

Myers had intended to do a quality improvement project to implement a case management system at the federal organization for which she works. The arrival of COVID, however, meant all of the organization’s volunteers were evacuated home and she would have no new medivacs to implement her project.

“I talked to my advisor, Dr. Chris Kennedy, who served as an incredible faculty mentor,” Myers said. “His recommendation was to do something that might be able to live past this project. Then I started thinking about it and decided on a virtual wellness project which could live past the pandemic and be implemented in primary care environments.”

Responding quickly to the pandemic and its impact on FNU’s DNP students, the FNU faculty had developed four quality improvement projects which could be conducted virtually. Since many clinics and organizations were closed, this offered a chance for the students to continue without delaying their academic progress.

“I didn’t want to take a hiatus,” Myers said. “My entire experience with FNU had been organized and thoughtful and I didn’t know what, but I knew something would fall into place that would allow me to continue on my DNP journey. I sat back and waited between term breaks. As expected, it didn’t take long for the FNU faculty to make an announcement that we would be given the option of implementing an IRBapproved virtual project..”

The project that drew her interest was a wellness project. The project involved ways for the participants to increase their physical activity, their hydration, and their mental well-being in ways that are attainable during the pandemic. To solicit

the necessary volunteer participants, Myers took to social media. Once her group of approximately 30 participants was assembled, she created a closed group in which she released information and guidance about the project. She also met with each participant individually to work with them on their goals and overall progress. She provided tools and suggested resources, including apps for yoga, running, walking, hydration, and mental health. For some of her older participants who were less familiar with apps, Myers offered other ways to monitor their progress.

“Early on in the pandemic just going anywhere was difficult, so it was all about meeting their needs and learning how they could alter their exercise and lifestyle pattern to maintain wellness.”

“My project was tailored to the individual needs of the participant,” Myers said.

“Early on in the pandemic just going anywhere was difficult, so it was all about meeting their needs and learning how they could alter their exercise and lifestyle pattern to maintain wellness.”

Participants recorded their daily activity and progress on a Google form. The reporting was less about measurables such as weight loss and more about how they were feeling in each of the categories. A

validated questionnaire was utilized at the beginning and end of the project to determine if there was an overall increase in wellness.

“They were doing so well on the apps, but when you asked them how they were feeling overall it was midline. It didn’t improve,” Myers said. “So, even though they were at their highest level of app use and goal attainment, you had to consider the outside force of being four months into social distancing and the pandemic.

Even when people were exercising to their goal or higher, hydrating, eating well, using the mental health apps, they still were not feeling great.”

Despite the overall progress being hindered by the strain of the pandemic, Myers was encouraged by the overall results and her participants’ continued progress beyond the project.

“In following up with them after the project, they still continue to use the apps that they were implementing during my project to continue their wellness journey.

I feel like it definitely helped them.”

Myers’ poster board for the project was presented at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and her quality improvement Squire paper, Improving the Perception of Wellness in a Virtual Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Doctoral Nursing Practice Volume 14, Number 2.

She also was able to finally implement her original case management plan within her place of work, completing, in a sense, two quality improvement projects instead of one.

possibilities for us. The faculty went out of their way to be available to us and help guide us through our many questions. We were at a loss, but the DNP faculty were so positive and supportive. These virtual projects were hard, but they were supposed to be hard. Throughout this abrupt transition from on-the-ground to

“I feel like I’m the biggest cheerleader for FNU. Many of my classmates and I were elated when they came up with the virtual project possibilities for us.”

virtual implementation, I always felt completely supported by the FNU DNP faculty. I’m so grateful that I didn’t have to take a hiatus. This is a once in a 100-year pandemic and the silver lining for me was the opportunity to continue a rigorous DNP program on my original timeline.”

“I feel like I’m the biggest cheerleader for FNU,” Myers said. “Many of my classmates and I were elated when they came up with the virtual project

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 17

An Impactful Legacy

Judith P. Rooks, CNM, MPH, MS, FACNM August 18, 1941-June 1, 2020

Rooks worked as an epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control’s Family Planning Division in Atlanta from 1970-72 and 1974-1978. In between, she earned a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and became a Certified Nurse-Midwife at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

“While she left her imprint on the history of Frontier Nursing University, her impact was felt throughout the nursing profession.”

A legend in nursing, Judith Pence Rooks, passed away at her home in Portland, Oregon, on June 1, 2020. She is survived by her husband Charles and their son, Christopher.

While she left her imprint on the history of Frontier Nursing University, her impact was felt throughout the nursing profession.

Rooks was born in Spokane, Washington, on August 18, 1941. She earned a BS in Nursing from the University of Washington in 1963. From 1963-64, she worked as a staff nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane and King County Hospital in Seattle. She then headed east, working as a nurse at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland in 1965. She earned an MS in Medical and Surgical Nursing from Catholic University in 1967.

In 1969 and 1970, Rooks was a vocal advocate for women’s reproductive rights in Georgia and played a leading role advancing what became the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision, Doe v.

Bolton.

Her work as an educator began as an assistant professor at the San Jose State University School of Nursing from 1967-69. She also served as an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland from 1978-79.

Her extensive knowledge and expertise took her to Washington, D.C., where she served as an Expert in the Office of Population Affairs within the Office of the Surgeon General in the United States Department of Health and Human Services from 1979-80. Additionally, she served as a Project Officer and Public Health Advisor for the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Population from 1980-82.

Rooks’ expansive and impactful career also included a courtesy appointment as Instructor at the Department of Community and Family Health in the University of South Florida’s College

18 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

of Public Health from 1995-2005. She served as the Director of the Nature and Management of Labor Pain Symposium sponsored by the New York Academy of Medicine and the Maternity Center Association, from 2000-2001.

FNU was greatly impacted by Rooks, who was responsible for developing and teaching FNU’s first course on the Professional Role of the Nurse Midwife from 1995-97. For her countless contributions to both FNU and the nursing profession, Rooks was presented with an honorary doctorate from FNU in 2012.

Rooks, who also served as president of the American College of NurseMidwives (ACNM) from 1983-85, authored more than 80 published papers and the 1997 book, Midwifery & Childbirth in America, which remains an invaluable medical resource today. She was the principal investigator of several major studies and served as a consultant to many developing countries on family planning and midwifery programs.

Her influence and leadership were instrumental in re-introducing nitrous oxide for use in childbirth.

Naturally, her career achievements included a long list of awards and accolades, including the 1993 Martha May Elliot Award, the American Public Health Association’s highest honor in the field of Maternal and Child Health. She also received ACNM’s highest honor, the Hattie Hemschemeyer Award, for continuous outstanding contributions to nurse-midwifery and maternal and child health care, in 1998. In 1999, Rooks received the National Perinatal Association’s National Award for Outstanding Contributions to Maternal and Child Health. Judith’s passion and commitment will be sorely missed.

The Impact of Giving

In Support of Our Students to meet the needs of their communities to provide quality care. In most cases, students are able to keep working while in their coursework. However, once they begin their clinical education most are not able to work which produces a double burden on their household of paying tuition and a loss of income. This leads to many students graduating with a student debt of around $60,000. TOGETHER WE CAN help these students reduce or eliminate their debt and, in so doing, we are making an impact on the health of our communities.

Through these pages, you have seen the incredible impact that our community is making in the lives of mothers, babies, and families across the nation. However, there is more work to be done.

Though we are able, through the generosity of our donors, to provide nearly $500,000 annually to students in scholarships, this is merely a drop in the bucket when considering the need. Our students are working nurses, many times with families, who desire

“Through these pages, you have seen the incredible impact that our community is making in the lives of mothers, babies, and families across the nation.

However, there is more work to be done.”

“Imagine the relief a student would feel at being given a scholarship to cover their tuition during their clinical education? Imagine the impact that would have on their lives.”

Imagine the relief a student would feel at being given a scholarship to cover their tuition during their clinical education?

Imagine the impact that would have on their lives. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted our students’ need for assistance in unprecedented numbers.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, we received 120 requests for aid from our student emergency fund. During that same period between 2018 and 2019, only 27 students requested emergency scholarships.

the health of your community by making a donation to FNU. All donations support our students. General donations support institutional programs and assist us in

“To increase the impact of your donation, you can also consider planned giving or endowing a scholarship.”

maintaining affordable tuition for our students. Donations can be made easily via mail by using the enclosed envelope or online at frontier.edu.

Scholarship-specific donations can also be made by using the enclosed envelope, online, or by contacting me at angela. bailey@frontier.edu.

To increase the impact of your donation, you can also consider planned giving or endowing a scholarship. The options are many, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss the ways you can change the lives and health of families in your community and those across the country by making a gift to FNU today.

Angela Bailey, MA, CFRE Chief Advancement Officer, Frontier Nursing University

I hope that the stories in this issue, and the alarming numbers shared above inspire you to make your own impact on

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 19

Alumni Notes Debra Arndt Honored with Permanent Display in Hospital

During the pandemic, Dr. Prendergast was instrumental in the transition of all of the College of Nursing’s courses to virtual formats. She also credited with helping establish the university’s Latin American Student Nurses Association.

Prevea Women’s Care Welcomes Megan Pena to Midwifery Team

Dr. Minyon Outlaw Published on Digital News Site Quickening

Debra Arndt, pictured with Dr. Robert Daniels, will have her portrait permanently displayed at UPMC Chautauqua to honor her long and historical career as a midwife in Jamestown. (Photo courtesy Katie Ireland) Debra Arndt, DNP Class 25, was recently honored by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Chautauqua in Jamestown, New York.

In honor of her distinguished career which included her becoming the hospital’s first non-physician to be granted admitting privileges, Arndt’s portrait will be permanently showcased at UPMC Chautauqua.

Elena Prendergast Honored By August University College of Nursing Dr. Elena Prendergast, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, ACHPN, Companion DNP 4, was recently selected as Augusta University’s College of Nursing Outstanding Faculty Dr. Elena Member of the Year.

Prendergast Dr. Prendergast is an Assistant Professor at Augusta University College of Nursing’s Department of Physiological and Technological Nursing.

On April 28, Dr. Minyon Outlaw, DNP, Class 33, CNM, WHNPBC, CNEP Class 157, was published on Quickening, the Official Digital News Site of the American College Minyon Outlaw of Nurse-Midwives.

Outlaw practices as a full-scope Certified Nurse-Midwife at AdventHealth Medical Group OB/GYN in Altamonte Springs, Florida. In her article, “Safely Reducing Cesarean Sections Utilizing the PROVIDE Toolbox in a FaithBased Hospital” she wrote, “Our team determined that standardization, elevating the patient’s voice, and team engagement were the keys to reducing primary cesarean section rates. Standardized care and improved quality enhance the patient experience and prevent unnecessary cesarean sections.”

Shannon Nanelle Herl Joins Sheridan County Health Complex

Shannon Nanelle Herl

20 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

Shannon Nanelle Herl, MSN, APRNBC, FNP, Bridge 168, recently joined Sheridan County Health Complex in Hokie, Kansas, as a family nurse practitioner.

Megan Pena

Megan Pena, CNM, Class 172, recently joined the midwifery team at Prevea Women’s Care, which is part of Prevea Health. She will see patients in Altoona, Chippewa Falls, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Coast Community Health Center Welcomes Stephanie Empson

Stephanie Empson

FNU graduate and current student Stephanie Empson, MSN, FNP, DNP Class 41, recently joined Coast Community Health Center in Bandon, Oregon, where she is a family nurse practitioner.

Take A Moment to Stay in the Know FNU alumni, we know you want to stay informed about all that is happening at FNU. To make sure you don’t miss communications such as the Quarterly Bulletin or our monthly e-newsletters, please take a moment to make sure we have your updated contact information.

Please send your updated contact information, including preferred email address, phone number, and mailing address to alumniservises@frontier.edu.

Thank you!

Cierra Hartman joins Riverview Women’s Care

Cierra Hartman

Riverview Women’s Care, which is located within Henry County Hospital in Napoleon, Ohio, recently welcomed Cierra Hartman, MSN, CNM, Class 145, as a certified nurse-midwife.

Mid Dakota Clinic Center for Women Welcomes April Kautzman April Kautzman, WHNP-BC, CNM, Class 178, has joined the Mid Dakota Clinic Center for Women in Bismarck, North Dakota. She is a certified lactation counselor and has special interests in April Kautzman well-woman care and health promotion, low-risk obstetrical care, labor support, and breastfeeding.

Deborah Howell Joins Van Werth Health Physician Group

Deborah Howell

Deborah Howell, MSN, FNP, Class 93, recently joined Van Wert Health Physician Group in Van Wert, Ohio. She is a certified member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the Ohio Association of Advanced Practice Nurses.

Davis, Grayson Featured in Local News Charles Davis, Ph.D., MSN, FNP-C, AEC, Class 154, and Nikia Grayson, DNP, MPH, CNM, FNP, Class 142, were both recently featured in local media coverage for their work in their communities.

Davis was interviewed by New York’s Robin Hood Radio for his rural clinic school initiative. The full interview can be heard by searching “Charles Davis” on RobinHoodRadioOnDemand.com. A full

Charles Davis

Nikia Grayson

story on Davis’ work in his local school system can be found in the Fall 2020 Issue of the FNU Quarterly Bulletin.

A feature on Grayson was posted on MLK50: Justice Through Journalism as part of a series of spotlights on “women whose names may not be easily recognizable, but who are forces in the fight for voting rights, access to health care, criminal justice reform and on other critical issues.” Grayson, who is director of clinical services at CHOICES, a Memphis clinic for reproductive health care, was one of six women featured in a series called “Unsung, Unbowed, Unstoppable”. The full story is available on MLK50.com.

FNU Alumni Association The Frontier Nursing University Office of Alumni Relations is here to support YOU! Our purpose is to find new and meaningful ways to engage and support Alumni — from graduation throughout your career.

Alumni are an integral part of FNU’s development because you demonstrate the excellence of FNU in everyday practice and because you are our primary recruiters and most loyal donors. We appreciate your commitment to FNU, and we plan to offer additional rewarding programs in return soon.

Services are open to all graduates of FNU. We currently have more than 8,000 alumni in all 50 states and many countries around the world. We encourage you to explore the services, programs, and activities offered and to become involved. There are several wonderful ways to stay in touch with friends and connected to FNU including; reunions, conference receptions, case days, eNews, and our very active Facebook Group. To take advantage of all member services, please make sure we have your updated contact information by emailing us at alumniservices@frontier.edu.

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 21

News and Notes

A Message to Our Community Dear Frontier Community, Frontier Nursing University (FNU) has a focused effort on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). That effort requires a deep look into our past and how that history affects our FNU culture and community today. This required the development of the Mary Breckinridge Task Force (MBTF). The MBTF was formed and charged with exploring the history and legacy of our founder, Mary Breckinridge, to uncover and understand the nuances of her beliefs and how these affected the formation and development of FNU. Credit for this effort must be first given to the group of students who brought the request for acknowledgment of our past to the administration in 2018. Next, we must credit the group of students, faculty, staff, and external members who stepped forward and answered the call to serve on the task force. We are forever grateful for their passion and commitment.

The MBTF found evidence that Mary Breckinridge did hold racist beliefs. She believed in white superiority and wrote about eugenics and the value of segregation, encouraging brotherhood rather than equality. Helen Browne, a close colleague of Mary Breckinridge, reported in her oral history that Mary Breckinridge refused to sit at the table with a Black person. Further, Mary Breckinridge refused to hire Black midwives.

We acknowledge Mary Breckinridge’s contributions as the founder of FNU and as a pioneer in public health nursing and nursemidwifery. At the same time, we denounce her discriminatory beliefs and actions.

Frontier Nursing University rejects racism, bigotry, and hate in all forms.

We acknowledge the racist and eugenics beliefs that were intertwined in the university’s beginnings. Frontier Nursing University sincerely apologizes to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color for a history that has failed to honor the inherent right of all individuals to equitable treatment and opportunity. The university draws upon its rich legacy of pioneering and innovation to rise to the call for reform.

FNU is committed to using what we have learned to move forward in our goal to become a truly inclusive university. The MBTF included a comprehensive set of recommendations for actions for the future. These are currently being used as a resource

by FNU’s newly formed President’s Task Force for DEI to create an action plan for our future.

We recognize that the beliefs of the past affect who we are today. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have been part of our core strategies since 2006. We have made great strides since then, but we know that there is still much more to be done. We are fully committed to using these lessons learned from our past to continue to move us forward to becoming a truly antiracist university.

Sincerely,

Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc., FACNM, FAAN

Dr. Susan Stone

The university draws upon its rich legacy of pioneering and innovation to rise to the call for reform.

22 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

Trustees

Fall Faculty Published Articles and Chapters: Following is a list of articles and chapters recently published by FNU faculty members: Assistant Professor Khara’ Jefferson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C:

Jefferson, K. (2021).

Implementing a Standardized Cardiac Protocol for the Adolescent Preparticipation Sports Examination.

Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 35, 188-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. pedhc.2020.10.002 Associate Professor Laura Manns-James, Ph.D., CNM, WHNP-BC, CNE:

Tharpe, N. L., Farley, C. L., Jordan, R. G., Manns-James, L. E., Bradford, H., Fillmore, H.,Harris, N. (Eds.).

(2022). Clinical Practice Guidelines for Midwifery and Women’s Health(6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Tia Andrighetti Earns Prestigious Certification

FNU Associate Professor Dr. Tia Andrighetti, DNP, CNM, CHSE, CNE, has achieved her Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator Advanced certification. Only 88 people in 14 countries have this designation. Just 12 applicants were accepted for this certification this year.

Meghan Garland Earns Grant

Course faculty Meghan Garland, CNM, APRN-C earned the MNRS/ Aurora Health Dissertation Grant for her research on the determinants of physical activity among pregnant Black women.

Garland, who is pursuing her doctorate at Rush University’s College of Nursing, intends to develop culturally tailored physical activity interventions for women with limited access to highquality care. “I saw an opportunity to promote health in a population that oftentimes is overlooked or doesn’t receive the quality of health care that they deserve,” she said.

Mrs. Tia Andrew, Hamilton Parish, Bermuda Ms. Sarah Bacon, Brooklyn, NY Mrs. Andrea Begley, Hyden, KY Dr. Heather Bernard, Hamilton, NY Gov. Steven Beshear, Lexington, KY Mrs. Betty Brown, Louisville, KY Mrs. Amy Pennington Brudnicki, Richmond, KY Dr. Timothy Bukowski, Chapel Hill, NC Dr. Wallace Campbell, Berea, KY Miss Anna Carey, Hyden, KY Mrs. Jean Chapin, Oldwick, NJ Mrs. Lois Cheston, Topsfield, MA Bill Corley, Indianapolis, IN Mrs. Julia Breckinridge Davis, Winston-Salem, NC Mrs. John Dete, West Liberty, OH Mrs. Selby Ehrlich, Bedford, NY Mrs. Robert Estill, Raleigh, NC Mrs. Noel Smith Fernandez, Pomona, NY Ms. Mary Ann Gill, Versailles, KY Mr. John Grandin, Chestnut Hill, MA Dr. Joyce Fortney Hamberg, Southgate, KY Dr. Horace Henriques, Lyme, NH Mr. & Mrs. John Hodge, Berwyn, PA Mrs. Robin Frentz Isaacs, Lincoln, MA Mrs. Rosemary Johnson, Versailles, KY Mrs. Mary Carol Joseph, Hyden, KY Ms. Deborah M. King, Westport, MA Mrs. Patricia Lawrence, Westwood, MA Mrs. Marian Leibold, Cincinnati, OH Dr. Ruth Lubic, Washington, DC Mr. William Lubic, Washington DC Mr. Robert Montague, JD, Urbanna, VA Mr. Wade Mountz, Louisville, KY Dr. Judy Myers, Ph.D., RN, New Albany, IN Ms. Barbara Napier, Irvine, KY Ms. Sandra Napier, Stinnett, KY Dr. Spencer Noe, Lexington, KY Mr. Dean Osborne, Hyden, KY Mrs. Helen Rentch, Midway, KY Mrs. John Richardson, Washington, DC Mrs. Linda Roach, Lexington, KY Mrs. Georgia Rodes, Lexington, KY Mrs. Sandra Schreiber, Louisville, KY Maria Small, MD, MPH, Durham, NC Mrs. Sherrie Rice Smith, Franklin, WI Mrs. Austin Smithers, Lyme, NH Mrs. Robert Steck, Arlington, MA Mrs. Mary Clay Stites, Louisville, KY Mr. Richard Sturgill, Paris, KY Ms. Mary Frazier Vaughan, Lexington, KY Mrs. LouAnne Roberts Verrier, Austin, TX Dr. Patience White, Bethesda, MD Mr. Harvie Wilkinson, Lexington, KY Ms. Vaughda Wooten, Hyden, KY

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 23

Memorials and Tributes

FNU Mourns Passing of Beloved Faculty Member Jan Weingrad Smith Dr. Jan Weingrad Smith, beloved mother, daughter, sister, aunt and loyal friend, passed away at Norwalk Hospital Saturday, May 22.

A faculty member at FNU since 2015, Jan was born in Stamford, Connecticut on January 23, 1950. She is the daughter of Stamford’s Murray Weingrad and Louise Reback Weingrad (deceased) and Genevieve Weingrad (deceased). She graduated from Rippowam High School, and began a noted career as a nurse, midwife, and maternal and child health educator. She was a resident of Norwalk, Connecticut, for many years.

She earned a diploma in nursing with honors from the Washington Hospital Center School of Nursing in 1971, and a BSN Magna Cum Laude from Bridgeport University in 1981. She went on to earn her MSN in maternal and child health and nurse-midwifery from Columbia University School of Nursing in 1984, and a Masters in public health from the Columbia University Division of Population and Family Health, Maternal and Child Health in 1985. She received her Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Connecticut School of Nursing in 2013, and a certificate in curriculum evaluation and design from the University of Connecticut School of Nursing in 2015.

She accomplished all of this while working full time and raising her daughter, Michelle.

From 2014-2015 she was an assistant professor of nursing at Southern Connecticut School of Nursing. From 2006-2014 she was a clinical assistant professor in the Yale University School of Nursing, and from 1992-1999 she was assistant clinical professor at

the Columbia University Graduate School of Nursing. In 1998 she was a visiting instructor at the Vordesgskolan School of Nursing at the University of Goteborg, Sweden. From 1999 to 2004 she was an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health in the Department of Maternal and Child Health, nurse-midwifery education program.

a member of book clubs and weekly scrabble games, and loved to cook for family and friends.

In the late ‘80s-early ‘90s, Jan also served as instructor/midwife for New York Medical College and Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, and delivered babies at The Childbearing Center of Morris Heights, in the Bronx. She also served as adjunct faculty for maternal newborn nursing at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, and was a lecturer for the American Health Care Institute.

She has also worked as a staff midwife at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Norwalk Community Health Center, and Community Health Center in Meriden, Connecticut, where she was director of the prenatal center. Early in her career, she was head nurse, labor and delivery at Norwalk Hospital.

She is predeceased by her mother, Louise; her step-mother, Genevieve Weingrad; her step-siblings Linda Weintraub Stark, Nancy Weintraub Leferman, and Lewis Weintraub.

Jan was an ardent and vocal advocate for women’s and children’s health with special interest in promoting and supporting breastfeeding education and policy development in the United States and internationally, and improving access to midwifery services in the U.S. She served in many capacities in the American Public Health Association, including chairperson of the maternal and child health section.

In her spare time, she sang in the choir at Temple Beth El, Stamford, Connecticut, acted in community theater, attended as many Broadway musicals as she could, especially to celebrate her birthday, was

24 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

Most notably, she will be remembered for her caring bedside manner, her love of everything purple and lavender, and always being there for family and friends to help them navigate the health care and hospital systems.

She is survived by her daughter Michelle Perry and son-in-law Malik Perry of Dallas, Texas, and their fur babies; her father Murray Weingrad (Stamford), her sister Deborah Weingrad and Christopher Campbell, her brother (in law) both of South Norwalk; and nieces and nephews Rachel Campbell and Matthew Campbell (South Norwalk), David Stark (Patty) of Pound Ridge, NY; Rebecca Stark Schwartz, Fort Lauderdale, FL; Lori Baden (Alan Rothenstreich) Randi Price (Craig), Marc Leferman (Susan), all of Stamford.

Donations in her memory can be made to Temple Sinai, Lakeside Drive, Stamford, CT or to Planned Parenthood of CT. “We are all grieving for the sudden loss of Dr. Jan Weingard Smith,” said FNU President Dr. Susan Stone. “Jan was a committed faculty member, a wonderful midwife, a mentor to other faculty and students, and connected in so many ways to our community. We will all miss her beautiful smile and her enthusiasm for helping others in so many ways.”

Board of Directors

FNU Mourns the Passing of Beloved Faculty Member Ruth Ellen Elsasser-Kolberg

CHAIR Michael Carter, DNSc, DNP New Orleans, LA VICE CHAIR Michael T. Rust Louisville, KY SECRETARY

It is with great sadness that the family of Ruth Ellen Elsasser-Kolberg share her unexpected passing on May 24, 2021, in Husum, Washington, at the age of 42.

She will always be loved and remembered by her husband, Ryan Kolberg, and children Victor and Tsadiku Coffman.

Ruth was the beloved daughter of Thomas and Cathleen Elsasser and sister of Kerry Elsasser and Amy (Tristan) Morel L’Horset. She was a loving aunt to Tristan, Thomas, Theodore, Lincoln, Isabella, Olivia, and Genevieve, and the devoted daughter-in-law of Linda Kolberg. She will be greatly missed by dear friends from Mansfield, Pennsylvania to the area of the Columbia River Gorge in Washington and Oregon and beyond.

Ruth packed so much life into her fortytwo years. She traveled, hiked, biked, skied, chased her dreams, worked in a profession she loved, and still put one foot in front of the other while battling both Gaucher’s and Parkinson’s disease. She did so with grace and courage and took advantage of every moment. One of her favorite things to do was to share her love for the outdoors with her husband, sons, family, friends, and dogs. Her laugh was infectious and will be remembered by all who knew her.

Ruth was born at Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey on March 7, 1979. Ruth attended both Mansfield Jr.-Sr. High School and Mansfield University of Pennsylvania and achieved high honors at both. She obtained her Master of Science in Nursing from Oregon Health Sciences University and her Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Frontier Nursing University and was a lifelong learner in her field. She was a compassionate and dedicated educator for

the Frontier Nursing program and loved teaching and sharing her gifts with her students. Most recently, she was in pursuit of a certification in Ayurvedic Medicine as she believed that health and wellness depend on achieving a balance between the mind, body, and spirit.

Wallace Campbell, Ph.D. Berea, KY

Ruth has left an indelible mark on all of us lucky enough to have known her and we all wish her the peace she deserves.

She would want us to find comfort in knowing she is free from pain. We will miss her zest for life and contagious smile.

She will be deeply loved forever and will never be forgotten.

Board Members

TREASURER Emma Metcalf, RN, MSN, CPHQ Louisville, KY

Carlyle Carter, Evanston, IL William (Bill) Corley, MHA, Carmel, IN Nancy Hines, Shepherdsville, KY Jean Johnson, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Cabin John, MD Marcus Osborne, MBA, Bentonville, AR Kerri Schuiling, Ph.D., CNM, FAAN, FACNM, Marquette, MI Peter Schwartz, MD, Port St. Lucie, FL Maria Small, MD, MPH, Durham, NC Nancy Fugate Woods, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Seattle, WA

Memorial Donations The following people gave contributions to Frontier in memory of their friends or loved ones. The names in bold are the deceased.

May Wykle, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FGSA, Cleveland, OH Foundation Board Members Peter Coffin, Chair, Frontier Nursing Service, Inc Foundation, Chestnut Hill, MA Derek Bonifer, Louisville, KY Peter Schwartz, MD, Port St. Lucie, FL Board Members Emeritus John Foley, Lexington, KY Marion McCartney, CNM, FACNM, Washington, DC Kenneth J. Tuggle, JD, Louisville, KY

Ruth Beeman Ms. Barbara K. Thompson Dr. Joanne Roehr Ms. Laurie Boyd John A. M. Walker Janet Walker Chirlin

Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin 25

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Please let us know. Simply email us at FNUnews@frontier.edu.

26 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin

2050 Lexington Road Versailles, KY 40383 FNU@frontier.edu • 859.251.4700

Frontier.edu Our mission 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.