Class NOTES Updates on Frontier alumni
Kendra Adkisson, Emily Dial and Katie Isaac
Frontier graduates Kendra Adkisson (CNEP Class 72), Emily Dial (CNEP Class 75) and Katie Isaac (a 1980 graduate) practice together as certified nurse-midwives at Women’s Care of the Bluegrass in Frankfort, Ky. The three were featured in a Jan. 28 article in Frankfort’s State-Journal newspaper about the work they do as midwives. Katie, a Frontier Pioneer graduate who has been in practice the longest of the three, has been a midwife for 32 years and has attended about 3,500 births. Jane Arnold, a Class 1 CNEP alum who served as a nurse-midwife, mentor and educator in Botswana, Africa, from 2009-2011, shared news with FNU faculty member Kitty Ernst over the holidays. Jane is an assistant clinical professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is currently serving an 11-month term in Rwanda as an advisor at the Rwamagana School 30
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of Nursing and Midwifery, where her work includes developing courses with instructors and writing into the curriculum a Leadership in Nursing course. Jane recently made a trip to Kibogora, Rwanda, and shared this news: “I am in Kibogora in the southern part of Rwanda for the holidays with my friend, Janet, who works on the Free Methodist Mission in Kibogora. The village is on a large lake, Lake Rivu. We went to the pediatric ward of the Mission Hospital this morning to give out hats and soft balls to the children. They were delighted as were we. … While we were in the hospital, a baby was being born after a long unfruitful labor by C/S. The baby girl was in respiratory distress, so we jumped in and resuscitated her.” Thank you, Jane, for serving “wide neighborhoods” and for exemplifying Mrs. Breckinridge’s spirit of service. Laura Ballou, CFNP Class 68, works at an Alaskan “frontier hospital” on a remote island in the Bering Sea. She serves a community of 4,000 residents and 8,000 seasonal fishing industry workers, many of whom have never received healthcare before and only come in for acute care. Laura has established quarterly outreach meetings with local canneries to provide screen-
female inmates at a women’s correctional facility in Grant, N.M. April serves as a Wide Neighborhoods ambassador for FNU.
Send us your Class Note
We want to hear from you! Please send your news and updates to alumniservices@frontier.edu so that we may share them with the Frontier family through our online and print communication channels. News included in the Class Notes section is gathered from alumni communications, media reports and professional announcements from the past several months. Send corrections or updates to the email address above.
ings, immunizations and promote wellness awareness. (Read how Laura is serving the Frontier mission at www. frontier.edu/stories.)
Priscilla Craw
Priscilla Craw, a 1968 graduate, is doing short-term trips to Haiti teaching “Home-Based Life Saving Skills” to non-traditional birth attendants. This was developed by Sandy Tebben Buffington (a 1968 classmate). She is also supporting PN clinics in Haiti. Priscilla visited Hyden in the fall and dropped by the FNU campus for a visit. She was a student in 1967-68 and worked at the Beech Fork Clinic for a few months before returning home. April Dobroth, a CFNP Bridge Class 58 graduate, works as a nurse practitioner for the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe, where she provides care to a population of 1,100 federal- and statelevel inmates. She also provides care to
Teri Gjerseth, a graduate of Frontier’s nurse-midwifery (CNEP Class 53) and FNP (Class 81) programs, expanded her business, Footprints in Time Midwifery Services, to include a freestanding birth center to serve the women of West Central Wisconsin. Along with welcoming births at their center, which opened in late 2011 in Black River Falls, Wis., Teri and Becky Amberg provide midwifery and doula services for women who want to pursue home birth. Connie Becker, a 1972 Frontier graduate who was with the Frontier Nursing Service from January 1970 to June 1973, reports that she is retired and living in Coralville, Iowa. Connie, who completed both the FNP and midwifery programs, worked all over the country as a certified nurse-midwife for 31 years (and a total of 3,765 babies) before retiring seven years ago. Connie enjoys volunteering and traveling. CNEP Class 70 graduate Leilani Hall of Cedar Falls, Iowa, is featured in the Midwives Alliance of North America’s “I Am a Midwife” campaign, a social networking video campaign designed to educate the public about midwifery care. Hall, who started her own practice, Next Generation Midwifery, is among the midwives interviewed in a recent installment of the video series, “Why Midwifery Care is So Important.” Wes Henson, a CFNP Class 50 Frontier graduate, works as a nurse practitioner for the Primary Care Group in Harrisburg, Illinois. Wes makes rounds at three nursing homes and serves on the board of a free clinic called the Bridge Medical
Clinic, where he also volunteers his services as needed. The clinic serves those ineligible for Medicaid or who cannot afford health insurance. Wes also participates in the National Health Service Corps program, which creates access to healthcare by providing loan repayment to primary care providers who serve at least two years in an underserved area. After a deadly tornado swept through Harrisburg in the early hours of Feb. 12, 2012, Wes was among healthcare providers who sprang into action to treat the injured. Wes also serves as a clinical preceptor for Frontier and provides shadowing opportunities to FNU students. Pam Holtz, a Class 72 CFNP graduate, works as a family nurse practitioner on the emergency medicine team at Essentia Health’s 32nd Avenue campus in Fargo, ND. Frances Horton, a CNEP Class 62 and post-master’s WHCNP Class 96 graduate and a participant in FNU’s PRIDE program, has joined Shenandoah Women’s Health midwifery service in Harrisonburg, Va. After working for years as a labor and delivery nurse, Frances decided to pursue a nurse-midwifery degree at Frontier because of her passion for women’s health. Jona Hutson, CNEP Class 78, started working with University of Nebraska OB/GYN Physician’s Group and College of Medicine in September. “I will have office hours as well as catch at two hospitals in Omaha, NE. I absolutely plan on spending a couple years getting some experience then passing along my FNU spirit by precepting.” Damara Jenkins, CNEP Class 48, is a certified nurse midwife with WomanCare in Jeffersonville, Ind. The Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisville, Ky., wrote about Damara in Decem-
ber for a feature called “Snapshots of People at Work.” Read about Damara at www.frontier.edu/stories. Linda (Roe) Karle, a 1973 Frontier graduate who attended Alumni Homecoming in October, served as a nurse-midwife for more than 35 years, attending more than 3,100 births during that time in four states – Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and Kentucky. She recalled a two-day visit to Frontier in 1972 as a 20-year-old junior in nursing school that changed her life forever. That visit included a middle-ofthe-night trip by Jeep to see a sick patient and having tea at Wendover the next day with FNS Director Helen Browne. She said she couldn’t wait to “get home to Illinois, graduate and submit my application.” Reflecting on her recent visit to Hyden to attend homecoming, she wrote, “My life has been filled with clinics, laboring mothers and beautiful babies all due to the training at Frontier Nursing (Service) University. Sure, there have been many hours of lost sleep and holidays missed, but my life has been so fulfilling. It was an honor and privilege to attend the alumni and courier reunion and acquaint myself with old and new friends of this great establishment.” Angela Kreider, a Class 31 CNEP alum who graduated in 2006, opened Women’s Circle Nurse-Midwife Services Inc. in Yuba City, Calif., in 2012. Angela is providing compassionate care to women of all ages and providing birth services at the local hospital. She was part of a longtime nurse-midwife service that closed in 2011, and she chose to keep the torch burning to give women in her community access to nurse-midwifery care, regardless of whether they are insured. Angela is happy to increase awareness of midwifery care while also serving women who have come to value that care. Visit www.yubasuttermidwife.com. 31