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

Alumnae Tanya Bailey, FACNM, and Daniela Paul, CNM, have used their Frontier Nursing University (FNU) education to make a major impact on the women in their Greensboro, N.C., community.

The pair opened Magnolia Birth Center of Midwifery & Women's Health in March of this year. In addition to prenatal care and natural out-of-hospital childbirth, the center offers a variety of classes, seminars and support groups.

Magnolia invites hospitals and organizations from around the Greensboro area to offer its services to patients. Doing so avoids duplication of services while providing women with access to a variety of health care options. Additional services will be added based on patients' requests.

Magnolia's open-door policy creates an atmosphere of acceptance and comfort for women.

"We welcome anyone from the community regardless of being a client of Magnolia, and we have business sponsors to cover costs for women who cannot afford to pay for services,” said Tanya.

Daniela and Tanya have plenty of experience serving together. Tanya was Daniela's mentor and guide in her first certified nurse-midwife position at Wendover Ob-Gyn & Infertility. While Tanya was at Wendover for 10 years, Daniela moved to Arizona with her family and worked full scope midwifery for the Chinle IHS on the Navajo Nation. Daniela relocated her family back to Greensboro to join Tanya in opening Magnolia.

Tanya chose to become a nurse-midwife out of her desire to make a difference in her community.

"I needed a distance learning program to be able to stay home with my small children. Frontier was my first and only choice," said Tanya.

According to Daniela and Tanya, they were inspired by legendary nurse-midwives Kitty Ernst and Ruth Lubic, whose dissertation formed their vision for the Magnolia center. Dr. Lubic attended the ribbon cutting ceremony to offer the blessing of hands for the staff.

Read about Magnolia's grand opening and its impact on the Greensboro community here.

Thank you, Daniela and Tanya, for serving your community and honorably representing FNU!