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 that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality health care to underserved and rural populations.

Beki Asti knows how to set goals and live them out. She received her undergraduate degree from Carroll College in Wisconsin and went to work as a nurse in the United States Air Force, but her sights were set on eventually becoming a nurse practitioner.

“I always knew that I wanted to be a nurse practitioner,” said Beki. “To accomplish that, I set a goal to go back to school five years after graduating. It passed by faster than I expected, and when the time came, I went to Frontier Nursing University to get my master’s degree.”

Beki went through the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program at FNU, earning her Master of Science in Nursing degree. She found her FNU experience enjoyable and rewarding, and she was impressed by the program’s ability to ease the challenging transition from nurse to advanced practice nurse.

One of Beki’s roles at FNU is Regional Clinical Faculty. In this role she enjoys working with students to make the same transition from nurse to nurse practitioner.

“I’ve been there and I enjoy helping students as they’re going through that change as well.” She spends many hours reading, writing papers, and working on projects. Beki embraces the challenging work as it gives her another means to relate to her students.

Her project focus within her doctoral studies is how to manage obesity in patients with mental illness. She encourages students with interest in this topic to engage in discussion and come to her with questions.

Beki’s nursing career has been full of variety. Her first job after college was in a start-up community clinic where she was the only nurse practitioner.

“Finding where to fit in was challenging, as I first had to educate the physicians on my abilities and scope before I could be a useful addition the team.”

Since then, she has worked on an Army base where her patients were military dependents and active duty. She has also worked in several urgent care clinics. One such clinic was located in Massachusetts, where the clinic saw many primary care issues due to a lack of primary care providers in that area.

Currently, Beki works in Community Mental Health. She also splits her time at FNU between Regional Clinical Faculty for nurse practitioner students and teaching a Principles of Health Promotion course.

Beki’s involvement in the nursing community is widespread and impressive. She is a member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She serves as a counselor for FNU’s Chi Pi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International, helping with student membership enrollment into the honor society. Beki is also a member of the Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners.

Beki hopes that through her role at FNU, she can inspire students to follow in her success.

“I want to show students the different settings offered to nurse practitioners as well as the ongoing education that all of us are in pursuit of.”

When she’s not working, Beki loves spending time with her husband and two small children.