Nursing

Instructor of Nursing

Cheryl Roberts has been a nursing lecturer at UMFK since 2011, focusing on nursing fundamentals and critical care nursing. She earned her BSN from the University of Bridgeport in 1975 and her MS from New England College in 2008. Since 2006, Cheryl has been a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality.

Cheryl’s career prior to UMFK includes general and critical care nursing, including supervision, in acute care hospitals 1975-1995; she was part of the senior management at Mayo Regional Hospital, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine from 1995-2011; she worked as the patient safety and quality improvement director; managed nine departments; and was a Risk Manager.

Cheryl enjoys fishing and domestic travel when she is not busy teaching.

Professor of Nursing & Allied Health

Dr. Rachel Albert is a Professor of Nursing and Allied Health. She currently teaches online courses in Healthcare Research and Evidenced-Based Practice, Transcultural Nursing, Ethics and the Law, Integrative Nursing Practice, and Global Health.

Dr. Albert has nearly 30 years of experience in higher education at UMFK. In addition to her faculty position, she has held various administrative positions on campus as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Executive Director of Planning and Assessment, and Director and Chair of the Nursing program. She has been extensively involved with accreditation, strategic planning, general education reform, curriculum planning, distance education, student learning outcomes assessment, institutional research, academic program and institutional review, faculty recruitment and development, tenure and promotion, and student retention, success, and advising.

In 1985, Dr. Albert earned her BSN from UMFK. She then went on to earn her MSN in Emergency Nursing/Education from the University of Texas Health Science Center. She earned her Ph.D. in Nursing Science from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio in 2001.

She is currently certified through the Advanced Online Teaching by Online Learning Consortium and certified through the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). Dr. Albert is the Chair for Aroostook County’s District Coordinating Council for Public Health. She is on the Fish River Rural Health Board of Directors and is on the liaison committee to Northern Maine Medical Center. She is a corporator for Northern Light Health, a team leader and evaluator for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), and UMFK’s chairperson and evaluator to our regional accrediting body NECHE.

The State of Maine Senate and Maine House of Representatives honored Dr. Albert with a legislative sentiment presented by State Representative Troy Jackson for excellence in nursing education in October 2003.

In her spare time, she loves connecting and socializing with family and friends, traveling, cooking healthy recipes, listening to music, reading self-help books, and professional journals in her field. She enjoys fitness activities including running, hiking, and biking, and anything that takes her outside. Volunteering as a Team Leader for on-site nursing program accreditation reviews for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education allows her to apply her skill set while broadening and deepening her experience in nursing higher education. She also enjoys serving as a faculty mentor for the UMFK Partners for International Relief, a student organization that demonstrates caring and compassion by participating in medical relief missions that brings help to communities in need overseas.

Assistant Professor of Adult Health Nursing

Dr. Tanya Sleeper is an Associate Professor of Nursing and has been with UMFK since 2008. She has also served UMFK as the interim Vice President for Academic Affairs in 2016.

In 1998, Dr. Sleeper earned her BSN from UMFK. She then went on to earn her MS in Business from Husson College in 2000 and in 2004, she earned her MSN and became a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner. She earned her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Walden University in 2013. She is currently pursuing her law degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

Dr. Sleeper also works for Aroostook Home Health Services/Valley Home Health Services and has in various roles since 1999. She is currently the Executive Director and the Director of Nursing. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine.

She sits on the Board of Education for RSU 39 as the Chair; is part of the Maine Rural Geriatric Conference planning committee; Pines Health Services board of directors finance committee member; Aroostook District Coordinating Council for Public Health committee member; and the vice president of the Aroostook Mental Health Center board of directors.

In 2008, Dr. Sleeper was given the UMFK Nurse Alumnus award and in 2019, she was given the UMFK Outstanding Faculty Award. St, Joseph’s College of Maine awarded her as the Graduate Nursing Faculty Member of the Year in 2013.

She is part of the editorial board for the International Journal of Nursing and Clinical Practices as well as the Journal of Comprehensive Nursing Care and Research. Dr. Sleeper has been a faculty associate for the University of Maine’s Center on Aging since 2017.

In her spare time, Dr. Sleeper enjoys spending time with family, reading non-fiction, traveling, baking, and continuing her education.

Assistant Professor of Nursing

Maisie Plourde was hired in 2019 as an Assistant Professor of Nursing. She earned her BSN from UMFK in 2013 and her MSN from Chamberlain University in 2019. She has worked in long-term nursing care, medical/surgical acute nursing care, operating room, endoscopy, and postpartum nursing care. Ms. Plourde enjoys spending time with her family and finding new activities to do with her child. She enjoys the outdoors and any activity that leads her there.

Assistant Professor of Nursing

Dr. Stacy Thibodeau is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at UMFK. She earned her RN at Northern Maine Community College and then earned her BSN through Chamberlain College of Nursing. She immediately continued into Chamberlain’s MSN program, which she completed in 2010. In 2016, she earned her Doctor of Nursing, with a Concentration in Public Health Nursing Leadership, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 

Prior to teaching for UMFK, Dr. Thibodeau was an Army Nurse in MASH/CASH units. She has also worked in Med/Surg, Maternal Child Health, and Home Health fields. Recently she was a Public Health Nursing Director for the Maine CDC and the Chief Clinical Officer for Kindred Hospital in Florida.

Dr. Thibodeau would love to spend more time with her family, traveling and working on her photography skills.

Assistant Professor of Nursing

Sandy Pelletier has been an Assistant Professor of Nursing with UMFK for six years. She earned her BS in Biology from UMFK and then went on to earn her BSN from Husson University. She holds a Master's Certificate in Nursing Education from the University of Maine.

Ms. Pelletier has taught in higher education for nine years and keeps herself up-to-date by continuing to work per diem for Northern Maine Medical Center. She is working on becoming certified in simulation education. Professor Pelletier has been teaching nursing classes in northern Maine for over a decade and played a large role in expanding UMFK’s simulation lab.

She enjoys spending time with her family and going to her children’s sporting events. She likes snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, and hiking.

Nursing Resource Manager

Larry is the Nursing Resource Center Manager and Lab & Clinical Instructor for UMFK’s nursing program. He has been at UMFK for 10 years and prior to that, he was a charge nurse at Mercy Home on Eagle Lake. Larry also worked as a Med/Surg nurse for four years in Presque Isle. He earned his BSN from UMFK in 2006 and his MSN from Michigan State University in 2010.

Larry enjoys the great outdoors, spending much of his free time in the woods camping, fishing, hunting, and woodworking.