Faculty - Nursing

Chrystal, Chrys, is a native of Maine who received her Bachelor of Science of Nursing as well as her Master of Science in Nursing/Family Nurse Practitioner degree from Husson College. She has nearly 20 years of nursing experience. Her past roles have included bedside nursing in ICU, neurology, CCU, and Radiology. In the most recent past, she worked as a Nurse practitioner at a large cardiology practice. During that time she cared for acute as well as chronic cardiac patients, and assisted in establishing an Outpatient Congestive Heart Failure program including infusion therapy. Before leaving the practice in 2011, Chrys was the Clinical and Administrative Director of a very busy Cardiovascular Research Program. This included national as well as international research with research center such as Brigham and Women's, Harvard, and Duke University. Chrys is currently working on a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Gonzaga University.

Husson has encouraged and prepared me for the wonderful career that I have experienced so far. Now that I have been given the opportunity to be an Assistant Professor and Director of the Family and Community Nurse Practitioner track, I hope to inspire and prepare my students to take the next step and become the absolute best professionals they can while maintaining the "art" of nursing. I am married and have 2 grown daughters. I have one grandson and one granddaughter arriving very soon. My hobbies are my family, my dogs, knitting and quilting.

Beth received her BSN from Northeastern University, Masters Degrees in Adult Education and Nursing from the University of Southern Maine, and a PhD in Nursing and Disabilities Studies from the University of Maine. A nurse for over 30 years, she has worked in psychiatric nursing, ICU, med-surg, and inservice education and has taught pediatric and psychiatric nursing at both the ADN and BSN levels. Beth's areas of research and academic interest include quality of life and mental illness, nursing oral history, men in nursing, self-caring, and substance abuse in nurses. She works part time on the Child and Adolescent Unit at the Acadia Hospital.

I enjoy seeing students grow as individuals and as professionals. I maintain an open-door policy and welcome students stopping by to share thoughts, puzzles, and perspective. I am married to a librarian, and have two adult daughters. My personal interests include quilting, writing, scrapbooking, reading, and swimming.

Elisa Giaquinto received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Brenau University in Gainesville Georgia and her Master of Science in nursing from Georgia State University with a specialization in gerontology. In addition, Elisa studied social gerontology at Georgia State University and received a Certificate of Graduate Study in gerontology. While working as a clinical nurse specialist in gerontology, Elisa designed and directed an acute care medical unit for elders on Cape Cod, created a gerontology nurse resource program for acute care nurses, organized community based wellness clinics for seniors in residential retirement communities, designed and led an inpatient unit for community based elders with dementias, and helped a variety of hospitals in Georgia, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to create patterns of care delivery systems for frail acutely ill elders.

Elisa returned to school to explore the role of cultural values and systems of belief in the formation of health policy and their role in the structure of community life for older people. She earned a Master of Arts in anthropology from Brown University and continued on with doctoral studies where she examined the everyday life of older people and the relationships between social institutions, rural community life, social integration and independence in central Italy.
Elisa’s research interests continue to involve community institutions and their relationship to health and independence through the life course and specifically as they affect the lived experience of old age. Currently she is conducting ethnographic research in rural Nova Scotia.

Elisa has taught nursing, sociology, anthropology for Regis College, Lasell College and Pine Manor College in Massachusetts before joining Husson University and moving to Bangor Maine in the fall of 2011. She also has a home in Southwest Nova Scotia where she is active in the Gerontology Association of Nova Scotia and in her local community. She is an avid photographer and plein air painter.

Nancy Grover received her BSN from Bellevue School of Nursing at Hunter College in New York City, NY. She also has a Master's in Child, Adolescent and Family, Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from Yale University School of Nursing in New Haven, CT. Nancy, an Advanced Practice RN (APRN), is nationally certified as a child/adolescent and adult psychiatric mental health CS by ANCC. In addition to her part-time faculty position in the Husson College Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nursing Program, Nancy is employed at Community Health and Counseling Services in Bangor, Maine as an APRN in collaborative practice with psychiatrists. She also is actively involved in the community as a group leader, consultant and psychotherapist.

Mary Jude is proud of her Maine heritage – born and raised in a small central Maine town into a large, close-knit family. She received undergraduate degrees from the University of Maine at Augusta (ASN, 1975) and the University of the State of New York (BS/Nurse Practitioner, 1986), a certificate from the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks (Family Nurse Practitioner/Physician’s Assistant, 1983), a Master’s in Public Health from Loma Linda University (Loma Linda, California, 1992) and a Master’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Maine (2002).

Mary’s career has taken her from initial work as a Nurse Practitioner with the tribes of Maine at both the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy (Indian Township) reservations, to endocrinology and emergency medicine. She was the first FNP in Maine to develop her own private primary care practice – River City Healthcare – in 1997. Mary was an Assistant Professor at the University of Maine in the Graduate Nursing Program for several years, developing new coursework for FNP students and providing internship coordination for those students as well.

Since 2000, Mary developed and has successfully run a public health consulting practice where she uses her public health skills, and those of several close colleagues, to develop innovative approaches to public health issues facing the underserved residents of our state.

In 2002, Mary answered the call for a new challenge when the Department of Homeland Security begin funding public health programs focused on bioterrorism prevention and became the Tribal Bioterrorism and Infectious Disease Epidemiologist for the Maine Bureau of Health (now Maine CDC) and later went on to become the Director of the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness. She spent several years working for a large Federally Qualified Health Center as the Chief of Research and Development and was responsible for the development of a large public health dental clinic, a children’s mobile dental program, an integrated care model within a homeless health clinic and a clinic located in a subsidized housing project, in addition to volunteering as a National Health Service Corps Ambassador and, most recently, as a Hanley Health Disparities Ambassador.

Mary’s interest in the issues of health disparities in our state keep her constantly exploring methods to better identify and provide healthcare services to those most in need.

Dr. O’Neill earned a B.A. in Political Science at Castleton State College and a B.S. in Nursing at the University of the District of Columbia. She worked in a variety of health care settings and later earned dual Master’s degrees at Yale University in Nursing Management and Policy and Public Health. For the last fifteen years her focus has been advocacy for children. She was an Assistant Child Advocate for the State of Connecticut for eleven years investigating the circumstances of children and promoting responsive public policy. Dr. O’Neill earned a Ph.D. from Yale University in 2011. Her research interests include qualitative studies in public policy affecting children and people with disabilities. She is an active member of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center on Bioethics.

Nurses are uniquely situated to improve the health and wellbeing of the community. The art of nursing extends beyond direct comfort and care to the ability to inform health systems and public policy about the best ways to meet the needs of the public. I welcome the opportunity to introduce future nurses to their amazing power and potential.

A Maine native, Cynthia was a member of the first class of nursing students to be awarded a BSN from Husson University in 1986. She earned her MS from Arizona State University in the critical care track. She has 15+ years’ experience as a nurse educator and is working on her Certificate of Advanced Studies in Nursing Education. She has had 25+ years’ experience in critical care, vascular access education and medical-surgical nursing. She currently maintains a clinical practice in infusion therapy. Her professional interests are critical care and trauma, women and cardiac disease, infusion therapy, and vascular access.

Tommy Lasorda, Manager of the LA Dodgers, said, "The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a persons determination". So often students and prospective students entertain me with all the reasons why they can't be successful in their nursing program. They say, I have children to care for, I have to work full-time, I don't have the financial resources to pay for college, and/or I have a husband, mother, father, sick aunt, dog to care for and the housework, too! These words are uttered with conviction and sincerity. I usually respond to them with Tommy's words of wisdom and the story of my own struggle to complete my bachelors and master programs as a single mom with two small children and three part-time jobs. One of the things I have always loved about Husson is the small class size and family atmosphere that pervades the nursing program. The faculty and my peers were instrumental in my success as an undergraduate nursing student here at Husson, and I hope I provide the same support and nurturing to the students in my role as nursing faculty

Teresa Steele, an Advanced Practice RN (APRN), is board certified as an adult psychiatric mental health CS by ANCC. She is a professor and Director of Husson College's Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nursing Program. She has been instrumental in developing a home care psychiatric nursing program in the rural community. She is actively involved in policy making in the state consults with mental health agencies and is regionally recognized as an advocate for the mentally ill. Dr. Steele completed a phenomenological research study entitled "The Experience of Being a Psychiatric Nurse in the Rural Community." In 1997 she submitted and was granted federal funding from the Bureau of Health Professions to begin the Advanced Nurse Education program entitled "Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nursing Program" at Husson. In 2000 the program received a second federal grant from the BHPr to expand the Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nursing Program. Dr. Steele received a nursing diploma from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Portland, Maine and she has a BUS from the University of Maine. Teresa has a Master's in Education from the University of Maine and a Master's in Nursing from the University of Texas. She also has a Ph.D. in Nursing Science and Organizational Behavior from The Union Institute in Cincinnati Ohio.

Mary is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She received her Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing from Rutgers University in NJ and a Masters of Science in Nursing from Seton Hall University in NJ. Currently, she is enrolled in the Doctoral of Higher Education Program at UMO. While living in NJ, she worked in a variety of settings; Childrens Hospital of New Jersey, pediatric home care, and research in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). In 1997, she relocated with her family to Maine where she accepted a full-time position as a PNP provider at Penobscot Pediatrics. Mary continues to work there one day a week. In January 2003, she accepted the position of Assistant Professor at Husson in the Baccalaureate Nursing Program. In 2003 and 2004, Mary traveled to Honduras, Central America to provide health care to the local community. In June 2004, she was accompanied by three nursing students from Husson.

I have a wonderful husband, two energetic and thoughtful teenager daughters, and two spunky dogs. I enjoy pottery, reading, and bike riding. Dr. Suess is one of my favorite authors! "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." Martin Luther King