New employees join NMCC campus community
PRESQUE ISLE — With a new academic year under way, Northern Maine Community College has welcomed four faculty members to campus. The new instructors fill positions in the arts and sciences, nursing and allied health, and trade and technical occupations departments.
Frank Pytlak of Presque Isle is the new instructor for NMCC’s residential construction program. He replaces long-time faculty member Guy Jackson, who retired after 30 years of service to the college.
Pytlak graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle in 1985, earning his bachelor of arts degree in behavioral science. Since 1976, he has owned his own residential construction company, F. Pytlak Construction, Inc. Pytlak taught in the residential construction program at NMCC during the spring semester in 2004, and has been a substitute teacher in the Presque Isle and Caribou public school systems since 2009. He is a member of the NMCC residential construction program advisory committee, a board member of the Presque Isle Wesleyan Church, and has been a foster parent for many years.
•••••••••••••••••
Shelli Cronkhite of Westfield, a familiar face on the NMCC campus, has joined the arts and sciences department as a social sciences instructor. She replaces John Price, who retired this past summer after 32 years at the college.
Prior to making her transition to teaching full time, Cronkhite served as a counselor/student development specialist in the NMCC counseling office for nearly six years. In addition, she has been an adjunct instructor since 2009, teaching speech, technical communications, applied human relations and general psychology. Cronkhite graduated with a bachelor of arts in behavioral science from the University of Maine at Presque Isle in 2002, and obtained her master of science in school counseling from Husson University in 2010.
•••••••••••••••••
Sandy Pelletier of Fort Kent has also transitioned to a new role on the NMCC campus in the nursing and allied health department. Pelletier had served for two years as a nursing instructor at NMCC’s off-campus center in Madawaska. She has now assumed a full-time position as a nursing instructor on the Presque Isle campus.
Since 1999, Pelletier has held positions as an RN in various departments at Northern Maine Medical Center including intensive care/medical surgical, child/adolescent psychiatric, cardiac rehabilitation and as a community educator. She also has served as an adjunct nursing instructor for the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Pelletier graduated from the University of Maine at Fort Kent in 1994 with a bachelor of science degree in biology. She obtained her bachelor of science degree in nursing in 1998 from Husson University.
•••••••••••••••••
Joining the arts and sciences department as a communication instructor is Lynne Nelson Manion of Old Town. Nelson-Manion has been teaching social science and journalism classes at John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor since 2002. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Husson University in Bangor.
In 1989, Nelson-Manion graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in public relations and policy studies from Syracuse University in New York. She received her master of arts in communication/journalism in 1995 from the University of Maine at Orono, and in 2002 obtained her Ph.D. in history from UMO.
In addition to the four new faculty members, NMCC is also welcoming a familiar staff member to a new position. Johna Lovely has been selected to serve as the new counselor/student development specialist to work with campus TRiO services. Since 2001, Lovely has been a counselor/transfer specialist for NMCC. Lovely graduated with an associate degree in business administration from NMCC in 1994. She obtained her bachelor of science degree in psychology from the University of Maine in 2002.
