Michelle Chicora joined the Health Careers Program as an Instructor at Schuylkill Technology Centers-North campus in 2015. Mrs. Chicora is a Registered Nurse. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1996 from Bloomsburg University and her Master's in Education from Temple University in 2020. Mrs. Chicora’s work experience includes charge nurse and supervisor at Genesis Schuylkill Center, Rest Haven Schuylkill County Nursing Home, and Tremont Health and Rehabilitation. During her employment at Rest Haven Schuylkill County Nursing Home Mrs. Chicora worked as an Instructor for the Nurse Aide Training Program and the Infection Control Coordinator. She left Rest Haven in 2004 to expand her experience in Infection Control at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. In 2007 she started as the Infection Prevention Coordinator at the former Good Samaritan Hospital in Pottsville until leaving to work as the Instructor for the Adult Nurse Aide Training Program at Schuylkill Technology Centers.

Mrs. Chicora believes it is important students understand that completing the Health Careers program will be the beginning of their learning. Health Careers is a dynamic field that changes with new technologies and treatments and student learning will be life-long. She feels her role in the classroom is to educate, mentor, and advise students throughout the learning process. She shares with students her experiences as a registered nurse to enhance their understanding of the material. Instruction is interactive. Many of the tasks that students in the Health Careers programs need to learn are healthcare provider skills that they have the opportunity to practice in the lab. Mrs. Chicora wants students to understand the importance of professionalism and communication in Health Careers.  Both are taught as part of the curriculum but a deeper understanding is achieved by modeling these behaviors and building assessment of these behaviors into the grading system with Work Ethics grades. Learning is also a life-long process for Mrs. Chicora and she continuously works to improve the program curriculum to provide students with valuable, relevant, and effective material and techniques to enhance their learning.