Parade Chairman, LCDR Sheila Almendras-Flaherty

Sheila Almendras-Flaherty

Lieutenant Commander Sheila Almendras-Flaherty is an Active Duty Navy Nurse posted to United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. She was born and raised in Queens, NY by immigrant Peruvian parents. She graduated from New York University with her Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing in 2001 and joined the U.S. Navy as a Registered Nurse. She is completing her Master's Degree in Pediatrics at Stony Brook University as an Advance Practice Registered Nurse for her future role as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner. She is married and has four children 8, 11, 19 and 20.

She attended Officer Indoctrination School in Newport, Rhode Island in August 2001. Her career command duty assignments have been at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, the Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune and the Naval Air Station Branch Medical Clinic Oceana. She has served in various management positions as a Division Officer, Clinic Manager, Department Head and covering Senior Nurse Executive. She operated as a Team Leader for the Chief of Naval Operations 2010 Pandemic Flu Exercise. She served in Operation Unified Response Haiti 2010 and Continuing Promise 2011 onboard the USNS Comfort, where she earned her Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer (SWMDO) Qualification. She was hand-selected to represent the Navy Nurse Corps at the White House, post Haiti earthquake disaster relief.

Her awards include the Navy Commendation Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal and the Humanitarian Service Medal. She has also earned the Stony Brook School of Nursing Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Academic Excellence Award for Clinical Practice and the LI NAPNAP Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Student Scholarship Award.