Please Join Us In Welcoming…..

Jennifer Bonanno has joined the Admissions office on an interim basis as Assistant Director for Grades K-4. Parent of three Hackley students, she started the 2011-12 academic year as Executive Vice President of the HPA, but left that post to help out as a leave replacement teacher in the 4th grade, and subsequently in the Middle School math department. A Dean’s List Bowdoin graduate, Jenn earned a law degree from The American University, Washington College of Law and practiced regulatory law and provided marketing guidance for companies releasing FDA regulated products. Her appreciation of Hackley’s Lower School is clearly evident in her Summer 2012 Hackley Review article, “Hackley Lower School: It’s Worth the Fancy Pants.”

Jane Dean has joined the Lower School faculty as Assistant Teacher in third grade. Jane has a Masters in Education. She also holds certification in childhood education 1-6 as well as in Special Education. Jane has taught students in all Lower School grades, K-5. She and her family moved to the US from the UK several years ago – originally to Calfornia where she worked as a facilitator for a school based ethics-based program titled Roots and Wings. Just before coming to Hackley, Jane worked as an Assistant Teacher in the Chappaqua School District.

Rick Diaz is our new Lower School Art Teacher for grades 3 and 4. Rick holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School of Visual Arts and is also certified in Art Education. Rick has been an art educator since 1995, working in various venues such as the 92nd Street Y, Ethical-Culture-Fieldston, Little Red School House and a variety of public schools. He has also served as an educational consultant for various museums and as a museum educator in Los Angeles and Pasadena.

David Duerr joins the faculty, teaching Middle School French as well as AP French in the Upper School. David comes to us most recently from Bay Trail Middle School in Penfield, NY and previously from Shorewood High School in Milwaukee, WI. In his nine years of teaching he has taught almost every level of French from seventh grade through high school and computers to grade six. Prior to teaching, David worked as a senior executive in marketing. He holds a BA in French from Hamilton College and an MA in Education from Cardinal Stritch University.

Amanda Estevez-Kraus, our newest E.E. Ford Fellow, comes to Hackley with a B.A. from Willliams College, where she double-majored in Biology and Art History. At Williams, she was head tour guide for the Admissions, organizing the entire fleet of student guides; she also served as a TA in Biology, working with students in courses from the introductory Bio 101 course up through the 300-level Microbiology course, and as a TA in Photography. Amanda will teaching Biology and Cell Biology, and will be working in the Communications office. She loves to travel and cook, and looks forward to teaching her Biology students how to pickle vegetables.

Kristina Flores joins the Second Grade team as Assistant Teacher. Kristina holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Laguardia Community College and is currently enrolled in a graduate program for Early Childhood Education and Special Education at Lehman College. Kristina comes to us from Riverdale Country School, where she was an Assistant Teacher in first and second grades for the past four years.

Susan Kehoe is a new Lead Teacher in Second Grade. Susan holds a Masters Degree in Elementary Education from Lesley College, and she is Certified by NY State to teach grades nursery through sixth. Susan began her teaching career as a fourth grade teacher in the Farmington Public Schools in 1989.. Since then, she has taught in a variety of settings, both public and private, and she has worked with children from pre-school through sixth grade. Most recently, Susan worked at Browning in Manhattan, where she taught third grade.

Jennifer McGowan joins the Upper School Math faculty this year, and will be teaching Algebra and Geometry. Jennifer is a graduate of Hamilton College, where she majored in Math and captained the 2008 National Championship Women’s Lacrosse team. She comes to Hackley from St. Andrew’s School in Delaware, where she worked with former Hackley Upper School Dean and teacher Tom Fritz, who sent Math Department Chair a note saying something like “Boy do I have a find for you.” Diana agreed; she had already received Jennifer’s resume, noted their common Hamilton background, and the fact that she and Jennifer shared the same departmental mentor. Jennifer is also an accomplished coach who was named Delaware Coach of the Year by the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association for her outstanding work with the St. Andrew’s lacrosse team (read more about it here). At Hackley, she will coach JV Girls’ Soccer and JV Girls’ Lacrosse. Raised in Vermont, she spent summers helping run her family’s gymnastics camp and can literally turn cartwheels around the rest of us.

 

Edward Mills has joined Hackley’s team in a new administrative position, Director of Auxiliary Programs. In this role, he will coordinate different areas of campus life including summer programs and busing operations. Most recently Edward lived and worked in Paris as Academic Director at the International School of Management where he coordinated and managed 60+ MBA and doctoral seminars in New York, Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo. He managed a global curriculum of face-to face and online courses for over 400 students from 90+ nationalities and launched the ISM Journal of International Business. In addition to his entrepreneurial experience, Edward also worked consistently with faculty from a variety of backgrounds to create a shared sense of purpose and community. Prior to joining ISM, Edward worked as a Program Assistant at Duke University and as an English Language teacher at St. Paul’s British International School of Warsaw. Educated at Northfield Mount Hermon School, Edward went on to earn a BA in Geology at Skidmore College and an MA in Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

This year we welcome Brigid Moriarty to tenth and eleventh grade English. A graduate of Fordham’s BA and MA programs in English and from Burr and Burton Academy before that, Brigid taught grades ten and eleven at Northfield Mount Hermon, was a writing tutor at Fordham, and coached cross country and track both there and at Burr and Burton.

Dr. Mark D. Nelson comes to Hackley as Director of Performing Arts. Mark earned his B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with honors in Music from Yale University. After earning an M.M. in Music Composition and Theory from the University of Illinois, he went on to take an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University, and has also studied Ethnomusicology and Educational Leadership at Wesleyan University and Harvard University respectively. He has taught at Lake Forest College, Wabash College, and Wesleyan University, and has served as Chair of the Performing Arts Departments at Hawken School in Cleveland, Ohio; Ross School in East Hampton, New York; and The Webb Schools in Claremont, California. He has received numerous awards for outstanding teaching, has published many scholarly articles, and has composed and performed many of his own musical works. Most impressive were the many tributes we heard in our reference calls to former supervisors and colleagues. We are very pleased to welcome Mark to our community.

Mary Stapleton joins the Third Grade team as Assistant Teacher. Mary has her Master’s in Childhood literacy from St. Thomas Aquinas College and she is certified to teach K-fifth grades. Mary was an Assistant Teacher in grades 1-4 in Freeport Long Island, grades 6-8 in Valley Stream, L.I. and she substituted K-6 in the South Orangetown and Nyack School Districts. Most recently, Mary served as a leave replacement for a teacher on maternity leave in the second grade of the South Orangetown District.

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