NMH Adds Eleven New Faculty Members

MOUNT HERMON, MA—Eleven talented faculty members, some new to the school, some long connected to the community, have joined Northfield Mount Hermon School for the 2007-08 school year. They are Allison Boyd, an intern with the Center for International Education; Laura Christiansen, a chemistry teacher; Nicole Derr, an English teacher; Colin Fredericks, a mathematics teacher; James J. Greenwood, director of multicultural education, associate dean of students, and class parent for sophomore students; Jing Liu, a Chinese teacher; Annie Neill, director of NMH’s service-learning and outreach program; and Christine Sands, a chemistry teacher.

Administrative faculty members Jesse Bardo and Yocelin Gonzalez were hired as new admission counselors, and Winnie Ganshaw moved into the new position of chaplaincy associate and teacher of religious studies. She is teaching a class on eastern religion.

“NMH has a long history of attracting to our faculty individuals, including these latest additions, who are not only excellent teachers but also exceptional human beings,” says Thomas K. Sturtevant, NMH head of school. “As teachers, coaches, dorm parents, mentors and role models, they truly understand what it takes to inspire and support our students.”

Allison Boyd, an NMH graduate of the class of 2003, recently earned her bachelor’s degree from Marist College with majors in public relations and communication studies, and minors in music and global studies. She worked at NMH’s summer school for two years, and studied abroad in Costa Rica while at NMH, and in Florence, Italy, while in college. Boyd also has traveled in Russia.

Laura Christiansen will teach chemistry and lead a trip to Costa Rica this year. A graduate of Grinnell College and a Rosenfield Scholar with a degree in biology, Christiansen received her Masters from Antioch University of New England this year in environmental science with a concentration in environmental education, where she had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Costa Rica learning about environmental issues. She previously taught biology at all levels at Trinity-Pawling School in New York where she also served as a dorm parent, faculty advisor to the yearbook, and squash and lacrosse coach. Her husband John is a math teacher at NMH.

Nicole Derr joins the English Department after a year with the NMH Admission Office. A graduate in English and Education from Bowdoin College, Derr is pursuing her masters in English at Breadloaf College. A Gibbons Fellowship recipient while at Bowdoin, she developed an interactive and instructional website aimed at preventing plagiarism. Derr has served as the director of the Carolina Day School after-school program; she has taught English at Concord High School and at the Taft School summer program, and ESL at NMH Summer Session. Derr has worked with the Safe Passage Program/Camino Seguro in Guatemala City, a program designed to help children living in and around the Guatemala City garbage dump break out of poverty through education. Her husband Travis teaches math at NMH.

Colin Fredericks, a 1996 graduate of NMH, returns as a member of the math department. Fredericks completed his undergraduate and masters in physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and recently received his doctorate in physics from the University of Massachusetts. His thesis focused on characterizing student behavior in online homework systems; he also helped create a professional development program for high school science and math teachers aimed at improving their use of technology in the classroom. Colin has served as a teaching assistant and instructor at both the University of Massachusetts and RPI. He is the owner of Valent Games, which has a dozen or so works currently in publication.

James J. Greenwood comes to NMH this year from the Williston Northampton School where he served as a history teacher, assistant director of admission, dorm parent, and 9th grade class advisor. He was active on the school’s diversity committee, organizing diversity trainings and presentations for students and faculty, and developed a guidebook for faculty use in facilitating diversity discussions with students. At NMH, he will serve as director of multicultural education, an associate dean of students, and 10th grade class parent. A graduate of Kenyon College, Greenwood received his MAT from Brown University. This summer, he attended a leadership conference in New Zealand and the Klingenstein Summer Institute sponsored by Teachers College, Columbia University. Active throughout his career in diversity work, Greenwood has presented workshops both locally and nationally on diversity, on developing student leadership, and on facilitating student discussion and debate around issues of equity and social justice.

Jing Liu joins the World Languages Department this year as a teacher of Chinese. Liu recently completed her EdD in higher education at Regent University where she also earned her MEd in TESOL. Liu studied at the undergraduate and masters levels at Henan University where she received degrees in Japanese, and Chinese. An instructor of Japanese at Henan University, she served as a Chinese instructor at Lee University where she taught courses in Chinese language and culture. Liu also is a web designer with HTML expertise.

Annie Neill, a clinical social worker, returns to NMH as a house director and director of NMH’s service learning and outreach program. A 1997 graduate of NMH, Neill earned a bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College and received her masters from University of Connecticut, School of Social Work. In addition to her work with families and children, Neill has served as a parent liaison for development and annual fund associate for the Salisbury School. Her husband Jeff, also a graduate of the class of 1997, is an English teacher at NMH.

Christine Sands joins the NMH faculty as a chemistry teacher. A Presidential Scholar, Sands received her degree in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire, and her MEd with a certificate in biology and chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. Sands has spent the past two years in England at the TASIS American School where she taught all levels of chemistry including AP. While at TASIS, Sands led two service trips to Romania. Prior to teaching in the UK, Sands was a member of the science faculty at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, where she taught chemistry and biology and served over her tenure as Learning Skills Summer Session Director and Community Service Director. While at Mercersburg, Sands incorporated Data Studio computer data collection into the chemistry and biology curriculums and cooperatively developed the curriculum for a newly offered honors chemistry course. Sands also chaperoned a two week ecology trip to Ecuador, including the Galapagos, the Amazon basin, and the Andes cloud forest.

Contact: Kate Snyder, 413-498-3357 or ksnyder@nmhschool.org.

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