In the 2021–2022 school year, Milton welcomes 16 new faculty members, additions to academic departments across the Upper School as well as Cox Library, the Counseling Center, the Athletics Department, and the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) team.
Rachael Abernethy joins the English Department. Abernethy comes to Milton from La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, California, where she taught ninth- and tenth-grade English, advised the Black Student Union, and was an assistant varsity girls’ soccer coach. She received her bachelor’s degree in Black Studies from Amherst College, where she also studied Afro-Caribbean culture at the University of Havana. She received her master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jeanine Bell joins the staff of Cox Library. Bell received her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University, where she was a humanities fellow, and she attended the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies. While at Brandeis, Bell worked as a resource management assistant in the university library and served as the undergraduate representative for the East Asian Studies Department. She is fluent in conversational Japanese and volunteers as a tutor for English-language learners.
Lissa Blanchard joins the staff of the Upper School Counseling Center. Blanchard comes to Milton from Fuller Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts, where she has worked with children and families as an in-home therapy supervisor, in-home therapist, and partial hospitalization program case manager. Blanchard interned at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Compass School in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Blanchard is a licensed clinical social worker. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Curry College and her master’s in social work from Simmons College.
Jennifer Bonn joins the Athletics Department as the head athletic trainer. Bonn comes to Milton from Babson College, where she worked as associate director of athletic performance, an athletic trainer, and approved clinical instructor. She is also a first aid/CPR/AED instructor for the American Red Cross. Bonn received her bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Springfield College and her M.B.A. in sports management from Nichols College.
Mulian Chen joins the Modern Languages Department as a Chinese teacher. Chen comes from Keystone Academy in Beijing, China, where she worked as a primary and secondary school admission counselor as well as an advisor, community culture committee member, service-learning committee member, Chinese national curriculum integration committee member, and dorm parent. She previously taught Chinese at the Park School and the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy in Middlebury, Vermont. Chen received her bachelor’s degree in teaching Chinese as a foreign language from East China Normal University in Shanghai and her master’s degree in education, human development, and psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Shannon Copeland joins the faculty of the Science Department. Copeland previously worked as an adjunct physics instructor at Southern Connecticut State University. He has also taught physics at Immaculate High School in Danbury, Connecticut, Notre Dame High School in West Haven, Connecticut, Kimball Union Academy, Xavier High School in Middletown, Connecticut, Trinity-Pawling School, and Forman School. He received his bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Connecticut and his master’s degree in physics education from the University of Virginia.
Sarah Jacobs joins the Science Department. Jacobs comes to Milton from the Dana Hall School, where she worked as an upper school science teacher, head coach of ice hockey and junior-varsity softball, and as co-head of AWARE (Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere). Prior to working at Dana Hall, Jacobs was a civil project engineer at AECOM. She received her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Northeastern University and her master’s degree in science education from Boston University.
Charlotte Killiam joins the Computer Science Department. Killiam comes to Milton from the Walnut Hill School, where she worked as a math teacher. She has also worked as a tutor with the Summit Educational Group, and the head of the senior camp riding program at Camp Treetops. Killiam received her bachelor’s degree in statistics and data science from Yale University.
Matthew Lawlor will provide sabbatical coverage in the Athletics Department. Lawlor previously served as the director of athletics at Brewster Academy, where he has also taught in the school’s social-emotional learning program, served as president of the Lakes Region League, head boys’ varsity basketball coach, and as a member of the NEPSAC Executive Board of Directors. Prior to Brewster Academy, Lawlor was director of athletics at Chase Collegiate School and worked as the athletic facilities coordinator and director of summer programs at the Loomis-Chaffee School. Lawlor received his bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education from Springfield College and his master’s degree in physical education from Central Connecticut State University.
Melissa Lawlor is Milton’s new director of equity and inclusion. Lawlor comes to Milton from Brewster Academy, where she was the director of equity and inclusion. Lawlor previously worked as an English and psychology teacher and associate director of college counseling at Brewster. Prior to Brewster, she was an English teacher and advisor at Millbrook School; an online producer for Care.com; and a producer at WGBH-TV. Lawlor is the co-founder of the Network for Independent School Equity (NISE), a regional affinity group dedicated to the professional development of faculty of color and LGBTQ+ faculty at independent schools in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Lawlor received her bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from Amherst College and her master’s degree from the Middlebury College Bread Loaf School of English.
Maureen Long joins the Math Department. Long previously worked as a math teacher at George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the faculty inclusion committee and a dorm parent. Prior to George School, Long taught math at Hawken School, Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, and Lawrenceville School. Long received her bachelor’s degree in science in mathematics from Bucknell University and her master’s degree in engineering and mathematical sciences from Johns Hopkins University.
Alexis Lund joins the Math Department. She comes to Milton from St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, Oregon, where she taught algebra, physics and engineering, robotics, United States history, world history, and history of modern Europe. She founded and served as the head coach of the St. Mary’s robotics team. Prior to St. Mary’s, Lund taught math and history at Dawson County High School in Glendive, Montana, and was a student teacher at Helena High School in Helena, Montana. Lund received her bachelor’s degree in science from Montana State University, an equity certificate for school leaders from Lewis & Clark College, and her master’s degree in education curriculum and instruction and social studies from Concordia University.
Trevor Margraf joins the English Department. Margraf comes to Milton from Philadelphia, where he taught English and Composition at the University of the Arts, Community College of Philadelphia, and Temple University, where he is a Ph.D. candidate in English. His dissertation, “The Novel and the School,” analyzes the representation of education in contemporary Anglophone literature, focusing on novels (and novelists) invested in aesthetic education as a form of political education. Margraf received his bachelor’s degree in English from Bates College. Prior to graduate school, he was a New York City Teaching Fellow in secondary English education.
Tina Rychalsky returns to Milton’s Modern Languages Department. Rychalsky previously worked at Milton in 2019 as a long-term French substitute. Rychalsky served as the program coordinator and director of AuPair Weekend at Bunker Hill Community College, a program tailored to foreign visa students earning required college credits at schools across the United States. She has also worked as a tutor in the Town of Milton’s French Immersion program and as a pre-Kindergarten teacher at Kid Connection in Winchester, Massachusetts. Rychalsky received her Québec diploma of collegial studies in languages (French, English, Spanish, and German) from CEGEP of St-Jérôme and her baccalaureate in early childhood and elementary teaching from Université du Québec en Outaouais.
Jada Sullivan-Brito joins the English Department as a teaching fellow in the University of Pennsylvania Resident Masters in Teaching Program. Sullivan-Brito received their bachelor’s degree in English literature from Tufts University, where they were a writing fellow at the StAAR Center and worked as a space-management receptionist on Tufts’ Medford campus.
Jessica Wang joins the Math Department as a teaching fellow in the University of Pennsylvania Resident Masters in Teaching Program. Wang received her bachelor’s degree in science and economics from Duke University, where she also completed a post-baccalaureate secondary teacher preparation program in mathematics. She was a math student teacher at Riverside High School in Durham, North Carolina, and has previously taught at the Pyramid Academy for Gifted Youth, worked as a freelance teacher and tutor in Hong Kong, and was a senior business analyst at Capital One.