New Year, New Faces
Thacher welcomes a roster of talented new faculty to campus.
The 2016-17 school year is solidly under way—teams are jelling, classes are diving deep into the curriculum, dorm communities are fully settled—and these faculty faces have quickly gone from fresh to familiar over the past month or so.
But for those outside the community or who are still getting to know these fantastic additions to the Thacher faculty, here’s a bit of background on each of them. We’re thrilled to welcome them to Thacher!
Tommy Hattori
Tommy is joining Thacher as a sabbatical replacement for Theana Snyder; he’ll teach mathematics and coach football and boys’ lacrosse while he’s here. Hailing from Pace Academy in Atlanta, Tommy was a class dean, director of global leadership, a math and science teacher, and a football and lacrosse coach. Before that, Tommy taught and coached up the coast at his alma mater, Stevenson. Born and raised in Monterey, California, Tommy attended UC Berkeley, where he also played lacrosse. He looks forward to returning to the West Coast and working and living with the amazing students at Thacher.
Meg Harper
Meg joins Thacher for the fall trimester as an Anacapa Scholar and English teacher. She comes to us from University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland, and has previously held teaching appointments at Georgia State University, The Ohio State University, and others. She holds a BA in classics and English from Florida State University and a PhD in English from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A Yeats scholar, among other things, she brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to the classroom, much of which she has distilled into published books, chapters, papers, and lectures.
Meg Harper
Meg joins Thacher for the fall trimester as an Anacapa Scholar and English teacher. She comes to us from University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland, and has previously held teaching appointments at Georgia State University, The Ohio State University, and others. She holds a BA in classics and English from Florida State University and a PhD in English from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A Yeats scholar, among other things, she brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to the classroom, much of which she has distilled into published books, chapters, papers, and lectures.
Luis Hernández
Luis joins the Language Department as a part-time teacher of Spanish. A native of Michoacán, Mexico, Luis earned a BA and MA in Spanish at UCSB. In addition to his work at Thacher, Luis teaches at Santa Barbara City College and has previously taught at Cate. He resides in Oxnard.
Tracey Williams Sutton
Tracey is the new director of the theater program. In addition to the fall play and winter musical, Tracey will teach the freshman Intro to Arts course as well as Performance Studies. Tracey brings an extraordinary array of experience as an actress, singer, and director in theater performances in Ojai and around the country. Her list of credits include touring productions of The Sound of Music (Maria), West Side Story (Maria), as well as Phantom of the Opera (Christine). This summer she directed and starred in the Ojai Arts Center’s production of Annie Get Your Gun. Tracey also helped establish the drama program across town at Villanova, where she led the Fine Arts Department for many years.Robin Walter CdeP 2008
Robin, who graduated from Thacher in 2008, returns to campus to teach Spanish, picking up the sections vacated by Jael Hernández-Vásquez as he turns his full attention to Latin in Aaron Snyder’s sabbatical absence. She will also work in the Horse Department and help coach lacrosse. Some might remember Robin’s visit as an Anacapa Scholar, in which she shared her experience from her uber-EDT, an epic trip across the Great Plains on horseback that yielded a film, some beautiful photography, and a deep understanding of America’s grasslands. She’s also taught English in Morocco and India and traveled extensively in Latin America.Kamala Qalandar
Kamala, who just completed the defense of her PhD dissertation in mechanical engineering at UCSB, will be teaching mathematics and programming classes here at Thacher. Her work at UCSB involved research on designing energy efficient microsystems, a number of patents, and a lot of lab time. In addition to teaching engineering classes at UCSB, Kamala previously taught math at Oak Grove, where her husband Bodhi is the athletic director and sons Kanaan (5) and Jitari (10) are students. The Qalandars live in Ojai. She’s excited to not only be sharing her love of mathematics with Thacher students, but also to be introducing them to the fundamentals of programming and robotics.Mark Zalin
Mark joins us for the fall trimester to lead our volleyball program. He brings a tremendous wealth of experience, having served as an administrator and coach at Harvard-Westlake, Cranbrook, Santa Catalina, and Palm Valley schools. He also coached at UC Berkeley and with the United States Volleyball Association, where he was on the 1992 Olympic Bronze Medal coaching staff. He has also worked at NCAA sponsored seminars and clinics and at skills camps throughout the country, both as a clinician and speaker, as well as offering his own camps, clinics, and summer training programs. Mark’s permanent residence is in Rancho Mirage, where he lives with his wife, Stephanie. Mark will be living on campus during the fall and looks forward to getting to know everyone and becoming a part of the community.More About Thacher
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A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
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