STA News
New Faculty and Staff
Communications Associate Blake Brown joins St. Albans from the Montessori School of Raleigh, N.C., where he was marketing and digital media manager. He previously worked as assistant director of graduate admissions at Elon University and as a social media marketing strategist and covid-response team member at Misericordia University. Brown received his M.Ed. in higher education and student affairs from the University of South Carolina and his B.S. in business administration and B.A. in psychology from Guilford College, where he was also captain of the tennis team.
Will Brown, who previously taught history in the Upper School as a fellow while pursuing his master’s in education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, returns to teach Form I history, coach JV soccer, and join the dorm faculty. Brown received his A.B. in history (magna cum laude) from Princeton, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He left St. Albans to pursue his M.Phil. in modern British history from the University of Cambridge, where he wrote his dissertation on Winston Churchill’s later wartime speeches. This past year, he taught history and coached JV soccer at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Incoming Form II English teacher Rachel L. Gayer has thirty years of experience in education, serving most recently as assistant principal of the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School’s elementary/middle school campus. Gayer, who received her B.A. in English from Wesleyan and her master’s in education from Stanford, spent much of her career at the Maret School as a humanities teacher and advisor, sixth-grade dean, and drama teacher. She previously taught in the Palo Alto and Los Altos, Calif., school districts. 
Head Hockey Coach Timothy Graham is the hockey director at the St. James sports complex in Springfield, Va., where he has managed multiple youth travel teams and year-round clinics and camps for players of all ages. Graham’s 25-year coaching career includes six years as an instructor at Dynamic Skating Camps in Boston, Mass., five years and multiple seasons as head coach of the Washington Little Capitals 11U and 12U teams, and multiple seasons as head skills coach for the Virginia Statesmen and the Reston Raiders youth hockey programs. Graham graduated from Middlebury College, where he had four visits to the NCAA Division III Frozen Four and participated in two national championships.
Thomas H. Joyce joins St. Albans as a Form A math and homeroom teacher and a Lower School coach. For the past five years, Joyce has taught algebra, coached middle school squash and lacrosse, and advised eighth graders at the Landon School. He previously chaired the middle school Math Department, taught high school math, served as an assistant high school dean, led service trips, coached basketball, and headed the dorm at the American School in Switzerland. He has also taught at St. Mary’s Episcopal Day School in Tampa, the Indian Mountain School and Franklin Academy in Connecticut, and the Scarborough, Maine, school system. Joyce received a B.A. in communication from the University of Maryland, an M.A. in teaching from the University of South Florida, and an M.Ed. from Teachers College at Columbia University.
Our 43rd writer in residence, A.J. Rodriguez received his B.A. in English and American studies from Cornell and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Oregon. Rodriguez’s short fiction has appeared in Salamander, New England Review, The Common, Passages North, New Ohio Review, and other publications. He has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Kerouac Project. He has won numerous literary awards, including the Kinder/Crump Award for Short Fiction from Pleiades, the CRAFT Flash Fiction Award, the Crazyhorse Fiction Prize, and the University of Oregon’s Logsdon Fiction Award. He has taught at GrubStreet in Boston, Johnson & Wales University in Providence and as a graduate teaching fellow at the University of Oregon.
Hank Speights ’07 is returning to St. Albans as assistant director of the Skip Grant Program, head wrestling coach, head JV football coach, and assistant track-and-field coach. Speights attended Trinity College in Connecticut, where he played varsity football and was a member of Trinity’s undefeated 2008 NESCAC team. Speights then embarked upon a career in high performance athletics, working his way up from college intern to a full-time position as assistant head coach at Whitfield Athletix in San Diego, Calif., the nation’s leading football quarterback academy for NFL, college, and secondary school quarterbacks. After earning an MBA from George Washington University, Speights managed all business operations at a local start-up physical therapy clinic while coaching part-time at St. Albans.
Colleen Sullivan will become one of the two theater directors of our coordinate NCS-St. Albans Theater Program. As an assistant professor in the College of Performing Arts at Chapman University, Sullivan designed and taught courses in acting styles, Shakespeare, and directing. As a professorial lecturer in the Department of Performing Arts at American University, Sullivan taught classes on voice and speech, movement, and acting for non-majors. She also mentored independent studies, selected and directed plays and musicals, and invited visiting artists to work with students. Sullivan helped found two residential summer programs for student actors and previously served as associate director of education at the American Shakespeare Center. She received her M.F.A. in theater from Sarah Lawrence College, an M.Lit. in Shakespeare and performance from Mary Baldwin College, an M.A. in education from Boise State University, and a B.S. in accounting and information systems from Virginia Tech.
Incoming Upper and Lower School science teacher and track coach Bryan Taylor has taught science and math (including physics, computer science, robotics, engineering, algebra, and middle school math) at St. Anselm’s Abbey School since 2003 and served as the school’s Science Department chair for the past ten years. He was also long-time head cross country and track and field coach at St. Anselm’s. Taylor received his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Colorado and his M.P.S., with a concentration in mathematics education, from George Washington University. For four years, he was a Fellow for the Advancement of Mathematics Education at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Upper School Choral Director Frank Van Atta comes to St. Albans from Germantown Academy, in Fort Washington, Pa., where he directed the upper and middle school choirs, served as music/vocal director for musicals, and doubled participation in the choral program in his first year. He was also co-artistic director of the Commonwealth Youthchoirs in Philadelphia. Van Atta previously worked as director of upper school choirs and grade-ten dean at the Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia and as a dean and director of middle and upper school music at the Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, Mass. In addition, he has directed music at Trinity Episcopal Church in Ambler, Penn., and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Milton, Mass. Van Atta received his bachelor’s in music from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he focused on choral music education and organ performance, and his master’s in choral conducting from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music.
Lower School Academic Dean Catherine Welch comes to St. Albans from St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School, where as a middle school learning specialist and faculty coach she developed academic programming and mentored teachers. She previously chaired the pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade Language Arts and Social Studies Department at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, taught seventh- and eighth-grade English at Sidwell Friends School, and served as a dean, advisory coordinator, and English teacher at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn. Welch received her B.A. in English from Kenyon College and her M.S. in teaching from Pace University.
Head Basketball Coach Sean Whalen brings to St. Albans his experience as a high school, collegiate, and professional coach. Whalen led the Potomac School to MAC and Virginia State championships in 2008. He then coached the Algerian National Team to unprecedented success, winning the Algerian Club championship and African Cup championship as head coach of the professional team Groupement Sportif des Petroliers. Whalen returned to the DMV as an assistant coach at Howard University, where for four years he was responsible for opponent scouting, video analysis, and analytics. Most recently Sean has been the head coach at Washington International School, leading WIS to its first PVAC conference championship in 15 years. Whalen graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he helped his team to a #11 national ranking at the NCAA Division II level.
Three newcomers will be helping us out temporarily. Local curator teacher and multi-media visual artist Cory Stowers will teach Upper School three-dimensional art this fall, while Madeline Stratton remains on maternity leave. Stowers has taught digital journalism and digital media arts at Somerset Prep and has served as executive director of DC Murals, a documentary project focused on the preservation and presentation of archival materials related to 700 local murals. With Doug Errett on sabbatical this fall, Mackay Pierce will be teaching AP Environmental Science and coaching cross-country, and Carter Tate ’18, who also helps coach lacrosse, will teach chemistry. Pierce received his B.S. in environmental studies and sociology from Roanoke College and a master’s in natural resources from Virginia Tech. He recently worked at the Rachel Carson Council, where he helped develop a fellowship program to support student projects related to sustainability, climate, and environmental justice. Tate received his B.A. in neuroscience on a pre-med track at Amherst College, where he also played lacrosse. He is currently completing a special master’s program in physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University.
Located in Washington D.C., St. Albans School is a private, all boys day and boarding school. For more than a century, St. Albans has offered a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4 through 12. While our students reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievements, as an Episcopal school we place equal emphasis upon moral and spiritual education.