Welcome, New Hopkins Faculty!

Matt Ferreira

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Wilmington, Massachusetts.
What is your academic background? After graduating from Wilmington High School, I attended Springfield College for my bachelor’s degree. Then I attended West Virginia University for my master’s degree.
What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? This year I will be purely working in the athletic training room taking care of all the medical needs of the campus community.

What are some of your personal hobbies or interests?
I like running and hiking in my spare time. I just completed my first half marathon in June.

Kate Bashaw
Where did you grow up? I’m actually from Connecticut. I grew up just down the road from New Haven in Wilton.
What is your academic background? I attended Gettysburg College where I earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in Spanish. After working for a number of years in the college admission and college advising fields, I completed my master’s degree in human services administration from Wake Forest University.
What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? I am a College Counselor working with juniors and seniors in their college process in addition to advising a group of students.
What are some of your personal hobbies or interests? I enjoy being active: running and working out. I like to read when I have time and love any activity by the ocean.

Hughes Fitzgerald

Where did you grow up? I was born in Bridgeport and spent most of my childhood between
Bridgeport and Stratford. Needless to say, I consider Connecticut — and now New Haven — to be home!
What is your academic background? I graduated from a relatively small public high school just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina before attending Yale. While at Yale, I majored in African American studies with a focus on 20th-century African American literature. I’ve also spent the past year in St. Louis at Washington
University, studying literature even more!
What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? This year, I will be teaching two sections of English 10 and two sections of “Heroic Figures in Shakespeare” this fall. As English 10 continues into the spring, I will also be teaching a poetry elective that I am very excited to teach!
What are some of your personal hobbies or interests? I love art — specifically poetry and literature! I love being able to engage with art that not only encourages us to think critically, but that which implores us to feel deeply. I also love music — jazz, R&B, hip-hop. Outside of art and music, I find peace getting involved within the community. Whether it is joining movements for social justice or volunteering at the local soup kitchen, giving back to the community is one of the most important things to me!

Margaret Coons

What are some of your personal hobbies or interests? I’m a lifelong choral singer, and my husband
and I sing in the Trinity Choir of Adults & Girls (with several Hopkins students). I’m also an avid knitter, and I love staying active outdoors — hiking, running, swimming, and kayaking.
What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? I will be teaching Atlantic Communities 1 and 2, coaching Junior School cross country and Varsity Track, and advising the Class of 2027.
What is your academic background? I majored in history at Yale, falling in love with both research and New Haven in the process, and later got my master’s degree in the teaching of social studies from Teachers College at Columbia University. I’m also a proud alum of Pembroke College, Cambridge and a huge proponent of my students taking the opportunity to study and live abroad whenever possible.

Jeff Leng

What will you be teaching/advising this year at Hopkins? I’ll be teaching Algebra 1 and Algebra 2, and advising ninth grade.
What inspired you to pursue teaching? My interest in teaching started when I was in college in Singapore. The scholarship from the Singapore government covers tuition, dorm, and some basic living expenses. To supplement my spending (for things like movies on the weekend, trendy clothes etc.), I became a tutor for middle school and high school students, in math and physics. With my help they did well in their O-level and A-level exams (under the British system), and got into their desired junior colleges and colleges. Some of them kept contact with me long after their graduation even as they worked into their careers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Dubai, New York, etc.
What is your academic background? I have both my bachelor and master’s degree in business. I did my master’s degree at Columbia University.

Courtney Jaser

What is your academic background? I have a bachelor’s degree in international development and social change, a master’s degree in human rights, and a master’s degree in library science

What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? I am one of the librarians and will be advising ninth graders.
What are your hobbies/interests? I enjoy yoga and spending time with my husband and my four year old daughter, Hazel.

Edwardo Perez

What is your academic background? I went to high school out of state and afterwards did my undergrad at Bowdoin College up in Brunswick, Maine.
What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? I will be teaching two sections of AC I and coaching squash and tennis.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? In my spare time, I enjoy playing and watching soccer.

If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be
and why? If I could eat one meal for the rest of my life, it would be tostones which are fried plantains because they remind me of my grandma’s home-cooked meals.

Anastasia Langner

What will you be teaching/advising this year at Hopkins? I will be teaching two sections of English 9, and am currently slated to help with the squash team in the winter.
What inspired you to pursue teaching? During the summer between my junior and senior years of college,

I taught an incoming class of freshmen about how to read and write analytically at the collegiate level.
It was incredibly rewarding to help students undertake intellectual labors they had never encountered and help them flourish. At the same time, I am cognizant of where we stand as a country, politically, seeing institutions of information and education like schools and libraries being disparaged and undermined in their missions. Being in a classroom, I want to train my students to think for themselves, think deeply about themselves and the world around them and how they contribute to a more conscientious self and equitable community.
What is your academic background? I spent my undergraduate career at Kenyon College, which is in central rural Ohio. Currently, I am jointly teaching here and enrolled in a teaching residency program through the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Megan Williams

What is your academic background? I went to The Peddie School, a small boarding school in New Jersey,and from there went on to St. Lawrence University, where I graduated with a mathematics major. I then stayed a fifth year and got my master’s in education. I have spent the last twelve years at The Foote School where I have been a teacher, department chair, advisor, coach, and student activities coordinator at different points in my time there. Before Foote, I spent twelve years in boarding schools teaching different levels of math, coaching a variety of sports, being a dorm parent and advisor.
What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? I will be teaching Geometry and Introduction to Calculus. I will be an assistant JV field hockey coach and will be doing the MathCounts Program for the Junior School. I will be advising ninth grade.
What drew you to Hopkins? Working at Foote I have known a number of students that have moved on to Hopkins and have met different people in the community. I was ready to have a change of pace and work with students at different grade levels, as well as the opportunity to teach classes that I have not had the chance to teach over the last twelve years.

Evelyn Montanez

What will you be teaching/coaching/advising this year? I will be teaching Spanish 1B, Spanish 4, and Spanish 5. I hope to give my classes a different perspective in language acquisition — it will be a collaboration between my language scholars and me as their mentor and teacher. I look forward to working with my students in the Learning Center. I am a proud member of the ninth grade advisory team! Let’s go! Woo-hoo!
Where did you grow up? I grew up with my mother and three brothers between Manhattan and The Bronx. I consider myself a Nuyorican.
What is your academic background? -Master’s degree in Teacher Leadership — I am pursuing my third master’s from Mount Holyoke College’s Graduate Program. I’m doing this on a part-time basis, one class at
a time. -Master of Philosophy in Latin American and Iberian Cultures from Columbia University. This degree is given to those who have completed all the coursework and exams for a Ph.D. I chose to teach at that time. -Master’s degree in Latin American and Iberian cultures from Columbia University. This was a one-year master’s program. -B.A. in Spanish and French Literature from Skidmore College. I also fulfilled all my pre-med requirements thinking I was going to become a doctor or a psychologist! I went to Spain and France to start my new undergraduate major and stayed an extra year in college to finish it. It was worth the experience!

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Welcome, New Hopkins Faculty!