Welcome to The Hill!

The Razor welcomes new faculty and staff to Hopkins. Here are some personal introductions and tidbits. Be sure to give them a warm welcome!

Megan Maxwell

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. I was an English department faculty brat at Lawrenceville, a boarding school there.

What is your academic background? I received my bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and my master’s degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
What are you teaching/coaching/advising/etc. this year? I’m teaching Atlantic Communities II and AP European history. I’m advising Per Annos and the Student Council, and am really looking forward to both to see how Hopkins works.

Who or what has inspired you most in life, and why? After I graduated college, I worked for two years at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project. Besides the joy of working with people who also loved words and history, the head of the Papers was able to introduce staff and students to icons of the Civil Rights Movement. I got to eat lunch with men and women I’d read about, written about, and seen in documentaries. They were young, irreverent, dedicated, and focused. And all they wanted was for my generation to keep the torch burning.

What particular tidbit we should know about you? I like to craft, so in my downtime, I’ll likely be knitting or making jewelry. I began beading in 2000, took some classes in soldering and setting stones in the mid 2000s, and most recently discovered the siren song of making chain maille. I have succumbed. Also, my 22.5 minutes of fame came in 2007, when I didn’t bet enough on Final Jeopardy! to win. I didn’t think I knew enough about poetry.

Do you have a pet? I have a labradoofa named Tuppence. No one believes me when I say that she’s eight years old because she behaves like a wayward puppy. She insists that I get out and meet new besties—human and beast—for her. She is afraid of thunder and vacuums, but tries to play with lawn mowers and snakes (non-venomous!).

Sam Stockton

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Washington, D.C.
What is your academic background? I graduated from Dartmouth College in June, where I majored in English Literature. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the relationship between language and race in a

few of William Faulkner’s major novels.
What are you teaching/coaching/advising/
etc. this year? I will be teaching English 8 and coaching Junior School football this fall.
What was your favorite experience as a student? My favorite experience as a student was a class on Stream of Consciousness literature, which I took in the fall of my junior year of high school. In

that class, we read Ulysses, To the Lighthouse, and The Sound and the Fury, and I recognized that I wanted to pursue a career studying literature.

Are you a sports fan? I am an avid fan of the Washington Capitals. I watched them clinch their first ever Stanley Cup the spring before last from an Applebee’s in a small town in Maine; it is among my fondest memories.
Do you have a pet? While I do not have my own pet here in New Haven, I spend most of time thinking about my family’s beagle Lucky. She will turn 14 in late September, and pictures of her occupy most of my phone’s storage.

Josh Zelinsky

Where did you grow up? I grew up in New Haven. I was a student at Hopkins.

What is your academic background? I did my undergraduate degree at Yale and a PhD at Boston University.

What are you teaching/coaching/advising/etc. this year? I’ll be teaching pre-calculus and the senior seminar. I’ll be assistant coach for the Junior School wrestling team.

Who or what has inspired you most in life, and why? There’s a temptation to say Moggs Wright and David McCord, both teachers here at Hopkins (although Mrs. Wright retired many years ago). But my own mathematical journey has been a bit different than theirs. Outside people from Hopkins, my own attitudes and interests in mathematics are heavily inspired by Paul Erdos. Erdos was very interested in problems which are very easy to state and explain but aren’t necessarily easy to solve. I’m hoping that when I teach the senior seminar to pass some of that sort of interest down to the students.
What particular tidbit we should

know about you? Major hobbies include Dungeons and Dragons and other roleplaying games, as well as gaming in general.

Tell us about a book, that has impacted you and why? One book that had a major impact on me is Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature about the decline in human violence levels over time. In general, the book gave me a much more optimistic view of where humanity is going.

Mike McManus

Where did you grow up?
Hamden, Connecticut.

What is your academic background? Notre Dame West Haven, University of Connecticut

What are you teaching/coaching/advising/etc. this year? I am Advising seniors as a shadow for Susan Bennit. I coach squash, informal weight training, informal tennis and squash, and will be starting my seventh year with the Girls Varsity Tennis Team. We are seeking our fifth New England title together

Who or what has inspired you most in life, and why? My grandfather Francis V. McManus. He was one of the longest tenured Chief of Police in New Haven history. He was a very strong, driven, serious head of our family. Looking back, what stands out most is not how strict he was but how he shared his love. I try to follow the exam ple he set of inspiring people through hard work, discipline and truly caring for others.

What particular tidbit should we know about you? I am married with three young boys. They are: Murphy (8), Michael (6), Myles (almost 2). My greatest joy is seeing them grow and learn. I am surprised every day at how smart, loving, and open my boys are. I have proud moments every day.
Are you a sports fan? Sport? Team? Participant in? I am a very big sports fan. My favorite sports teams are Green Bay Packers, New York Knicks, UConn basketball, and the New York Mets. I played high school basketball and tennis. I was a scholarship member of the UConn Huskies tennis team. I still play golf, tennis, and basketbal, l and I compete on the professional platform tennis tour throughout the winter/spring months.

Meghan O’Neill

Where did you grow up? I grew up in White Plains, NY
What is your academic background? After graduating from White Plains High School I jetted off to the tropical, exciting state of Missouri for college, where I attended Washington University in St. Louis. After completing my undergraduate degree in math and secondary education, I enrolled in the UPenn Residency in Teaching Program, earning my MA in education while concurrently teach- ing at Riverdale Country School in NYC.

What are you teaching/coaching/advising/ etc. this year? I am teaching Math 30 and Math 45 this year, advising freshmen, and eventually coaching Junior School Swimming and assistant coaching Girls Water Polo!
What particular tidbit we should know

about you? I like to create art in my spare time! I like to think of myself as a very amateur illustrator, but I have dabbled in a number of other areas of craftiness as well, such as knitting, crochet and cross-stitching.
Are you a sports fan? Sport? Team? Participant in? I am not a big sports fan, but I will blindly support the New York Yankees and New York Giants— much to the detriment of some of my personal relationships.

Do you have a pet? I have a cat named Pip— I named her after Pippin in the Lord of the Rings, because sometimes she can be a bit of an airhead, and she’s also very upset that I am not familiar with second breakfast.

Jenny Roach

Where did you grow up? Buffalo, New York
What is your academic background? I went to high school at Nichols School in Buffalo and was an undergraduate at Williams College where I majored in English.
What are you teaching/coaching/advising/etc. this year? I’m teaching tenth grade English, assistant coaching Thirds Soccer in the fall and Junior School Girls Lacrosse in the spring.
What particular tidbit we should know about you? I spent the last academic year traveling. First I went to South America and backpacked; then in January, I started working as an au pair in Austria for five-year-old twins.

Are you a sports fan? Sport? Team? Participant in? I am a fan of all things Buffalo especially our football team, the Buffalo Bills!! I played soccer, basketball and lacrosse in high school and lacrosse at Williams.

Do you have a pet? My parents got a black lab puppy last summer and we are all obsessed with her. I’m also trying to convince my housemate to get a puppy and it seems like she might be on board so stay tuned.

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