Bryn Mawr is home to an extraordinary group of faculty members who care deeply about our girls, and want each student to be successful and happy here. Overall, they have an average of 17 years of teaching experience, and 70% hold advanced degrees. Find out more by reading the profiles below. For a full listing of our faculty and staff with contact details, please visit our Faculty/Staff Directory.
Vicky Miyamoto, Upper School Math
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Leslie Jansen, Upper School English
"The unexpected can be what’s really interesting. When you over-plan you’re not giving them the freedom to expand, and to learn things yourself about the text by letting the students go off in different directions."
"In grad school, I started to think about the most grassroots way to effect change in the world—and not just to react to conflicts, but to prevent them from arising. I recognized that it is through education. That was when I realized that I really am a teacher at heart."
Diane Nichols, Senior Director of Institutional Equity and Inclusive Practice
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Anne Puckett, Lower School Music
"I believe that all children are musical, and I think that having music as a core part of a curriculum is very important. I love the emphasis and value that the Lower School places on arts-based learning and integrated learning between different content areas."
Jason George, Upper School History & Academic Dean
"We talk about bold voices, and I think the girls are really able to develop those, but they’re also able to be critical consumers of information, which is equally important."
"One of the privileges of teaching here is that I teach all of my classes around a Harkness table. Students and teachers sit down together, and ask and answer questions together. That is really important to me."
"A Bryn Mawr education really encompasses the whole child—mind, body, spirit—and all of these aspects are addressed each day. I think that is really special, because not every school does that."
"I like the fact that, as a community, we have an appreciation for dance. In that capacity, my philosophy is about exposure to dance, without the expectation that we are creating a school of dancers."
Thanasi Letras, Director of Information Technology
"A Bryn Mawr education teaches our students to look at the world in a different way. It shows them they can ask questions that maybe wouldn’t be asked otherwise – it gives them the courage to do that."
“A Bryn Mawr education is about the entire girl. We care about the girls, and we will do whatever we can to help them grow into well-rounded young women.”
"I like being able to use my creativity and to foster an environment where kids are willing to take risks. They love to learn, and they learn from both success and failures."
"Working with the toddlers, there is so much growth that happens in a very short span of time. Some of the children come to us before they are walking or talking, and then by mid-year they are hitting those milestones."
"A big part of students' reaction to science has to do with the kinds of teachers they’ve had in the past. That was when I decided that I really wanted to be a teacher, and that the age I wanted to teach was middle school. I want to be that teacher that helps students love what they are learning."
"I love that I know what I plan to do, but that the girls are so creative and imaginative at this age that they take me to new places. That’s part of what I love about middle school – I don’t think I’ve ever taught a class where we didn’t laugh."
"Growing in an all-girls environment, they learn to be more confident in themselves. I feel very strongly that there are benefits to girls finding their voices among girls, especially in middle school when they are trying to figure out who they are."
"What I strive for is to make students comfortable and to help them understand that it is OK not to be good at everything; they just have to be willing to work hard."
Elaine Swyryn, Associate Head of School & Upper School Math
"I feel like I know where the kids are coming from, what they need and what I can do to support them. It’s when I feel best about my ability to effect change."