Teachers Casey Brown, Caren Furtado, Karen Haley, Clifford Hull, Zane Moore, Susan Nace, Kevin Oliver, Dipti Shingnapurkar and Carmela Tejada have chosen to step away from their positions for the 2025-26 school year. 

Though they depart for a variety of reasons — Haley, Hull, Nace and Tejada are retiring, while Moore, Furtado, Oliver and Brown are taking the next step in their careers — each leaves with love for the community and advice for their students. Their impact, whether through their reaching, mentorship or kindness, will be remembered in Harker for years to come.  

Moore, who teaches AP Biology, Honors Bioinformatics and research classes, joined Harker in 2023, first lecturing over the summer of 2023, and began teaching full time in 2024. Throughout his time at Harker, Moore most enjoyed teaching Honors Bioinformatics, a new class he helped to develop from scratch. Though the class was often challenging to teach, he felt that the process of creation and trial-and-error was rewarding.

“I really care about sharing knowledge with other people,” Moore said. “Education makes knowledge accessible. With young people, there’s room to do all kinds of different things. Joy and eagerness to learn, I love seeing that — it’s the highlight of working here.”

Before working at Harker, Moore taught college students for seven years, spending six years at UC Davis and one year at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento. Initially lacking experience teaching high schoolers, Moore appreciates the guidance and mentorship that fellow science teachers Chris Spenner and Matthew Harley offered. Though Moore’s choice is not an easy one, he feels that the change is necessary for his life going forward. 

“Being a young person in my career, it is really hard making that choice, and there are a lot of different factors,” Moore said. “I want to still be able to grow. I just need to find my groove.”

Furtado will be leaving her position as a math teacher to join the alumni department. First teaching at Challenger for six and a half years and at a charter school in San Jose for two years, Furtado moved to Harker, where she taught for four years. In her time teaching, Furtado noticed the distinction between simply teaching a subject to students versus being an impactful mentor.

“If you cannot love and be compassionate, then you cannot inspire,” Furtado said. “It’s one thing to teach and it’s another thing to inspire someone.”

Initially inspired to start teaching by her children, Furtado was able to connect with her students, who were always the same age as her own children as they grew up. Now that her children are in college, Futado has decided to leave her teaching position because she feels like she will not be able to connect with the students as strongly. 

“Over a period of time I’ll become less empathetic to whatever they’re going through, and then I may not be as effective a teacher,” Furtado said. “This opportunity happened to be there at a time where I’ve been thinking, ‘maybe I need to transition.’”

Anticipating her new role, Furtado looks forward to connecting with a wider community. After visiting this year’s Chicago, New York and San Francisco Alumni reunions as part of training for her new position, Furtado felt further inspired in seeing Harker’s impact.

“At every place I just met such phenomenal and such inspirational people,” Furtado said. “It was so exciting to see that the Harker legacy lives long. And to be a small instrument in continuing to keep that legacy alive, it’s something I am looking forward to.”

Brown originally taught Honors and AP Chemistry at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley for three years before teaching the same courses at Harker. Each day, Brown was impressed by the curiosity and motivation of his students, both at BASIS and Harker. However, he plans to teach at the Harvard-Westlake School in Southern California next school year, where he hopes to spend more time with his family, something he missed due to a long commute to Harker.

“Here, I leave in the morning before they wake up and I get back and it’s time to cook dinner,” Brown said. “So, it’s just not a lot of time with the kids right now, and I’m looking forward to having less time on the road and more time with my family.”

Haley will retire after a 23 year career in teaching. Haley first became a teacher in Dallas, Texas after spending several years in the military. She was inspired to enter education after volunteering at schools like the all-girls Ursuline Academy, as well as Jesuit Dallas, which her son attended. 

“When my kids were little, there was such joy in their learning — it was really nice to actually be there and see the excitement of them learning,” Haley said. “I thought, ‘You know what, I will think about [this as] a career.’”

Haley went on to teach World History at Harker for six years. Though Harker was a new experience for Haley, as she had never taught co-ed students or underclassmen, she adapted with ease and quickly became close with the community. Haley’s favorite part of teaching at Harker was the advisories: she appreciates how well her advisory members got along, fondly recalling how both of her advisories won the most spirit points in their respective grades. 

Teaching Spanish 3 and Honors Spanish 4, Tejada has worked at Harker for seven years and is retiring this school year. Tejada most valued Harker’s close-knit community.

“I love when people see me in the hallways or anywhere at Harker, and they say ‘Hola, Señora Tejada,’” Tejada said. “That means a lot, even those two words. They acknowledge my background and I think that’s amazing.”

Moving forward, Tejada wishes to travel the world with her newfound time. She also hopes that her students will continue studying Spanish even after high school. 

Hull, who has taught Latin and history at Harker for the past 10 years, will retire after a 47-year teaching career. Known for his deep knowledge of classical literature and archaeology, Hull brought a scholarly rigor to his classes while engaging students through discussions and mini-lectures. Prior to Harker, he taught in South Africa and Indiana, and also held teaching roles at the college level.

Nace, who led Harker’s vocal music program for over two decades, is retiring from her role as choral director. During her tenure, she directed ensembles including Bel Canto, Cantilena and the recently formed Capriccio, while also teaching music theory and mentoring generations of student musicians. She plans to continue her work in music education by founding a treble choir focused on creating a supportive space for women.

TALON yearbook adviser, cross country and track and field coach Oliver will be leaving Harker. A former patent lawyer without prior yearbook experience, Oliver became an impactful figure in the journalism program after joining in 2023, leading the TALON staff to national recognition, including a Pacemaker Award from the National Scholastic Press Association this April.