The upper school welcomed 11 teachers this year across departments like science, history, English, languages, mathematics, music and journalism. With a diverse set of backgrounds, the new faculty bring a wide range of experiences and passions to the school. Whether diving deeper into their subject or connecting with curious students, they expressed their excitement about teaching at Harker and contributing to a welcoming, dedicated community.
Stephen Baxter
Co-founder of independent, local news publication Santa Cruz Local , Stephen Baxter teaches Introduction to Journalism and serves as an adviser to TALON yearbook. Despite originally pursuing political science, Baxter discovered his passion for journalism through college internships and campus reporting. Baxter earned his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and spent six years covering crime for the Santa Cruz Sentinel .
“I’m excited to teach journalistic writing because there’s so much power in how you use your words, stripping down your writing and thinking about it in a really critical way.” Baxter said. “One of my hopes is that some of that passion will rub off and that people will want to write better and get better at it because anybody could — you just need to take the time to do it.”
Hobbies: Surfing and other water sports
Favorite part of summer: Watching his daughter compete in a junior lifeguard competition
Fun fact: Lived in Brazil for three years
Priyanka Biswas
Priyanka Biswas joined the Harker community in 2022 as a fifth grade language arts teacher before moving to the upper school this year to teach English and Honors World History. Prior to Harker, she spent eight years at Stratford School in Palo Alto and three years at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose.
“These are the two subjects that you always correlate and students always love to hear snippets or humorous anecdotes about writers or about others,” Biswas said. “It's always fun to start the class with that.”
Favorite food: “Anything my mom makes,” especially luchi, a puffy bread from eastern India
Hobby : Traveling and reading in her backyard
Favorite place visited: Vernazza, Italy
Manar Duaibes
Manar Duaibes teaches Chemistry and Honors Chemistry. Duaibes previously taught International Baccalaureate Chemistry overseas for nine years at Ramallah Friends School in Palestine and earlier at the Arab Evangelical Episcopal School . She looks forward to building strong relationships with students by encouraging collaboration and interaction.
“I like chemistry overall, but my favorite part is the experiments because I know that students enjoy experiments and like to work with their hands,” Duaibes said. “We can create a positive environment with each other and grow together in chemistry. That’s something very important for me.”
Favorite book : The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma
Hobbies: Reading and hiking
Fun fact: First time teaching in the U.S.
Ahmed Elgasseir
Ahmed Elgasseir brings more than 11 years of experience to teach Study of Music. He served as the performing arts department head at Castilleja and later taught music at Foothill College . After mostly remote teaching at Foothill, he looks forward to being back in the classroom.
“Music's amazing because you can make music with anybody,” Elgasseir said. “I've had incredible experiences in my life playing in so many different orchestras and some of my closest friends are the people that I made when I was singing in groups in college, playing in orchestras, playing in symphonies and going on tours. That's the magical part of music.”
Favorite activity: Cycling and adventuring
Fun fact: Loves unusual restaurants: grew up with North African and Lithuanian-Irish cooking
Hobby: Taking trips with his two daughters
Mesi Erdos
Originally from Hungary, Mesi Erdos teaches Algebra 2 Honors and Calculus. With four years of experience as a high school math instructor, Erdos learned about the position opening from Alumni Relations Director Caren Furtado, a longtime friend who previously held the role. Erdos is excited to work with enthusiastic students and immerse herself in the school community.
“I was always passionate about math for all my life,” Erdos said. “I loved spending time working on problems, logic or anything related to mathematics. I really love working with students, and I love teaching high school because the math is at a higher level.”
Hobby: Competitive club tennis
Fun Fact: Shares a surname with famous Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős
Favorite summer memory : Spending time with her children when they came home from college
Jane Proszek Gorninski
With a background in materials science, Jane Proszek Gorninski teaches Honors Chemistry and Organic Chemistry. Originally from Brazil, she earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering before teaching at both the high school and university level. She hopes to bring a deeper awareness of how chemistry shapes students’ daily lives.
“Chemistry is absolutely everywhere,” Dr. Gorninski said. “If we didn’t have the knowledge of chemistry, we couldn’t have medications or even understand how our nutrition works. Sometimes students think they don’t need chemistry, but it’s in your clothes, your makeup, your food — in everything. You can live your whole life without the four operations of math, but you cannot live without chemistry.”
Favorite activities: Yoga and Pilates
Fun fact : Calls her family in Brazil every day
Hobby: Taking relaxing walks
Sam Lederer
Bringing a background in advanced research and high school education, Sam Lederer teaches AP Physics C and Research. After earning his bachelor’s degree in physics at Harvard and Ph.D. at Stanford, he completed postdoctoral fellowships in theoretical physics at several institutions, including UC Berkeley. Having started his career teaching high school physics, he chose to return to the classroom for the opportunity to work directly with students.
“A couple of years into the UC Berkeley postdoc, I decided it was time for a change," Dr. Lederer said. “I was interested in something with more people and more of an impact, so I decided that getting back into teaching was the right call. I’m excited that the students really seem to love science — the fact that there are like five sections of AP Physics C of which I’m teaching three of them at a school of this size, it’s just staggering.”
Fun fact: Became interested in physics after watching Top Gun
Favorite niche physics fact: Some materials solidify when heated instead of melting
Favorite movies: Casablanca and The Big Lebowski
Anna Michele
Anna Michele joins the language department to teach Spanish 3 and Honors Spanish 4. Originally working in finance in Spain, Michele moved to the U.S. to pursue a career in education. At Harker, she hopes to make Spanish feel natural and rewarding for her students.
“I enjoy getting to know the students, seeing how they learn and speak in Spanish,” Michele said. “They greet me in Spanish and speak in Spanish all the time — that’s the reward.”
Favorite musical :“In the Heights”
Favorite food: Paella
Hobbies: Swimming and travelling, especially in Scandinavian countries
Yumiko Muneishi
Yumiko Muneishi teaches Japanese 1, 3 and 5. Beginning her career as an ESL teacher in Japan, Muneishi has since taught Japanese in the U.S. at the elementary, high school and college levels. She looks forward to connecting with the upper school community and sharing the richness of Japanese culture, from its history to modern pop culture.
“ We do have a traditional culture, but then we have a quite colorful pop culture, so there’s so many entry points for people to get in,” Muneishi said. “Language is a tool to get to know people, to get to know their culture and just to come together and then share the joy of learning.”
Favorite hobby: Gardening
Fun fact: Hosts a travel-and-appetizer club
Pet: A miniature poodle named Clover
Terese Navarra
Terese Navarra teaches Honors Biology, Honors Bioinformatics and Research Methods. After studying bioengineering in college, Navarra worked at the CDC , NASA and later at UCSF , where mentoring undergraduates in microbiology inspired her to pursue teaching full time. She hopes to create the same passion for science that shaped her own career.
“In high school, I read a science magazine about scientists engineering viruses to fight cancer, and I thought that was the most amazing thing ever,” Navarra said. “Now I’m excited to have my own class of students and hopefully spark the love for science that I found in high school.”
Fun fact: Has one dog and three cats
Favorite part of summer: Visiting Peru and hiking Machu Picchu
Hobby: Taking her golden retriever on long walks around San Jose
Hyeryoung Rhee
Hyeryoung Rhee teaches Honors World History and AP World History. As a “third culture kid”, she spent time in Korea, Israel and numerous countries growing up, experiences that deepened her interest in history and politics. She hopes to help students see history as a tool for developing empathy and perspective.
“Fundamentally, history teaches you to be a good human being, in the sense that it imparts morals in a way that others can’t,” Rhee said. “It makes us more empathetic in the sense that we look at these people from the past that do not have the retrospective vision that we now have. It's very convoluted.”
Favorite Movie : “Spirited Away”
Fun Fact: Likes basketball arcade games
Most looking forward to: Implementing interactive historical simulations, such as Genghis Khan and Napoleon on trial
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
