Faculty & Staff Leaders Speak at Parents' Association Meeting

Today marked the annual Parents’ Association community meeting when we hear the individual voices of our faculty leaders—often known as parents’ favorite meeting of the year.

 

Assistant Head of School Tom Perryman '81 introduced our three Faculty Leaders and Penny Nicholson staff award recipient and explained the purpose of the program. “Nothing is more important than our children being known, appreciated and respected. The quality of teaching and fostering human relationships is the most important thing we do here. Your children will remember these teachers.” The Faculty Leaders program was founded in the late 1990s to celebrate and reward the quality of teaching among our educators.

 

Originally from Brazil, Tatiane Deibert is in her eighth year of teaching at Greenhill. She moved to the United States when she was 19 years old and has never gone back due to meeting her husband and starting a family. “I am a believer that I was brought here for a reason. In Brazil, I had the incredible support of family, friends and coaches, and now I have the chance to be that positive influence in the lives of others. Teaching is 75% about the quality of relationships, and I have become more compassionate and intentional in that approach. That is why I teach. I have found true purpose.”

 

Joan Romanosky says that she has always been a teacher. “Teaching has been part of my soul for as long as I can remember.” She taught her dolls, remembering her desk, chair and blackboard in her childhood. She found a love of Latin, however, in a more unintentional way because her French class was canceled and she didn’t want to take physics. Ms. Romanosky loves Greenhill and Middle School because it’s a place that celebrates equity and inclusion and differences. “We seek to act in the spirit of the greater good and tell everyone’s story. Greenhill listens to the songs created by multiple stories.”

 

Laura Flanagan believes in fate and finding your “why” in life. She knew Bernard Fulton as her landlord in college (not knowing he was the founder of Greenhill), and serendipitously found Greenhill through another path, coaching soccer after playing in college. When she was accepted as a teaching fellow, she ran into Mr. Fulton in the hallway one day and said, “What are you doing here?” Since that moment of fateful convergence, she has been teaching for 16 years and finding joy and fulfillment in the classroom every day. “So many pieces of my heart are in this room and throughout the Greenhill community. Every day, I get to change the world through our students.”

 

Toby Row met Sharon Brewer, manager of The Buzz, while managing inventory at Linens n’ Things. He thought working at a school would be different and interesting. When he arrived, he felt like he was on a college campus. “There’s not a day I don’t look forward to coming to work. I love making other people’s jobs easier and I average five miles a day making my deliveries.” One of Toby’s favorite moments is during scholastic book order week, when the kids are excited to receive their “boxes” from Mr. Row.

The Greenhill community is so fortunate to have you with us. Thank you for all you do.