After a 20-year career in the Navy, Mark retired with the rank of Commander and went on to spend ten years in the private sector, where the projects he directed included the installation of information systems at the new airport in Hong Kong and, while working for EDS, the new Inchon International Airport in Seoul.
He also directed global IT operations for SITA Airport Services, dealing with sites in over 50 countries. We feel in particular that Mark's background in education, the IT industry and the military will position him extremely well to be Parker's lead contact person to the San Diego scientifi c and technological communities.
As our founding Chinese teacher, we have hired a Beijing native, Pei Yu, who has been in San Diego for a year and a half. She holds a B.A. in Japanese from Beijing International Studies University and a second B.A. in management accounting from Nanzan University.
She worked as a teacher and translator for six years in Japan before coming to the U.S., where has been teaching at a local Chinese language school. She speaks excellent English and has taught a wide span of ages, from four-year-olds to adults, which makes her ideally suited to our position, which will initially span all three divisions of the school.
For our Upper School English position, we have also hired a teacher with an international background, although she has been a San Diego resident for a number of years. A native of Scotland, Isobel Shapiro holds an M.A. (Honors) in English and a Dip. Ed. from Dundee University, and has also has completed all but the dissertation for a Ph.D. from the same institution. She had extensive teaching experience in the U.K. in private schools and at the university level and has also taught in several American schools.
Our new Middle School history teacher is Eric Taylor, who is a Ph.D. candidate in American history at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a B.A. in history from U.C. Santa Barbara, as well as two M.A. degrees in history, one from Northwestern and one from SDSU.
His special area of scholarly interest is the Reconstruction Era in the South. He has served as a graduate teaching assistant at both Penn and SDSU. Eric has in fact already been teaching for us during the last quarter of the year and has been very well received by the students.
In searching for a Middle School English teacher, we also conducted a national search. In the end we determined that the best candidate was none other than a Parker alumna, Kristi Gillingham. Kristi was an outstanding student at Parker, winning the Headmaster's Award. She went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of San Diego in English and is spending this year getting her teaching credential at SDSU.
With the retirement of Carol Dodds, Melisa Elam, who has taught Spanish part time for a number of years, is moving into the position of Middle School language chair. Taking over Melisa's parttime duties will be Monica Gallardo, who has been teaching Spanish at Christ Church Day School in Coronado since 2001. Ms. Gallardo holds degrees from the Instituto Autonomo de Mexico and United States International University.