Renee McAdams is originally from Fredericksburg, VA. She attended the University of Virginia and James Madison University, graduating with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and a teaching license in all areas of special education. While living in Atlanta, Renee taught high school students with special needs before returning to graduate school, earning her Master’s and Specialist’s degrees in School Psychology. Renee then worked as a School Psychologist for students in kindergarten through twelfth grades until 2005. After remaining home with her daughter for three years, Renee has reemerged at the Renaissance School! She is the School Registrar and Secretary. Renee currently lives in the Zion Crossroads area with her husband, Rick, daughter, Reagan, and two cats!
Miki Liszt has been on the Renaissance School faculty since the school began. She has also been the Artistic Director of Miki Liszt Dance Company which is a nonprofit, tax exempt organization she founded and based at McGuffey Art Center in 1984. In 2007, Miki Liszt received the Piedmont Council of the Arts Individual Artist Award. Also that year, Dance Magazine showcased the Miki Liszt Dance Company First Friday Series as a trendsetter for the crossover between dance and the visual arts in its March issue. Ms. Liszt graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she studied choreography with Bessie Schonberg, for whom the Bessie Schonberg Theater in New York and the New York "Bessie" awards in Dance and Performance are named. Miss Schonberg was, until her death, Artistic Advisor to Miki Liszt Dance Company. Miki Liszt Dance Company performs collaborative work nationally and locally. The New York Times’ Jennifer Dunning has said of Ms. Liszt’s choreography that it finds “Deep Reality in Ordinary Movement” noting that her choreography creates the effect of layered and refracted realities as she takes “walks, pauses, slow and gentle collisions and standing still and makes them suggest purpose and meditative thought.” Miki is delighted to assume the new collaborative mantle of Interim Director of Renaissance School.
Nancy Knorr is the Associate Director and co-founder of Renaissance School. Ms. Knorr is a Certified Public Accountant with many years of financial management experience. She has been Assistant Vice President of Finance at J.P. Morgan and Citicorp in New York City and Associate Director of Finance at the UVA Medical Center, with emphasis on budgeting, management reporting, and cost accounting. She holds a B.A. with honors in Ancient Greek from Colby College, an M.A. in Classics from the University of Kentucky, where she taught Latin for two years, and she spent a year in the doctoral Classics program and the University of Toronto, where she taught Greek mythology. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, plays the piano, and loves to read, take long walks, and raise Jack Russell terriers, who normally accompany her to school.
Sara C. Johnson graduated with honors from Indiana State University where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Art degree in painting and photography, with a minor in art history. Sara continued her studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she earned a Master of Fine Art degree in media art (photo, video, film). While living in Knoxville, Sara taught video and photo courses for the University of Tennessee. Sara moved to Charlottesville seven years ago when she began working as a professional video editor. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US in galleries and public spaces including the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Swope Museum of American Art, and Period Gallery. Sara is the recipient of numerous awards and grants for her media work including the Knoxville Legacy Grant Award for Interdisciplinary Art. Sara has been teaching art at Charlottesville's Renaissance School for six years and is entering her fourth year of teaching art at the Village School. During her six years with Renaissance School, the art program has grown to include portfolio development work on an individual basis. Students have gone on to pursue continued studies at some of the most competitive and prestigious art schools in the nation. Sara looks forward to working with Renaissance families and students as the School’s Dean of Students.
Michael Morgan was born in western New York State and has lived in Charlottesville since 1988. While in high school he played piano, classical guitar, clarinet, and contrabass clarinet and attended the Eastman School of Music, where he studied piano, composition, and music theory. He later attended the Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut, as a theory/composition major. He received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut; a Certificate in Publishing Procedures from the University of Denver; and a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School, where he was the Topics and Citations Editor of the Boston College Third World Law Journal. Mike was a lawyer in private practice in the Boston area for five years before entering legal publishing. He was an editor of books, magazines, newsletters, and legal journals for several years and has written several articles for publication in the legal field. After leaving publishing he received teacher certification in English and Government and has taught students of all levels, from kindergarten to college, as a private tutor and as a public school teacher. Mike is truly grateful to be at a school where it is possible to teach as opposed to being a babysitter or traffic cop. He has practiced Zen since college; is an ordained minister with ULC; enjoys reading, film, and playing music; and is a fervent jazz fan, with a collection of over 6000 records and CDs (some rare, most not-so-rare). He lives in Charlottesville with his wife Laura Morgan, the author and child support law authority, and their two children.
Johnel Childress was born in Waynesboro, Virginia, where she discovered a love of singing and acting. She began serious study of both at the age of 15. She attended Waynesboro Public Schools until her junior year when she switched to St. Anne’s-Belfield School. After graduating from St .Anne’s, she went on to study Voice and Theatre at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University where she earned a B.F.A. in Theatre. Since college she has performed with the Oak Grove Players, Waynesboro Players, Waynesboro Choral Society, Leah Production Company, Lionhart Filmworks, and the Public Broadcast Station. She comes to the school with experience as a museum educator and instructional assistant in the public school system and is thrilled about her position as the Theatre teacher at the school.
Jennifer Ediss was born in Great Britain where she received a B.A. Honours in German and French from Durham University and a Postgraduate qualification in education from Exeter University. She began teaching in London before marrying and moving to Bonn, Germany. She completed further studies at the Goethe Institute in Hamburg and the Université de Poitiers. Mrs. Ediss taught French at the British High School and English, French and German at Bonn International School, where she was also co-ordinator for community service and a member of the Middle Years Program cross-curricular development team. During this time Mrs. Ediss also worked as an examiner for London and Cambridge University boards. Throughout her years as a teacher she has organized language trips to France, Belgium and Luxembourg, the latest of which was a school exchange with Charlottesville’s sister city, Besançon, in France. Whilst in Bonn, Mrs. Ediss traveled thoughout Europe and gained an understanding of various cultures. Since moving to Charlottesville with her husband, who is a radio – astronomer, she has worked as a free-lance translator, a docent at the University of Virginia Art Museum, a reader for the “Reading and Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic,” and she accompanied various groups on the piano. She tutors students in French and German from high school to college level. In the Spring of 2008 she completed the Praxis II French and German examinations and attended a language workshop at Sweet Briar College. She enjoys attending the UVa and VCU French film festivals and was invited to participate in a French immersion weekend hosted by Virginia Tech in the Fall of 2007. In her free time she enjoys playing the piano, gardening, hiking, dance and photography.
Justin Esposito is an accomplished violinist and performer. He holds a B.M. in string performance from Boston University . While in Boston, Justin studied with Boston Symphony violinist Lucia Lin. He also has studied with associate concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Michael Ludwig. A native of the Philadelphia area and graduate of The Hill School, Justin grew up playing in numerous chamber groups and orchestras including the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, and served as concertmaster of the Philadelphia Sinfonia. He has spent numerous summers at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts. Upon graduating from college, Justin moved with three college friends to the Charlottesville area to play in a progressive rock band Trees on Fire. Trees has since gained much regional acclaim and has sold out audiences in both Charlottesville and Atlanta. In the winter of 2006 they released their first e.p. titled The Green Room and have since sold over 1000 copies. Recently they were featured as one of Charlottesville’s “Best of” in the C-Ville Weekly. They are on their way to release their next album in the spring of 2008 and aim to reach an international audience. Justin enjoys teaching private lessons for the Boyd Tinsley Scholarship Fund and plays in the local string trio Sognando. He also maintains a private studio in Charlottesville.
Nell Halladay is originally from New Jersey where she lived for 39 years. She is a graduate from Glassboro State College with a B.S. in chemistry and also holds M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in chemistry from Seton Hall University. Following a postdoctoral position at City University of New York, Nell began a 12 year career as a pharmaceutical chemist. She switched gears in June of 2000, moved to Charlottesville, and attended the Virginia School of Massage. Nell received her national certification as a massage therapist in December 2001. She opened her massage therapy business in February 2002 and loves doing massage. She also does message therapy as a volunteer for Hospice of the Piedmont and works on both patients as well as their caregivers. She taught introductory level chemistry classes at Seton Hall University and Piedmont Virginia Community College and tutored chemistry and math at both the high school and college level. Nell enjoys reading, hiking, and gardening.
John Hermsmeier is the director and founder of the Environmental Education Center, a non-profit organization located in Charlottesville. Through over a decade of Center programming, John has explored the connection between the community’s environmental choices, the role citizens play in these choices and the environmental education curriculum of its schools. Before establishing the Center, he pursued this connection as the earth science teacher at Tandem School. He began teaching AP Environmental Science at Renaissance School in the 2001-2002 school year, John has served as a teaching assistant at Mary Baldwin College and has continued the development of the EEC’s Consortium for Interdependent Education, most recently through a partnership with the UVA Summer Enrichment Program. John’s interest in the environment began with childhood visits to his grandparents’ farm near Marion in Southwest Virginia, and this interest was shaped as he grew up in Fairfax County, where his natural surroundings were continually altered. These life experiences inspired him to obtain a degree in environmental science at the University of Virginia. John enjoys sharing his home environment with his wife Kimberly and three children.
Lou Tanner, a native of Virginia, has lived in Charlottesville for much of the last twenty years. He attended UVA as an undergraduate and later completed or audited 50 graduate courses there in American, Modern European, and Russian history. With his Australian-born wife Stephanie, whom he met while traveling in Tasmania in 1978, he has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, India, and China. In addition, he has twice lived in Australia for a total of over four years, where he taught school, played and coached basketball, and spent much time exploring that country. He reads widely, especially in history and natural history, speaks French and Russian, and has studied Latin and Spanish. Other interests include bird watching, gardening, hiking, and folklore.
Becky Wilbur grew up in the Midwest (Minnesota), went to college on the west coast (Stanford University, BS Biology), spent some time north of the border (Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School Assistant Instructor), and went to graduate school on the east coast (Duke University, PhD Botany). In 1991, she and her husband and two daughters moved to Charlottesville where Henry assumed the directorship of the University of Virginia’s Mountain Lake Biological Station. During the past 16 summers she has been a mentor, teacher, and researcher at the station. Her main interests are Forest Ecology and Ecosystem Function, and she has also taught Biodiversity of the Southern Appalachians. During the last 16 winters, she has worked with the Environmental Education Center and Ivy Creek Foundation, helped teach science at the elementary school level, taught a non-majors Biology class at UVA, tutored math and science at the Learning Center of Charlottesville and coached many Odyssey of the Mind and Destination Imagination teams. In her spare time, she enjoys whitewater canoeing, volleyball, playing the cello, baking bread, reading, and taking long walks in the woods with the family dog.
