Faculty

Our outstanding educators bring their many years of education, experience, travel, and community work into the classrooms. The faculty includes PhD’s in Biology, Chemistry, and English, an MFA in Media Art and Art History, the founder of the Environmental Education Center, a published musician, and a history instructor who has studied at Oxford and traveled in over thirty-five countries.

Sara C. Johnson
School Executive Committee, Head of School
Instructor, Visual Arts

Ms. 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 eight 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 seven years. During her seven 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.

Diane Auger Smith
School Executive Committee, Financial Manager
Instructor, Mathematics

Ms. Smith was born in Newport, Vermont, near the Quebec border. Diane’s parents are French Canadian immigrants and her first language was French. Having spent years in Vermont and Florida, her family eventually settled in Virginia, and Diane attended the University of Virginia, earning a degree in mathematics. She went on to work as a management consultant in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore for Andersen Consulting serving various manufacturing, investment banking, government and utilities clients in designing and implementing large automated systems, and she was frequently called to facilitate between programmers and clients because of her effective communication skills. She settled back in Charlottesville with her husband, a partner at Michie, Hamlett, Lowry, Rasmussen and Tweel, in 1991. Diane worked a number of years at the University of Virginia with the Office of Management and Budget, and was awarded an Administrative Internship to assist with “Process Simplification”, an initiative to streamline numerous central administrative processes. A mother of three children, Diane spent a number of years as an at-home mom and school volunteer, starting a professional organizing business in her spare time. She recently returned to school to earn her teaching license in grade 6-12 mathematics, graduating from Mary Baldwin College Post Baccalaureate Teacher Licensure Program with a 4.0 average. She was one of a handful of students selected by Mary Baldwin College as a “Teacher of Promise”. Diane developed her math skills through sheer hard work, and the support of her father, who has a Ph.D. in math. He worked at NASA during the Apollo missions, training the astronauts in how to operate the computers on the Lunar Module. He always made sure Diane understood her math, and she looks forward to doing the same for her students.

Joan Barnett
Instructor, French

Ms. Barnett joined the faculty in 2009, bringing over thirty years experience teaching French in both public and private schools and at UC Berkeley where she earned her Masters in French. She organized and directed a French Exchange program for 17 years between students at Tandem Friends School and the Lycée St. Pierre in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. She served as Head of the Foreign Language Department at Tandem for over ten years, was co-chair of Tandem’s Emphasis Program for four, and coordinated their Speaker Series program for the past five years. Joan was Tandem’s coordinator of the summer Governor’s School Academic and Arts programs (and served as Regional Director for the past three years); she also guided Tandem students through the application process for the Governor’s Foreign Language Academies. Her love of travel has resulted in over fifteen trips to France; she has studied in both Paris and Pau and maintains close ties with her French friends. During one summer she hiked in the Alps for a week, camped out in Provence for another, and visited la France profonde with friends. She lived in India and Pakistan for a total of three years, attended two American Association of Teachers of French conferences (one in Québec, one in Martinique), and led students to Québec on two different occasions. She was a Girl Scout throughout her entire public school life and was one of four Americans chosen to attend an international Theatre Workshop for Young Adults in England, sponsored by the Girl Guides; she later became a leader for both of her daughters’ Girl Scout troops. She plays tennis, loves to cook (especially Indian and Chinese food), enjoys films, theatre and classical music, and is a member of both the Charlottesville Women’s Choir and the Threshold Choir. One of her greatest delights is spending time with her five grandchildren, ages seven, five, four, three and one, and their parents. Alas, one family lives in California; the other will be in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, for three to five years — but grand places to visit, n’est-ce pas?

Daniel McCarthy
Instructor, Music

Daniel McCarthy recently joined the Renaissance faculty and will begin teaching during the fall of 2010. Mr. McCarthy is an experienced classical and jazz guitarist with an extensive educational background and experience in performance. He earned his Bachelor’s in Music (Magna Cum Laude) from James Madison University studying classical guitar with Mr. Keith Stevens and his Masters in Music Performance from Appalachian State University studying classical guitar with Dr. Douglas James and jazz guitar with Mr. Andy Page. He also taught classical and jazz guitar at ASU as a graduate assistant. He has performed (as featured soloist) at the L’off Jazz Festival in Montreal, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Locally, Daniel has given notable classical guitar recitals as a guest artist at JMU and the Charlottesville Classical Guitar Society. In addition to his experience as a performer and teacher, Daniel has arranged pieces for guitar and was commissioned by composer Jane Roman Pitt to arrange for two guitars her “Songs of the Season”, a piece originally composed for piano. In his free time he enjoys reading and composing original music.

Nell Halladay
Instructor, Science & Mathematics

Doc Nell 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.

Ann Marshall
Instructor, English

Dr. Marshall is a native of Charlottesville and she first taught while working on her Ph.D. in English at the University of Virginia. She returned in 2009 to be close to her family and live in her favorite university town. For 25 years she taught at The Hill School in Pottstown, PA. Once a traditional all-boys boarding school, The Hill admitted girls in 1998. Her husband Richard Cappuccio retired last year from teaching English at Townsend Harris High School in New York. Ann has three step-children and six grandchildren. Richard’s youngest, Shane, teaches English at The Portledge School on Long Island. Ann enjoys swimming, gardening, and traveling to historic and literary sites. Her article on Dorian Gray and Winckelmann appeared in a collection of essays published by Hofstra University. She hopes to complete a book about the literary pulpit. Her interest in remarkable preachers began with her dissertation on John Donne.

Bridget Mitchell
Registrar
Instructor, Performance Arts

Ms. Mitchell is a native of Pittsburgh, though she and her family have called Charlottesville home for eleven years. Some of her instructors include, Larry Cervi, Ron Tassone, Ed Vaughn and Mario Melodia. Stella Adler (one of Marlon Brando’s teachers) had the greatest influence on her acting technique. In high school she was a Pennsylvania Governor’s School Drama student and was flown to Florida as an Arts Recognition and Talent Search honorable mention, where she was handed her award by Jose Ferrer and Michael Baryshnikov. She attended Otterbein college as a Drama Major and Adelphi University as a talent scholarship recipient. A semester at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in Design and another semester of Drawing at PVCC helped sharpen her visual experience of the performing arts. Bridget served as a Drama and Dance instructor for Linda Schmidt’s School of Performing Arts in Somerset, PA, and has performed at nearly every venue the Charlottesville area has to offer — Live Arts, Four County Players, MLK Performing Arts Center, Farmington Country Club, and two one-woman acts at McGuffey Arts Center for Miki Liszt Dance Company’s First Fridays series. She was a part of the opening act for Tony Bennett for the grand opening of the Paramount on the downtown mall. At area nursing homes she greatly enjoyed performing with the Fourtunettes, a group she started with friends, and which sang Andrew Sisters, McGuire Sisters and many loved, old commercials and jingles. In addition to teaching at Renaissance, Bridget teaches jazz dance classes at McGuffey Arts Center where she also continues her long-term study of Dynamic Alignment with master instructor Eija Celli. In her free time Bridget works on a novel she is writing for middle school readers and enjoys time with her husband, Kevin, and her kids, Sophie (RS Class of 2009) and Keenan (RS Class of 2010).

Lou Tanner
Instructor, History

Mr. Tanner has been teaching History and Government at Renaissance School since its founding in 1999. After first receiving a B. A. from University of Virginia in 1975, he later studied Russian, European, and American History in Graduate School. Along the way he took or audited courses in numerous other fields as well, including Ancient, Middle Eastern, and South and East Asian History. Within a somewhat narrow range he reads widely, with interests tending to History, Travel Writing, Biography, Current Affairs, and Non-Fiction in general. With wife Stephanie, whom he met while backpacking in Australia light years ago, he enjoys traveling, gardening (mostly as an armchair hobby–it is her passion), reading, hiking, and birdwatching. In addition, he speaks Russian and French –though only passingly–and has a smattering of Spanish and Latin. Extensive travel in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia — where he also lived for almost five years — has only deepened an abiding conviction that the study of History is not only essential, it is also–dare it be said–fun.

Becky Wilbur
Instructor, Science & Mathematics

Dr. 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.