Meet Our Faculty

Alyssa Grothaus believes in fostering a love of learning and inquisitiveness that her students can associate with their everyday lives, and her classes are guided by open discussion and hands-on exploratory learning opportunities.

Ms. Grothaus graduated summa cum laude from Elon University with a B.A. in Elementary Education. She previously taught grades 4 and 5 at River Mill Academy in North Carolina. As an undergraduate, Ms. Grothaus studied education on a global scale through an internship in London and completed a research study on the importance of physical activity for activating student attention.

Growing the minds of gifted students is one of her passions and one of the primary reasons Ms. Grothaus chose to become a teacher. She has written differentiated curriculum for elementary mathematics, reading, and science, and has presented at both national and world gifted conferences on teaching gifted English/Language Arts.

Erin Haley helps her students discover that they have something valuable to say and guides them through the writing process to polish their skills across genres, types, and writing styles.

Ms. Haley obtained her B.A. in Writing for Film and Television from the University of the Arts and has earned M.A. degrees in English and History from West Chester University.

Ms. Haley is an accomplished freelance writer and educator, having taught English for five years in the Philadelphia area. She is also a member of the Teacher’s Council at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and of the Teacher Action Group at the National Constitution Center. Ms. Haley is the author of Miss Liberty, a middle grade fiction book scheduled to be published in 2025 by Clarion Books.

Nick Jacques is an extremely creative and inspiring educator with solid mechanical and critical thinking skills. His blend of abilities and life experiences bring great value to our Projects students.

Mr. Jacques has a B.F.A in Painting from the University of Hartford, a B.F.A. in Communication Design from Kutztown University, and an M.F.A. in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was most recently an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Cabrini University.

As an artist, Mr. Jacques shares, “I am always learning from my previous work in anticipation of creating something even more visually powerful and engaging.”

Mikayla Jordan creates a warm, nurturing environment where her Grayson students will learn, take risks, and unlock their unlimited potential.

Ms. Jordan received her B.A. in Psychology from Ursinus College and is currently working on her M.Ed. at Saint Joseph’s University. She has gained strong classroom management skills through her experience working at both The Goddard School and The Primrose School, where she received accolades for her creativity, passion, and positive engagement with her students.

Logan Kelly brings a love of history and an empathetic approach to his teaching that centers on student engagement, reinforcing cooperation, and self-respect so that they are able to think critically about the world around them.

Mr. Kelly holds a B.S. in Secondary Education History from Temple University. His student teaching experience included assignments at both the Eisenhower Science and Technology Leadership Academy and Horace Furness High School. He participated in the development of Social Studies curriculum for the Philadelphia School District in collaboration with WHYY pertaining to African-American history, and in adapting Social Studies curriculum for increasing student engagement using video creation.

Michael King encourages students to cultivate a lifelong habit of literary exploration as one way to help satisfy curiosity about themselves and the world around them. He also encourages students to become active, curious, and fearless writers through both expository and imaginative writing.

Mr. King earned a M.A. in English & Literature from the University of Michigan. He has teaching experience at the collegiate and high school level including Santa Clara University in California, Emmanuel College in Boston, and Continental Theological Seminary in Brussels, Belgium.

Mr. King values volunteer work. One example of his volunteer work was his time being a visiting instructor at a federal prison in Michigan where he helped inmates write, rehearse, and perform original plays as a part of their English G.E.D curriculum. Mr. King also provided social and academic support for youth at The Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia. His experience supporting the youth of Philadelphia continued at WHYY Youth Journalism where he helped students develop and produce news stories for video, audio, and print.

Brian Landis has taught and tutored math at all levels in addition to his work as both a short- and long-term substitute

Mr. Landis graduated cum laude with a B.S.Ed. in Mathematics from West Chester University. He has most recently taught Honors Algebra and CP Geometry at Villa Maria Academy as a long-term substitute, and has taught middle and high school Mathematics in both charter and public schools in the greater Philadelphia region.

Mr. Landis is a member of Students Promoting Excellence in Mathematics Education (SPEME) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

Mary Lawson has spent her career as a teacher, advocate, tutor, and consultant working with families and students whose educational needs are not met in typical school environments. She is particularly interested in guiding reading comprehension, written expression, and executive functioning with her students.

Ms. Lawson holds a B.A. degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Special Education from Lock Haven University. She has taught Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classes at The Goddard School, Brooke Elementary School, and Oaks Elementary School. Ms. Lawson has also been an Education Consultant and as a Peer Monitor at the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Bureau of Special Education. She once served as the Chairperson of the Chester County Right to Education Task Force.

Danie Li engages her students in learning Mandarin through culture, song, and dance, using a new language to open up an outside world completely different from their own.

Ms. Li earned a B.A. in English from Nanjing Normal University and a TCSOL Certificate (Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages) from the Teacher's College at Columbia University. She has most recently taught Mandarin at The Xavier Confucius Institute, as well as Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, both in Louisiana.

Mary Lyon brings wonder and curiosity to her work, cultivating a classroom where students learn that failure is a necessary step on the road to success and understanding. She inspires personal exploration in her students to better cultivate their active young minds and enjoys creating cross-curricular lessons that incorporate peer-to-peer collaboration.

Ms. Lyon holds a M.A. degree in Theatre Arts from Villanova University and a B.A. in Theatre and Education from Allegheny University. Her experience ranges from teaching kindergarten to college and includes theatre work overseas, most recently in Ireland. In addition to acting and directing, Ms. Lyon also loves being behind the scenes and brings experience as a props manager, lead technician, and assistant master electrician to her classes and our annual theatrical productions.

Alexis Miller is our own Polymatheia, inspiring the mathematical, language, and intellectual curiosity of her students. Her engaging and experiential approach through increasing levels of Mathematics ranges from crochet, to trebuchets, to 3-D and predictive modeling technology.

Alexis Miller holds a B.S. in Education from West Chester University and is a member of Kappa Delta Pi, an international honor society in Education. Prior to Grayson, her classroom and teaching experience included the development and delivery of 1:1, differentiated lessons and assessments for students.

Myat Oo earned a M.S. degree in Computer Science from Saint Joseph’s University, and B.A. and M.S degrees in Computer Science from the University of Computer Studies, the leading IT and CS university in Myanmar. Most recently, she was the Director of the Computer Science Department at the Myanmar Institute of Theology.

Ms. Oo is fluent in writing and speaking in English, Burmese, and Hakha Chin and provides translation services for schools and churches in the Philadelphia region.

After earning a B.A. degree in English Education from the State University of Jakarta, Vinia Panjaitan taught English to multicultural and international students at a middle school and at a private course center for seven years in Indonesia.

She has completed her degree credentials in the U.S., and is currently completing her M.A. in Education at Western Governors University. Ms. Panjaitan was most recently an assistant teacher at The Haverford Center preschool/daycare program at The Haverford School. She is fluent in Indonesian and English and has provided translating, interpreting, and transcribing services as a freelancer. Ms. Panjaitan can also hold basic conversations in Spanish.

Marshall Pupo is a language and history scholar eager to bring the coming generations up to 21st-century social and cultural sensitivity standards by exposing them to the diversity of thought and experience that forms and continually modifies languages.

Mr. Pupo earned a B.A. degree from Temple University with a double major in Spanish for Education and Classical Languages/Literature and a M.Ed. degree from Villanova University with a concentration in K-12 World Languages.

Mr. Pupo fosters student exploration in and out of the school environment and the content of the courses he teaches, and is the coach and mentor for our esports teams.

Bill Richardson brings broad experience in developing and teaching Science and STEM-related courses and programming to Grayson. His students benefit from his experiential approach to learning and his solid and patient guidance through problem-solving, breakthrough moments, and success.

Mr. Richardson earned a B.S. degree in Earth Science, and an M.A. in Physical Science, from West Chester University. With 20 years of experience as an educator, and the past 4 in administration at Owen J. Roberts High School, Mr. Richardson was instrumental in the development and implementation of OJRHS’s Environmental Science program, Advanced Placement Environmental Science course, and IB Environmental Science course. He also led a multi-disciplinary team in the development of the OJRHS STEAM program, including course development, budgeting, curriculum writing, facility development, and planning and teaching of courses.

Mr. Richardson is also an Ultimate Frisbee coach at The Grayson School.

Dr. Luther Rinehart shares his passion for mathematics and promotes independent thinking and an understanding of concepts, beyond merely memorizing facts in his classrooms.

Dr. Rinehart obtained his B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago, and his M.S. in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh. In August of 2022, he earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Texas A&M University, where his advisor was Dr. Stephen A. Fulling, whose work led to the discovery of the hypothetical Unruh effect. Dr. Rinehart’s research interests include classical field theory, quantum field theory, algebraic quantum mechanics, symplectic geometry, and applications of differential geometry and functional analysis. He is the author of Modern Mathematics – A Handbook of Definitions and Theorems.

Dr. Rinehart is also passionate about music, having graduated from the American Boychoir School in 2005, and has sung with the Schola Cantorum of Gettysburg, the University of Chicago Early Music Ensemble, and the Pittsburgh Compline Choir. He is interested in Renaissance and Baroque music and plays the violin and treble viol.

Miranda Rossi is an empathetic school counselor who brings experience from both school and clinical environments.

Ms. Rossi earned her B.S. degree in Psychology from Ursinus College, and is completing her M.S. degree in School Counseling from Villanova University. Prior to joining Grayson, she worked at The Shepherd Pratt School in Maryland.

Jared Scheetz is an enthusiastic instructor whose pedagogy centers on finding and developing intrinsic motivation in his students. Through his general music classes and private lessons to co-directing our annual musical theater productions and directing jazz and instrumental ensembles, every student at Grayson benefits from his broad musical interests and talents.

Mr. Scheetz holds a M.Mus. in Music Theory and Composition, which he earned with summa cum laude honors from West Chester University’s Wells School of Music. For his master’s thesis, Jared wrote a musical based on the lives of female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. He also holds an undergraduate B.M. degree in Music Education with instrumental concentrations in Classical Guitar and Double Bass from West Chester University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Trained in both the Kodály and Orff-Schülwerk teaching methodologies, he plays piano and guitar primarily, and likes to collect and play an eclectic variety of instruments. He has taught classes on a wide variety of topics to spark students’ connections to music, including African drumming, blues composition, analyzing a Beethoven symphony, film scoring, electronic dance music composition, and the history of Rock and Roll, just to name a few. He believes in the importance of teaching both traditional classical repertoire and more contemporary styles.

Mr. Scheetz is an experienced teacher and performer, who also shares his extensive woodworking and construction experience with the Upper School students he mentors in their Open Studio projects.

Dr. Ryan Seaberg’s own linguistic pursuits are an excellent model for how students can channel and immerse themselves in an intellectual passion, as he has mastered a truly remarkable repertoire of languages: in addition to Greek and Latin, he knows French, German, Old Norse, Middle High German, Gothic, Old Saxon, Middle Dutch, Czech, and Portuguese.

Dr. Seaberg defended in December 2019 and received his Ph.D. in Classical and Near Eastern Studies with a minor in Germanic Studies from the University of Minnesota. His doctoral research, “Lexical Blends in Greek and Latin Comedic Idiom” deals broadly with linguistics and lexicology in Greek and Latin comedy. He holds both a M.A. degree and a B.A. degree in Classics from the University of Iowa where he also taught. Prior to joining The Grayson School, Dr. Seaberg taught Latin and Classical Greek at the University of Minnesota, and a term as a guest researcher at the University of Freiberg in Germany.

Additionally, Dr. Seaburg is a published author whose scholarly work on the Greek comic playwright Cratinus offers a translation and commentary on 205 of the author’s 514 known fragments and dubia. He has presented professionally at a Classics conference in Murano, Italy.

Dr. Seaberg feels that gifted students deserve, and benefit from, the challenges presented by classical languages, which are complex and detailed.

Monique Sias is passionate about Universal Design for Learning and equity within teaching and learning.

Ms. Sias holds a B.A. in Humanities from Siena Heights University, and an M.A. in Teaching and Learning from High Tech High Graduate School of Education. She is pursuing an M.A. in Urban Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Monique Sias is a project-based learning teacher with 11 years of extensive experience in the classroom, and in developing and operating enrichment programs. Prior to joining The Grayson School, she was on the faculty at High Tech Middle School in San Diego, and was Director of the STEAM Academy at the University of San Diego offering enrichment programming for underrepresented groups in STEAM.