Kristen Householder is the new science teacher in the Upper School. She has spent most of her career teaching biology at two local high schools, Atlee High School in Mechanicsville and Meadowbrook High School in Chesterfield. She enjoys reading, cooking, gardening, and running and is in training for her next half marathon. Her family includes her husband, Lee, and daughter, Elizabeth Mei, and they live in Ginter Park in a house that was built in 1919. Elizabeth will be attending Steward this year as a fifth grader, and their whole family is excited about joining the Steward community. Jennifer Maitland will be teaching math in the Upper School. A graduate of the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University, Mrs. Maitland has taught at Short Pump Middle School and Hungary Creek Middle School and has served as a math SAT instructor and program coordinator at the University of Richmond’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies. She enjoys singing in her church choir and was a founding member of the University of Richmond’s first all-women’s a cappella group. Mrs. Maitland is excited about joining the Steward community with her son, one of our new junior kindergartners. Livia McCoy joins the Upper School as the new Dean of Student Support. Ms. McCoy is an expert in working with high school students and has spent years helping teenagers find success in school, which is frequently the topic of her blog on SchoolFamily.com. In addition, she helps new teachers at independent schools get their careers off to a good start every summer by serving as the Director of the Teacher Development Institute in Front Royal. Ms. McCoy has held integral roles at Richmond’s New Community School for almost 30 years, having served as the Director of Professional Growth, the Coordinator of Technology, and a faculty member. She graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and earned her Master’s of Education at VCU. Ms. McCoy has two daughters, LeAnna in Cincinnati and Miki in Roanoke, and four grandsons, and she spent a week with her family in Ocean Isle this summer. In her free time, she enjoys painting and playing the piano and has been as an accompanist, a church musician, and a piano teacher in the past.
Erica Riesbeck is the new College Counseling and Alumni Relations Associate. She comes to Steward from the Office of Admissions at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, where she was raised. Prior to her time at CNU, Mrs. Riesbeck worked in Admissions at her alma mater, Washington and Lee University, for eight years. Having just moved to Richmond in June, she is looking forward to working with Steward Upper School students as they transition into the alumni world. After six years as Steward’s Lower School Costume Coordinator, Sydney Smith is joining the Department of Marketing and Communications as the Communications Coordinator. She will be responsible for Enouncements and Crossroads, putting her journalism degree from the University of Richmond to good use. She has been a freelance writer/editor for the last several years and has served in various volunteer roles at Steward, including the Lower School Room Mother Coordinator and a Destination ImagiNation team manager. Mrs. Smith’s sons, Landon (a ninth grader) and Callen (a sixth grader), are used to their mom working at their school, but are happy that she’ll have an office instead of the costume closet. Her biggest summer excitement is that she has a brand new niece whom she visited in California this August. Laura Yeatts Thomson is joining Steward as the Events Coordinator, a new position in the Office of Institutional Advancement. She was most recently a project manager at CYT Consulting and has served in many events-related roles with non-profit organizations such as the Children’s Museum of Richmond and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Ms. Thomson was also a middle school teacher for ten years at schools throughout the country—in Norfolk, Augusta, Denver, Honolulu, and Washington state! She is one of the first graduates of the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership. Mrs. Thomson and her husband have three children, a six-year-old son and two-year-old twin daughters, and she’s a Richmond native. Her family will be heading to Corolla in August for their annual beach trip before she starts work at Steward.
Crossroads
Summer 2013
53