New Faculty At St.Mark's

Delin Liu ’24

This year, St.Marks welcomes twenty-two new faculty members into the community, including two from the Penn Fellowship project. 

These new Faculty members come from diverse backgrounds and possess unique identities as individuals; we warmly welcome them to join our community this year! Departments that received the “new blood” were also very fortunate since these amazing faculty members will definitely bring new perspectives into the rigorous academic curriculum at St.Marks.

Mr. DaSilva, the new Director of Community & Equity, expressed great appreciation for the community. He recognizes that students here are committed to the school and community in every aspect. He expresses great anticipation about the upcoming Groton day as he has already hung up the “Beat Groton” sign on his door. 

Mr. Dasilva is also very eager to learn more about the students here and make his office a place where people could casually come and talk to him about C&E at St.Marks. His determination to make St. Mark’s a better place is apparent through his great enthusiasm for improving the C&E program at school. Lastly, he would love for more students to drop by his office and chat about things that they see in the community. 

Ms. Glenn, a new science faculty member, also expresses her appreciation for the Science Department and the beautiful campus. She is looking forward to Groton night this year and moving into the new Dorm. 

Following the C&E department and the science department, I also interviewed two new history department faculties, Dr. Erickson and Dr. Plumb. 

Dr. Erickson has a Ph.D. and Masters in History from Oxford University, a BA in Art History, and Studio Art from Stanford University. She is super excited to join the community this year and expresses her gratitude again to the history department for all their help. 

Dr. Erickson is also a big fan of interdisciplinary and experiential learning at St.Marks, which was the main reason for her to come here. She enjoyed the community and felt connected to the people in the past couple of weeks. She is also very excited to see the school traditions while also teaching the US history class for the fifth formers this year. 

Furthermore, Dr.Plumb worked as an administrator at Brandeis University before coming, and she expressed her eagerness to teach the student here at St. Mark’s as she has waited a long time to return to teaching. Dr.Plumb then expressed her thankfulness to the student who went to her demo-teach class during the summer, and it was from then that she decided that St.Marks was the right place for her. She believes that the community contains many eager and active students. She also is an expert in African American Studies, which she hopes to bring to improve the community and its inclusivity overall.

New Head of FLIK

Jackie Huang ’24

This year, St Marks welcomes Neil Heenam as the new head of FLIK, St. Mark’s food service company. 

Although this is his first year here, Neil has previously worked at another independent school, Bancroft School, as the Food Service Director for 13 years and has had over 20 years of experience in the food industry. 

Growing up in Worcester Massachusetts, Neil’s family owned a restaurant, El Morocco, where he served Lebanese food before attending Johnson and Wales University and graduating with a degree in Restaurant, Culinary, and Catering Management/Manager. 

Neil has a big passion for food. He loves food. He loves making food, buying food, how food looks, how the market adjusts to food and everything else about it. At home, he often cooks for his wife and two sons, one as a freshman in college and the other in eighth grade. 

As the new head, Neil wants to continue what his predecessor started, in addition to building up the staff and aiming for consistency in foods and recipes. Once FLIK is fully staffed, Neil would love to put a live cooking station near the current panini bar in the small dining room where food, such as sandwiches or quesadillas, would be built on the spot

Neil wants to remind the student body to speak up when something is seen, and we can always find him in his office near admissions with any questions and suggestions.


Welcome to the pride Neil!

Here are some general reminders when eating in the dining hall:

  1. Take what you can eat

  2. Pick up after yourselves

  3. Be polite

  4. Thank the staff