Exeter Welcomes New Faculty pt.2

Associate Director of College Counseling

Ramiro Campos

Snow in Exeter, NH, may be routine for some of us, but it’ll be a new experience for Associate Director of College Counseling Ramiro Campos. As a warm-weather native, Exeter will be Campos’ first introduction to New England’s chilly yet fun-filled winters.

Seasonal variety wasn’t the main reason Campos came to Exeter, though. After visiting some classes in 2016, he was in awe of the collaborative efforts of the students. “The level of critical thinking and collaboration that is going on in the classroom is out of this world,” he said.

Campos knew Exonians from the other side of the school too—as an admissions officer for the University of Southern California, he was familiar with many of their applications. “I was impressed by their level of engagement,” he said. Now that he’ll be assisting students in the college admissions process, he hopes that he will get to know them on a more personal level.

Associate Director of College

Counseling and Financial Aid

Matti Donkor

Associate Director of Admissions and Assistant Director of Financial Aid Matti Donkor has lived in more places as a child than most people will in their lifetimes. Her parents both had careers in the UN, so young Donkor moved to many countries, including Ethiopia, Switzerland and Uganda.

After living in various communities all across the globe, Donkor has come to Exeter eager to improve the school’s racial, cultural and socioeconomic diversity. Her favorite part of the job is seeing her work manifest on campus through differences the admitted students make.

Instructor in Theater and Dance

Anna-Maria

Forger

With a dual degree in Theater and English, Forger questioned which direction she should follow for her career after graduating from Saint Michael’s College. She had completed several rigorous summer stock seasons and had gained experience with costume design, set construction, directing, property construction, dramaturgy and stage management. She also worked freelance costume design for Gordon’s College on the side. “It was working at Gordon and creating a Costume Workshop program there that made me realize I needed an outlet far more creative than publishing would offer me,” she said. It was then Forger decided to pursue a career as a theater educator. “Exeter is giving me the opportunity to [work in theater] and in the “realistic” way I had been hoping for,” she said.  In addition to the theater, Forger enjoys yoga and singing—she was part of a few acapella groups in college. She has recently adopted a cat named Chalupa, or Lup for short.weeks at Exeter.

Head of Archives and Special Colletions

Magdaline Lawhorn

Magdaline “Magee” Lawhorn has pursued two radically different careers: one as a library archivist and the other as a music artist. The former has led her from Connecticut to Cambridge, MA, and now to the Academy as the library’s new Head of Archives and Special Collections.

Lawhorn has found success on the stage as well as in the stacks. Her work with both big and small groups began with a recognizable name: as a child, she had a role in a Mariah Carey music video.

Lawhorn will use her multidimensional creativity to update the renovation of the basement archives into “a new space where the archives and special collections will be united.”

Associate Director of Admissions

and Multicultural Outreach

Mbakwe Okafor

If you need book recommendations, look no further than the new Associate Director of Admissions and Multicultural Outreach Mbakwe Okafor. A self-described “avid reader,” Okafor enjoys reading autobiographies, his favorite at the moment being Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime.

Trevor Noah isn’t the most important “Trevor” in Okafor’s life, though—that distinction belongs to his 10-year-old son. Okafor loves to compete in baking battles against Trevor, although he acknowledges that “[Trevor] usually wins.”

Although Okafor may not be the most skilled baker in his house, he is excited to use his admissions talents to select diverse groups of Exonians each year. Okafor also looks forward to meeting students and faculty on campus and learning about their lives.

Admissions officer

Hannah Graham

A Maine enthusiast and native, Hannah Graham joins the office of admissions as a new officer. Graham recently graduated from Bowdoin College, where she was a member of the women’s basketball team and worked as a senior interviewer in the admission office. Part of her undergraduate work dealt with sociological research on race on campuses.  “Ultimately, the joy I felt talking to prospective students while interviewing,  my coursework in sociology and education majors, as well as getting to know peers who almost always had amazing, transformational experiences while attending boarding schools is what led me to the PEA admission office,” she said. Graham used to attend a high school in Presque Isle, Maine, where three weeks of the year were dedicated to working on a farm. She looks forward to Academy Life Day and attending as many assemblies as possible.

Admissions officer

Katherine Pattison

A Hanover, New Hampshire native, Admissions Officer Katherine “Kate” Pattison was excited to return to her home state after spending a year teaching history at a school near Washington D.C. Pattison is excited to meet and interview prospective students. “I’m just really excited to learn as much as I can this year about [the admissions process] of independent schools,” she said. Pattison loves to play sports such as field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse, which she has participated in at high school and collegiate level. She hopes to take advantage of the athletic facilities, especially skating on the rinks.

George Bennett Fellow

Courtney Sender

Writer Courtney Sender, a lover of musicals such as Rent and Hamilton, had been aware of the George Bennett Fellowship for a long time. Her friend from graduate school, Gwen Kirby, was chosen as last year’s Bennett Fellow. Sender’s writing gravitates toward relationships, especially the more complex ones that can’t be explained through simple labels. At Exeter, Sender wants us to critically consider the value placed on marital and family relationships. “I’d love to challenge Exeter to consider how we might extend inclusivity to encompass other kinds of personal-life and relationship values,” she said. During the school year, she hopes to finish one of her two in-progress novel manuscripts, but is also looking forward to meeting and helping student writers all around campus. Her favorite authors include Gabriel García Márquez, Alexander Chee, Elena Ferrante and Hanya Yanagihara. “In a boarding school environment like Exeter, where personal and professional life are particularly blurred for faculty, I want us to think critically about the kinds of personal lives and relationships to which we ascribe value as a community,” she said.

Associate Director of College Counseling

Courtney Skerritt

Courtney Skerritt knew she would join the Academy’s faculty this fall, but she didn’t expect to find such a proud community of Texans in Exeter. A former resident of the Lone Star State, she is a fan of TexMex cuisine and an avid collector of its cookbooks.

Before moving to Texas, Skerritt grew up in Concord, NH, near St. Paul’s school. After admiring Exeter’s College Counseling Office throughout her career, Courtney Skerritt comes to Exeter to serve as an Associate Director of the College Counseling Office. “All of these experiences … have led me here to Exeter and there is such peace in knowing I’m right where I’m supposed to be working in the role that I am—helping students share their stories with admission officers who are so eager to read them,” she said.

In addition to her work in the CCO, Skerritt dreams of expanding her culinary repertoire by “spending an entire weekend baking croissants.” Hopefully, students will be able to test the results of this experiment soon.

OMA Intern

Querida De la Stuckes

Exeter’s cold winters may be new for Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) Intern Querida De La Stukes, but she’s still looking forward to watching hockey games this winter season. De La Stukes had been finishing up a yearlong fellowship at a nonprofit when her personal statement for job applications caught the eye of Dean of Multicultural Affairs Sami Atif. De La Stukes has always being interested in work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and when offered the position, she decided to come to PEA, further north than she had ever been before. Prior to her internship, she had been active with DEI, working production for identity based theater clubs and being a peer facilitator as an undergraduate at Stanford. Beyond DEI work, De La Stukes loves traveling and is an author of two books.

Licensed Clinician

Marco Thompson

Marco Thompson has always been committed to improving the lives of those around him through his many talents. In high school, Thompson used his vocal skills to sing the national anthem at varsity basketball games before getting on the court to play.

He continued to help his community through his training as a Licenced Clinician. However, his administrative work gave him less time to provide clinical assistance to patients. He hopes that he can “get back in touch with [his] roots as a clinician” at Exeter.

In the same way he makes students feel more comfortable at Exeter in his office, Thompson says Exonians have made him “feel welcomed and like a part of campus life already.” He appreciates the support students have for each other and is excited to work with the student body on mental health-related issues.

Instructor in Music

Jerome Walker

While he’s only just learning to play the guitar, Music Intern Jerome Walker has been a huge fan of singing of his life, being parts of choirs, acappella groups or musical theater. Walker just finished his bachelor’s degree in musical theater at Yale this past spring and considers his first job out of college a ‘dream come true.’ Before attending Yale, Walker was a student at a small private high school similar to Exeter. He recounts not having felt connected with his teachers, and as such aspires to form such connections with students at the Academy. “I’m hoping I can provide that for students here at Exeter, because I know it would have been really cool for me when I was in high school,” he said. In his free time, he loves listening to all types of music. “I would love to chat with folks about their favorite artists, producers, albums, etc,” he said.

Associate Director of College Counseling

Jeffrey Wong

Associate Director of the College Counseling Office, Jeffrey Wong, returns to his native New England after spending the past seven years working at schools in both Florida and New York City. While looking into Exeter, Wong found an interest in the Harkness method and student centered philosophy. “In my counseling, I always put my students first and that is a core principle of the college counseling office here,” he said. Outside of his work with college counseling, Wong is a foodie, a self proclaimed die-hard Patriots fan, and loves keeping up with politics through podcasts. Wong looks forward to getting to know all the students on campus.