Gino Sorcinelli
Academic Support Teacher
BA, Clark University
ME, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Gino Sorcinelli enjoys working with middle and upper school students as a teacher in the Academic Support department. He works part-time at The MacDuffie School and spends the rest of his week as a freelance music journalist. When he isn’t teaching or writing, Gino enjoys hanging out with his wife, biking, cooking, reading, listening to music, watching the Celtics, and a variety of other fun activities.
Daniel Taravella
Latin Teacher; History Teacher
BA, Allegheny College
MA, University of Chicago
On the Latin side, his current professional interests are the history and archaeology of early Rome (especially Roman historical myths), Roman social history, Roman imperialism, and the art and literature of the Augustan Age. On the History side, his current professional interests are comparative world history (especially empires), imperialism and gender, and the relationship between historical developments and environmental and climatic factors.…
Lucy Tew
ELL Teacher; Theater Teacher; Campus Point Person
BA, University of Southern California
MA, Salem State University
Lucy Tew is a drama geek at heart and has been since she was the same age as her youngest students are now. Originally from Los Angeles, she has now lived and worked at MacDuffie for going on four years. In that time she has served as a Residential Assistant, Middle School Theater Teacher, English tutor, creative writing instructor, and the Assistant Dean of Boarding Life, and has been a part of the production team on seven MacDuffie Theater productions (including devising and directing two spring plays).…
Carol Tomkiel
English Teacher; Chairperson of English Department
BA, Dartmouth College
MA, Georgetown University
Carol Tomkiel has been a member of The MacDuffie community and a teacher since 1984. In addition to her duties as chairperson and teacher, she is an ongoing member of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project and the Thoreau Institute. She is a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for Secondary School Teachers and the National Writing Project for study in the areas of philosophical approaches to the teaching of history and the reading and writing of the Holocaust, respectively.…
Jennifer Tuleja
International Student Coordinator/SEVIS PDSO and Director of the Library
BS, University of Massachusetts Amherst
MLS, Simmons College
MS, Indiana University
Jen serves as the International Student Coordinator/SEVIS PDSO. She is available to support international students and their families in their time at MacDuffie. Jen is also the Director of the Library and ensures all MacDuffie students learn skills to locate, select, and incorporate academic sources into their coursework.…
Melissa Valentine
Science Teacher
BSc, Gettysburg College
MEd, Marymount University
Melissa Valentine grew up in CT and spent the first part of her career working for non-profits in DC including the Smithsonian Institution. After teaching in Maryland for 9 years she was excited to trade the traffic of the DC metro area for the beautiful Pioneer Valley. In the classroom, Melissa can be found wearing her science on her sleeve (literally, with her science-themed clothes) and telling bad science pun jokes.…
Dennis Wilcox
Mathematics Teacher
BA, Skidmore College
Dennis is a mathematics teacher at MacDuffie. He earned a B.A. in Mathematics from Skidmore College. He began working at Macduffie 2013 but has been teaching math since 2000. He enjoys spending time with his children, playing basketball and watching baseball.
Craig Woolley
Math Teacher
AS, Monroe Community College
BA, SUNY at Buffalo
Craig joined the MacDuffie School in 2004 as a mathematics and science teacher in 2004 after more than 20 years in academic, medical, and industrial research. He served as the Science Department Chair for eight years, relinquishing that role in 2015.
At SUNY at Buffalo, Craig worked in the Biophysics Department researching the structure and function of biological membrane systems utilizing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). …
Xiaomeng “Sammi” Yuan
Assistant Director of Admissions
Diploma in Business
Christchurch Polytechnic Institution of Technology (CPIT), New Zealand
Sammi serves as The MacDuffie School’s Assistant Director of Admissions based out of her home town of Tianjin, China.
She attended college at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in the beautiful city of Christchurch, New Zealand where she earned her diploma in Business.…