Department: English

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Liz Friary

lfriary@sfprep.org

9th/10th Grade Dean of Students,  English 12, M.A. Healy Chair for Teaching Excellence. Liz received a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and her master’s degree from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. She taught at schools in San Francisco and Boston before making Santa Fe her home. While a proud native of Western Massachusetts, Liz loves the culture, landscape, and sense of place of northern New Mexico and is happily raising her daughter Rachel here in Santa Fe.

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“During a recent student-led Honors English discussions, I listened to 18 juniors/seniors who I hadn’t taught since 9th grade. Their depth of analysis and quality of articulation deeply impressed me. It was a great testimony to the teaching going on at Prep.” -Liz Friary

Sarah Stark

sstark@sfprep.org

7th grade English, Creative Writing, Skirmisher Literary Magazine Faculty Sponsor. A native of central Texas, Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Foreign Service from Baylor University and a Master of Arts degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She worked in the field of international security before beginning to write fiction. Prior to teaching at Prep, Sarah taught literature and fiction at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). Her first novel, Out There, won the 2015 Indiefab Editor’s Choice Award for Fiction,  Book of the Year and received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly. Sarah is the mother of three grown daughters and a 13-year-old son, Jack.  When she is not writing or reading, you may find her in the garden. She is currently working on a new novel.

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Leslie Smith

lsmith@sfprep.org

English Department Chair,  English 10. Leslie started her higher education at the conventional age, majoring in English with concentrations in French and German literature at Wellesley College. She then received an MA from St. John’s College in Santa Fe. In what might most easily be described as a mid-life crisis, she returned to St. John’s at the age of 40 to receive an undergraduate degree in the Great Books program as well before earning her master’s in English literature at CU Boulder. At Colorado, Leslie co-taught courses in Early American Literature, American Literature, and Shakespeare. She is delighted to be back in the Prep community where her two children, Griffin (’08) and Hillary (’10), matriculated. Outside of class, you might find her skiing in Taos, hiking mountain trails, or cheering on the Blue Griffins at any sporting event.

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Adam Lowenstein

alowenstein@sfprep.org

Upper School English. Adam was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he studied English at UCLA at the undergraduate and graduate levels, earning his Ph.D. in 2011. After lecturing in the UCLA English Department, Adam began working at Marlborough School, an all-girls independent middle and high school in LA, mainly teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th grade English. While at Marlborough, Adam completed a yearlong mindfulness teacher training course with iBme (Inward Bound Mindfulness Education) and began leading twice-weekly drop-in community meditation sessions and offering several workshops to students and employees. In 2022, Adam and his wife, Shenee, and two kiddos, Atticus and Margot, made the move to Santa Fe, a city they fell in love with while on a road trip in 2020. Adam feels very fortunate to be a part of the Santa Fe Prep community as a 9th-grade English teacher (and occasional mindfulness instructor).

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Drew Walker

dwalker@sfprep.org

English. Drew received a BA in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, in 2001. From there, he took off to Kyoto, Japan, where he studied Rinzai Zen Buddhism at Tofukuji Monastery. He eventually returned to the U.S. to pursue a Master of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, where he focused on world religions and ethics. After HDS, Drew taught religious studies at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, MD, and at St. Paul’s School for Girls in Brooklandville, MD. He returned to higher ed in 2008 and earned a Ph.D. in Political Theory from Johns Hopkins University in 2013. Before coming to Prep, he taught at Whitman College and was the Director of Gender Studies at Brown University. Outside of work, Drew enjoys gardening, cooking, writing, and spending time outdoors with his husband and daughter.

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Breshaun Joyner

bjoyner@sfprep.org

English 8. Breshaun has a master’s in Children’s Literature and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies department at the University of New Mexico. Her current research explores Shakespeare pedagogy across multiple grades. She has taught for nearly twenty years in traditional and non-traditional learning environments from Shakespeare performance summer camps for Kindergarten students to college classrooms. Breshaun is also a Reader at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world’s largest collection of printed works of William Shakespeare. Her passion for teaching is matched only by her desire to continually learn how to be a better educator. Breshaun’s personal teaching philosophy is that a person learns best when exposed to new concepts and ideas and is then engaged in enjoyable and critical thinking activities. Ultimately, this leads to enlightenment.

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