MEET OUR NEW FACULTY

We kicked off Teacher Work Week by welcoming eight new Faculty and Staff members to the Mighty Monarch family. We’ve shared a bit about each of them below in the order they appear in the photo above. Please take a moment in the coming weeks to say hello as you encounter them on and around campus!

Louis “Louie” Stewart (far left, above) will be teaching Middle School Theology and serve as Religion Coordinator. He may look familiar to some as three of his four children already attend Saint Mary’s. Louie has a Masters in Divinity and Bachelor in Education. He previously worked in youth ministry in Richmond and Tennessee. He has been teaching RCIA for teens at Saint Mary’s parish for the past several years and always aims “to see knowledge grow [and] move on from the head to the heart.”

We are blessed to have Anne Carol Wood join our Early Childhood Development Center team. A graduate of Longwood and University of Virginia, Anne Carol worked as an elementary and gifted education teacher in Henrico County for over 30 years. Over the course of her teaching career she has received several professional accolades including the REB Award for Teaching Excellence. Taylor Newsome and Kaki Patterson are excited to welcome her to their First grade team!

Katie Ramsey comes to us from St. Elizabeth School in Bethesda, Maryland where she served as a second grade teacher. In her early years, Katie was also a student at St. Elizabeth’s! In reference to her calling to teach, she says, “Teaching at a Catholic school is a lot of work, but it has never once felt like a job.” Katie is a graduate of York College of Pennsylvania and has completed additional course work at Pepperdine University.

Lindsey Schwartzkopf is a recent VCU Art Education graduate who has worked with children at several local organizations including the VMFA, the YMCA and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. She grew up in Saint Mary’s parish and now attends Saint Michael’s church. Lindsey is excited to share her love for the Catholic faith and art in the classroom, noting her goal to always help her students in “creating art with personal meaning.”

With more than two decades in Early Childhood development, Caroline Koskinen most recently served as lead teacher at Reveille Weekday School’s Pre-K program. Prior to working there, she served in a few other school settings as a special education teacher. In addition to a Bachelor of Arts degree from Salem College in North Carolina, Caroline holds a Masters of Education and a Reading Specialist endorsement from University of Virginia. She describes herself as someone who enjoys all aspects of teaching ranging from playtime and direct instruction to data-driven planning for individual learning needs.

We are happy to welcome Lori Valdepenas back to Saint Mary’s as our Library Media Specialist. Lori previously taught in our Elementary School as well as in our Middle School before working at Saint Bridget Catholic School where she served as their school Librarian. While Saint Mary’s is a nut-free campus, students will immediately note her love for all things Peanuts (the Charles Schulz variety) when visiting the library this year! Lori also has two sons joining Saint Mary’s in ECDC.

Carli Simpson (far right, above) is a Registered Nurse who has served in various roles with Henrico Doctors, Bon Secours and the Virginia Department of Health. With more than a decade of nursing experience in specializations including labor and delivery, newborn screening, hospice and home health, she most recently served as a Nurse Substitute for Henrico County Public Schools. For Carli, accepting the Clinic Nurse role at Saint Mary’s feels like coming home since she is a SMCS alumna herself! Her daughter will also start at Saint Mary’s this fall as a student in our Elementary School.

Kim Graham (pictured below) is a multi-talented educator and proud mother of three children; two of whom are recent Saint Mary’s grads! We are fortunate to have her join our faculty as the new long-term substitute for Middle School Science. Kim has previously served as a long-term sub at Saint Mary’s and holds a Middle School Science endorsement in addition to a Bachelor of Arts from Mary Baldwin College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Towson University in Baltimore.