FACULTY DIRECTORY

VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS

Jennifer Chambers (she/her) completed her undergraduate degree in Music Education f (she/her)rom DePaul School of Music, DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, and her Master’s in Vocal Performance from Hunter College in New York. Jennifer has taught in London, New York City, and most recently has been the Music Coordinator at Hanover High School for 10 years. She currently serves on the NH All State choral committee and is the President elect for the New England Music Festival Association. She holds her CAGS from New England College and is one of the founding members of NESA.

HUMANITIES

Alexis Schleicher (she/her) grew up in Norwich, Vermont, studied abroad in high school, attended college in Los Angeles, and worked in New York City before returning to the Upper Valley to pursue teaching. She has worked in private elementary schools and public high schools, museums, and has taught English, Social Studies, and a Flexible Pathways course at Hartford High School in WRJ, VT. She holds a BA in Art History & English from Occidental College and a M.Ed from New England College. She is a Highly Qualified Teacher in secondary English and Social Studies, and was 2020 VT Teacher of the Year Finalist.

MATH & SCIENCE

Matt Huyck (he/him) holds a BS in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University. His first job was teaching corporate executives new ways to use technology as they navigated a surge of interest in the internet in the 1990s. He has managed and analyzed data for research studies, built computer tools to make sense of diseases and pathogens using AI techniques, and contributed to the scientific literature and open source software community in the process.

Matt has been a Maker since before there was a name for it. He lives in the Upper Valley with his family and his vast collection of math and science books and electronic parts. During the pandemic, he developed a passion for teaching as a substitute at the Lyme School and as a volunteer coach for their FIRST Lego League robotics team.

SPANISH

Natalia X. Monetti is a passionate and dynamic Senior Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Dartmouth College, where she’s been inspiring students with her communicative approach to language learning for over a decade. With roots in Argentina and academic training from Washington University in St. Louis, Natalia seamlessly blends real-life materials—think music, visual art, and cinema—into her teaching to create a lively classroom experience that goes beyond textbooks.

Her research spans applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and the vibrant narratives of migration and displacement in 20th and 21st-century literature from Spain and the Southern Cone. Natalia’s innovative spirit has earned her numerous grants, including funding for experiential learning projects that explore topics like language, racism, and sustainability.

Outside of work, she is a mom to two energetic boys, a frequent visitor to the cinema (yes, the actual one!), a soccer fan, and an avid reader who loves nothing more than diving into the pages of a fresh new book.

CIRCUS

Joshua Shack decided to become a clown when he was just three years old, and at age nine, he began performing his solo show at many local events. As a teenager, he toured for four summers with Circus Smirkus. He then toured nationally as a clown with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. 

He is a co-creator and performer of The Piccolini Trio and directed their critically acclaimed stage show Circus in a Trunk. Other directing credits include Out of Orbit at The Theater at Saint Peter’s in New York City; Nothing but Nonsense, a variety musical comedy at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI; the Circus Smirkus 2024 Big Top Tour The Imaginarium; and more than 20 productions with Theater in the Open in Newburyport, MA. He served as creative consultant for Ragtag (Cirque Us) and The King Stag (Boston College), and Associate Director of Pagliacci (Opera Vermont).

He is a teaching artist-in-residence for Circus Smirkus, and has served in a dozen different roles with the company, including Production Manager, Director of Programming, and Associate Artistic Director.

ACTING

Alan Haehnel teaches middle and high school Theatre at NESA. He has been involved in theatre since college as an actor, director, and writer. His credits include numerous published plays and monologues that have been performed worldwide, the Vermont Playwright's Award in 1993, and several Vermont State Championships for his original one-acts entered in the Vermont One-Act Play Festivals. He lives in Hartford Village with his wife and three children.

DANCE

Denise Frawley has been in theatre since the age of 7 when she performed with the Regale Players in Waltham, Massachusetts. She toured the country as a dancer and singer and performed for artists such as Frank Sinatra and John DeLouise. She was the first female to win the state championship in Waltham, Massachusetts for soap box derby racing and went on to represent Boston at the world championship in Akron, Ohio. Denise has spent the past 20 years of her life in the Upper Valley choreographing shows at Hanover High School, Crossroads Academy, the Lyme School and Hartford High School. She is passionate about starting a performing arts school and believes in any opportunity that provides more access to the arts for the Upper Valley community.

Cartooning

Michael Albrecht is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Vermont. His work explores queer expression through speculative fiction, the complexities of love without romance, and why robots keep making him cry.

Costume Design

Masaki Schuette started sewing and making children’s clothing in the mid- 1990s, right after she married her husband and moved to New England from Ja­pan. She went back to school to get a BFA at Mas­sachusetts College of Art and Design and majored in environmental design, with a focus on fashion design.

Fine Art

Fred Faudie works out of his studio in Norwich, Vermont where he lives with his wife and teenage son who share his painting, photography, and design studio: SeeingMind. He has exhibited his drawings, prints, and paintings in numerous juried shows across the country, including having his work accepted to group and one-person exhibitions in Washington, D.C., Andover, Massachusetts, Boston, and New York City. He is a Professor Emeritus with the Art Department of the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he taught studio courses for thirty-four years. During his tenure there he taught basic, intermediate, and advanced studio courses, various art history courses, set up several analog darkrooms, and taught the first computer art course. He was a key player in developing their accredited B.A. and B.F.A. degrees. Fred Faudie holds an A.B. in Art History from Cornell University, an M.A. in painting from the University of Iowa; participated in post-graduate studies in photography at the University of Iowa, and holds an M.F.A. in Illustration from Syracuse University.

Ballet I

Elizabeth Chambers is a recent graduate of Hanover High School. She will be attending The Hartt School majoring in Musical Theatre this fall. Elizabeth has studied ballet seriously since she was 3 years old and loves inspiring young artists to chase their dreams and to fall in love with ballet just like she did.

Brass Instruction

Bill Keck graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a performer’s certificate on Tuba.

He studied with Arnold Jacobs.

Bill toured internationally with the Mexico City Philharmonic and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.

He has a Master’s degree in music education from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago.

DANCE

Jennifer is an experienced dance teacher and dance coach specializing in technical training and performance preparation. She is classically trained in the Vaganova method of ballet, classical modern techniques (Horton & Graham), and jazz (Luigi, Maddox, Hachett). She graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts in 1989, and supplemented her training with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre from 1985-1991 before being signed, working and traveling with the Campbell Agency (Dallas) and Fontaine Agency (Los Angeles). In addition to walking the runways in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles, Jennifer worked in print, editorial, catalog, and commercial television advertising. Jennifer is one of the founding members of NESA.

THEATRE

Ashley Barrow hails originally from Hendersonville, NC and received her BA in Theatre Arts and Dance minor from Catawba College, in Salisbury, NC. Her theatre credits include Cape Fear Regional Theatre, South Carolina Children’s Theatre, North Carolina Theatre, Springer Opera House, Hanover High School, City Center Ballet, and Opera North. Ashley’s most recent engagement was as the Theatre Programming Coordinator for Artistree and the Grange Theatre in South Pomfret, VT. She is one of the original founding members of NESA.