GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Simon's Rock announced a number of new faculty and staff joining the community.

 

With the launch of the Bard Queer Leadership Project and the expansion of the Center for Equity and Inclusion, each of these new members of our community speaks to the exciting and progressive changes at Simon's Rock. 

 

Molly Albrecht: Dean of Students

Molly has been serving as our Interim Dean of Students since January and has collaborated across the Simon's Rock community to understand and to help improve the overall student experience.  She facilitated a section of our FYE program and initiated Dean's Hour which provided a forum for student interest and voice. 

 

Prior to joining Simon's Rock, Molly served as the Associate Director and then the Executive Director of Bard Early College Hudson Valley responsible for co-leading the opening of the expansion into Dutchess County. In her role of Associate Director she was responsible for student support. She is also currently teaching in the BARD MAT program. She holds a MAT from SUNY New Paltz, a B.A in History from Fordham University and Certification in Social Justice in Educational Leadership from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership at Manhattanville College. (B.A. History, Fordham at Marymount; MAT, SUNY New Paltz.; Certification in Social Justice in Educational Leadership, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts) is a faculty member in education and a NYS school administrator.  

 

Molly was the Associate Director of Bard Early College Hudson Valley where she co-led the opening of the expansion into Dutchess County. In the Bard MAT, she teaches Problems of Practice, a course that serves as a forum for refining challenges of lesson planning, instruction, assessment, and classroom management. Molly was recently Managing Editor for Voices in the Classroom, the Bard MAT blog where she highlighted both MAT alumni/ae and educators exploring their Why in teaching and what sustains their passion as educators. She is currently a part of the Bard Enhanced Network Teacher Education Capacity Program, where she facilitates teacher trainings on topics addressing climate change curriculum across the disciplines and trauma-informed pedagogy. Molly is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership at Manhattanville College.

 

Molly lives with her family in the Hudson Valley where she enjoys hiking with her daughter and her standard poodle.

 

Kate Glavin: Associate Dean of Studies for Bard Academy and First-Year Students 

Kate Glavin is the Associate Dean of Studies for Bard Academy and First-Year Students at Bard Academy and Bard College at Simon's Rock. She holds an MA in Literature from the University of South Dakota as well as an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She was most recently an Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts at Berklee College of Music and taught there for five years. 

 

Carla Stephens: Director of the Bard Queer Leadership Project at Bard College at Simon's Rock

Dr. Carla R. Stephens holds a B.A. in Political Science and History as well as a PhD in History from Temple University. Her areas of interest include the transnational nature of the black freedom struggle in the 1950s-1970s, particularly activism by African Americans in the liberation struggles of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. She also earned her M.S. in Educational Leadership at Montclair State University. Carla became founding faculty at Bard High School Early College in Newark, NJ in 2011. Carla was promoted to the principalship in 2017 and served the youth and Newark community for 6 years.

 

Carla brings leadership training and experience from four years at the United States Naval Academy, a decade as a manager in a Fortune 500 multinational corporation, and 6 years as an educational leader to her new position as Director of the Bard Queer Leadership Project at Bard College at Simon's Rock.

 

Jack Burkart: Faculty in Mathematics

Jack Burkart received his PhD in Mathematics from Stony Brook University in May 2021. After that, Jack spent two years doing postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (now SLMath). His research has primarily been spent on problems at the interface between fractal geometry and complex dynamical systems. Jack enjoys teaching mathematics of all types to students, whether they are advanced math majors who want to get a Phd in a subject or first year students who may not take another math course again.

 

Kameryn J. Williams: Faculty in Mathematics

Bio: PhD in Mathematics, The Graduate Center, CUNY (2018)

B.S. in Mathematics, Boise State University (2013)

 

Kameryn traveled around the United States before landing at Simon's Rock in 2023. After a childhood in the American west they went to graduate school in New York City. They then held post-doctoral positions at University of Hawai?i at M?noa in Honolulu, Hawai?i and at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas before returning to the northeast. Their research interests are in logic, especially set theory and models of arithmetic, and they are interested in connections between mathematical logic and other areas of mathematics, and to philosophy and computer science. They enjoy teaching in those areas, as well as across the mathematics curriculum. When not studying mathematical cardinals Kameryn enjoys watching cardinals and other birds, long walks in nature, and tabletop roleplaying games.

 

Kirsten Keels: Program Manager for Center for Equity, Inclusion, Community, Council for Equity & Inclusion

Kirsten is a multifaceted individual with a passion for music, cultural exploration, and self-care. Originally from Arkansas, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Princeton University, where her work focused on ethnography and South Korean language and culture. As a Fulbright Scholar in South Korea, Kirsten had the unique opportunity to immerse herself in researching the relationship between Black People, Black Music, and Korea.