Faculty & Staff

Following graduation from The Roxbury Latin School, Mike earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a language citation in French from Harvard University. While at the university, he was a four-year member of the varsity football team, which was the Ivy League champion in 2007 and 2008. He was also a NFF Hampshire Honor Society inductee and a Pforzheimer Foundation Public Service Grant recipient in support of his work at the Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program, an experience that inspired Mike to become a teacher. In 2016, he earned a master’s degree in English literature from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English.

 

Prior to his Westminster appointment, Mike served two years at The Roxbury Latin School as an English teacher, football and lacrosse coach, associate director of college guidance, associate director of The Penn Fellows Program and associate director of admission. Before that, he spent six years at St. Sebastian’s School teaching English, coaching football and lacrosse, and serving as associate director of college counseling. He also spent four summers teaching English at The Steppingstone Academy. Mike was a board member of Adams Montessori School for four years, taught one year at Duxbury Public Schools and spent a fall as a high school English language assistant teacher in France.

 

At Westminster, Mike teaches English and is the dorm head in Squibb House, where he lives with his wife, Maddy Reavey, an advertising strategist, son, Wes, and Roux, their lively wheaten terrier. His interests include reading, writing, outdoor exploration of all kinds, yoga and meditation and traveling whenever possible. 

For over a decade, Elgin has worked at the intersection of research astronomy, theoretical physics, and education, bringing real-world science into the K–12 classroom. He began with planetarium and observatory training for public outreach and research at Valdosta State and North Georgia College, and later conducted early exoplanet detection research as an undergraduate.

Since then, he’s taught in public schools, served as a graduate teaching assistant in physics, astronomy, and science education, and worked as a research assistant at the University of Georgia for AiMS modeling in biology as well as high-latitude molecular cloud mixing. He holds master’s degrees in astrophysics and separately in science education and is currently completing his PhD, focused on teaching 3D, time-dependent celestial mechanics through modeling and inquiry.

His broader research experience includes writing science communication briefings for the Department of Energy’s Cosmic Frontier program and translating stem cell biophysics research into a high school lesson, presented at Georgia Tech’s CEISMC conference (2023).

As of 2024–2025, Elgin is expanding Westminster’s Student-led Astronomical Research Symposium (STARS) program, mentoring students in photometric data collection and exoplanet detection using the campus observatory and collaborating with public observatories across the region. He envisions a future where K–12 astronomy serves not only as a spark for curiosity, but as a real contributor to distributed research—empowering students to move beyond the classroom and into science.

Elgin lives on campus with his partner, Dr. Ilkiz Bildik (a mathematician and teacher at The Ethel Walker School), and their Belgian Malinois, Luna. When he’s not teaching, coaching, researching, or mentoring, he’s often found training for triathlons, experimenting in the kitchen, capturing the night sky through astrophotography, or playing his guitar—always seeking new ways to blend creativity, movement, and meaning.

Elgin brings a wealth of knowledge into the physics and astronomy classroom to help connect every lesson to the real world in some way for each individual student—as he is passionate about education that extends beyond the walls of any school to help students find a drive to become lifelong learners and engaged community stakeholders.

Maya comes to Westminster from Pingree School in South Hamilton, Mass., where she taught math. While at Pingree, she coached volleyball, basketball and lacrosse — her interest in math and sports culminated in her designing a Stats in Sports elective, Moneyball. Maya has been involved in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at Pingree, as well as tutoring through the school’s Quant Center.

 

At the University of Tennessee, she majored in psychology and Hispanic studies. In college, she was the captain of the equestrian team and judo club. She enjoys coaching volleyball, basketball, field hockey and lacrosse. She is fluent in Spanish and enjoys advising students.

 

At Westminster, Maya is a Learning Specialist and teaches math. Maya is the head coach for both Thirds Field Hockey and Thirds Girls’ Lacrosse. She is the dorm head of Alumni House, where she lives with her partner, Luke McKenna and their cats Mo(ana) and Vino. Her interests include puzzling, working out and traveling whenever possible.

With decades of coaching experience and a proven record of success, Tony coaches varsity boys’ soccer at Westminster. He holds a USSF National C License and has guided high school and club teams to numerous championships, including a state title, multiple conference wins, and national tournament appearances. In addition to his coaching achievements, Tony has served in leadership roles at Connecticut Football Club and Rocky Hill Soccer Club.