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 more than 10 years, Elgin has dedicated time to a career in advanced astronomy and physics outreach, communication and education. He attended Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Ga., where he first received training in planetarium and observatory techniques for both outreach and research. This training was invaluable when he started working at the planetarium and observatory at North Georgia College and State University, also as an undergraduate. Continuing on that path, Elgin has spent six years in K-12 public education schools, four years as a graduate teaching assistant in both physics and science education courses, three years as a research assistant at the University of Georgia, completed a master’s in teaching (4-12) science education and a master’s in astrophysics.

 

While teaching in public schools, Elgin developed an interest in understanding how to better get scientific thinking and practices utilized in the field into classrooms to assist students’ understanding of modern science and modern scientific techniques concerning physics and astrophysical topics. To better bridge this gap, Elgin has nearly completed a doctorate in science education studying an intervention to teach 3D-time-dependent relations in celestial mechanics to introductory students, taken internships with the U.S. Department of Energy’s High Energy Physics – Cosmic Frontier, recently worked in the Mortensen Lab on University of Georgia’s campus to better understand the biophysics of cell manufacturing, and worked alongside field experts in reducing data for high latitude molecular cloud tracers in the Milky Way galaxy.

 

When he is not pursuing scientific goals, Elgin enjoys riding his TT (triathlon) bike, running long distances, a good CrossFit workout, competing in triathlons, partaking in astrophotography, playing his guitar and cooking. 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 community members. 

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.