Directory

Mac Caplan has taught Upper School English since 2005. Currently, he advises, serves as head coach of the varsity golf team, and coordinates the senior speech program. The English department chair from 2015 to 2024, Mac also previously coached girls’ soccer and baseball, oversaw the Sages & Seekers program, served as a course counselor, and co-coordinated the 2023-24 AISNE Self-Study and Accreditation process, among other responsibilities. He received the Mida van Zuylen Dunn Award for Teaching in 2011 and was named a Senior Teacher in 2017. Mac earned a BA from Yale University and an MA from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. Outside of school, he is a competitive squash player, avid golfer, and voracious reader.

Juliet Bailey P’23 joined the Rivers faculty in 1997 and currently teaches English and drama, directs Upper School plays, and advises eleventh and twelfth graders. She received the Mida van Zuylen Dunn award for teaching excellence in 2005. Before coming to Rivers, Juliet taught and directed at Millbrook School and Wyoming Seminary and earned a Fulbright Teaching Exchange Fellowship, which took her to Budapest, Hungary, for a year. A graduate of Bates College, Juliet holds an MA from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College.

Meghan Brown completed her undergraduate studies at Cornell University and received a doctorate in English literature from the University of Connecticut. She served as a teaching assistant and lead instructor for a variety of college-level courses at UConn and taught sophomore English at Boston University Academy before coming to Rivers. Meghan is an avid runner and singer outside of school.

Meredith Caplan teaches Upper School English and serves as ninth-grade dean. Prior to joining Rivers in 2013, she taught and coached at Newark Academy in New Jersey and at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. She also worked for The Steppingstone Foundation in Boston. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Bowdoin College and a master’s degree in the teaching of English from Teachers College at Columbia University. She has traveled to Romania with Rivers students to work with Romanian children. In addition to advising underclassmen, Meredith is the assistant coach for varsity girls’ soccer.

tc Hanmer joined Rivers after several years of teaching high school English, most recently at Pomfret School. In addition to teaching Upper School English, they serve as an advisor and assist with the JV girls’ basketball team and the varsity softball team. tc earned their BA in Afro- American Studies and English at Smith College and graduated from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English with an MA in English. Outside of school, tc is an avid reader, a music lover, and a movie buff.

Katie Henderson has a BA in English and communications as well as an MEd in secondary education in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently a candidate for a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, where she has served as supervisor of student teaching. Previously, Katie taught English at the Woodside Priory School. She teaches Upper School English and is an assistant coach for the girls’ cross-country team.

Jennie Hutton Jacoby joined the English department in 1995 and currently teaches eleventh and twelfth grade English in addition to running faculty evaluations. Before coming to Rivers, Jennie taught at the Breck School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and The Cincinnati Country Day School in Ohio. Jennie was the recipient of the Mida Van Zuylen Dunn Award for teaching in 2000, and in 2011, she was selected to join the Berwind Circle of teachers. She also serves on the Cum Laude Society Selection Committee. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Kenyon College.

Mary joined the English department in 2008 and currently teaches eleventh- and twelfth-grade English in addition to advising students in eleventh and twelfth grades and leading the Freshman Honors English Seminar. Her previous teaching experience includes both private and public schools, along with four years teaching composition and teacher education courses at the University of Michigan, where she spent time doing graduate work. She earned a BA from Georgetown University and an MEd from Wake Forest University. She co-advises the Rivers Gender Sexuality Alliance and co-facilitates the WALLIES (the white ally affinity group on campus). Mary also has an interest in mindfulness meditation, which she incorporates into her classes, and she is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance.

Meghan Regan-Loomis has been a member of the English department since 1992. She has served two terms as department chair and has a particular interest in the teaching of writing. In her free time, she is a hospice volunteer and enjoys reading, writing, hiking, and playing tennis. She is the 2002 recipient of the Mida van Zuylen Dunn Award for Teaching and the 2018 recipient of the William F. Gallagher Teaching Chair and was named a Nonesuch Circle Teacher in 2021. An enthusiastic Kenyon College alumna, she received an MAT from Tufts.

Madison Smith will teach Upper School English and serve as the assistant coach for the varsity volleyball team. She earned a B.A. in English and theater from Grinnell College, where she competed in DIII volleyball. A native Midwesterner, Maddy comes to New England after spending two years as a UPenn Woods English Teaching Fellow at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, during which time she earned her M.S.Ed. She enjoys being outside, making music, and writing. 

Dan St. Jean earned a BA from Yale University and an MA from Middlebury College. Prior to joining Rivers, he spent 12 years teaching English and served as a college counselor at Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania, where he also served as a college counselor. He shares Rivers’s commitment to student-centered education, to the principles of equity and inclusion, and to teaching that fosters depth of inquiry and joy in learning. In addition to teaching Upper School English, he also helps coordinate the senior speech program and serves as assistant coach of the alpine ski team.

As an English teacher and interdisciplinary studies department chair, Julian teaches tenth and twelfth grade English and interdisciplinary electives. He is a student advisor and a faculty advisor for the bioethics club, and has been a bioethics fellow at Harvard Medical School, a Yale-Hastings Scholar in bioethics, and a future of learning fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Prior to coming to Rivers, he held teaching positions at James Allen’s Girls’ School, King’s College London, and Birkbeck College London. He earned a BA from Oxford University and both an MTh and a PhD from King’s College London.