opening doors to the world… the lausanne way!

Ms. Rachel Hammons joins our facultyas our 7 th grade social studies teacher.She served the maternity leave positionfor 7 th Grade Social Studies last springand is no stranger to Lausanne. Ms.Hammons has worked at our schoolsince 2002 in our Athletics, AfterCareand Summer Camp Programs. She has aB.A. in political science communicationsand a M.A. in English from theUniversity of Memphis, where shegraduated magna cum laude and was aRegents’ Scholar. During her collegiatecareer, she served as a legislative internfor Senator Mark Norris and traveled toChina with the Confucius Institute.Mrs. Andrea Harris joins the LowerSchool as a 2 nd grade teacher. She is apublished writer, having written aparenting column that ran in weeklynewspapers across the region. Her workhas been mentioned in USA Today. Mrs.Harris graduated cum laude from theUniversity of Memphis and previouslytaught 4 th grade. She is an awardwinningphotographer and owned herown photography business. An activevolunteer in the Collierville community,she has worked closely with theCollierville Food Pantry, ColliervilleVictory Garden, the Collierville HomeSchool Group and Tara OaksElementary School.Mr. Tyler Orf joins our Upper SchoolSocial Studies Department. He comes toLausanne from St. Louis University HighSchool, where he taught 9 th grade worldhistory, coached football and lacrosseand was actively involved in thecommunity service program. Mr. Orfreceived his B.A. at the University ofTulsa. He graduated magna cum laude,was a member of Phi Beta Kappa andwon the James P. Ronda Award forAmerican History during his time at TU.His first year out of college was spent inthe marketing and event department ofa Fortune 500 company, experience thatlends itself to his new position as aneconomics teacher at Lausanne. He willalso be teaching American Governmentand coaching Middle School golf andboys varsity lacrosse.Ms. Sara Schneider joins our 6 thGrade teaching team as our MiddleSchool language arts teacher. Ms.Schneider is a cum laude graduate of theUniversity of Memphis, where sheearned a B.S. degree in education with aspecialty in grades K–6 English. She hastaught at St. Francis of Assisi School andBruce Elementary. Ms. Schneider alsohas coached sports on the varsity andMiddle School levels the past few years,namely at St. Benedict High School. Shebrings her experience of playing softballfor Memphis and coaches our MiddleSchool girls team.Ms. Stephanie Slough teaches UpperSchool chemistry, environmentalscience and IB biology. After graduatingfrom Colorado State University, Ms.Slough spent 15 years in agriculturalresearch before returning to education.She spent several years teaching on theisland of Yap in The Federated States ofMicronesia, Thailand and Jordan beforejoining the Lausanne faculty. In additionto her love of science, she is anaccomplished photographer andrecently had her works displayed in theLausanne Family Art Show. She wasawarded the National Council ofCommercial Plant Breeders GraduateStudent Award in 2000.Mrs. Tela Thigpen joins us as ourDirector of College Advisement. Herbachelor’s degree is from ChristianBrothers University, where she has beenAssociate Director of Admission for fouryears. She has worked in highereducation for a decade. In the pastsemester, she’s arranged over 70 collegevisits to Lausanne in addition to the oneon-onecollege counseling andpresentations she provides to studentsand parents. She serves on the RhodesCollege Advisory Board and is the cochairof the Memphis NationalAssociation of College AdmissionCounseling (NACAC) College Fair. Shehas been nominated for a board positionon the Southern Association of CollegeAdmission Counseling (SACAC). Inaddition, she dabbles in print modelingand is an accomplished vocalist. Sherecently sang the National Anthem toopen our homecoming games.26 L A U S A N N E s p r i n g 2 0 1 1 w w w . l a u s a n n e s c h o o l . c o m 27