Faculty & Staff
STEM Leaders Thrive
at Research Triangle High School
Kat Baker
Kat Baker
I graduated from NC State University in 2014 and have been teaching at RTHS ever since. I am a North Carolina Teaching Fellow and a National Board Certified Teacher. I love to learn about other cultures, especially if there is food involved!
Alisha Boyd
Alisha Boyd
Life sciences is my true passion! I enjoy learning about natural biological phenomena, biodiversity, and neuroscience. My desire is to share my passion for science and inspire students of all backgrounds!
Chris Bush
Chris Bush
I’ve lived in NC for about 5 years with my wife and our dogs, and now my mother-in-law. We moved here from Hawaii where I tutored and taught at the High School and College levels. I have a degree in Music (saxophone) and have taken many post-graduate Math classes because I love Math too!
Steve Butera
Steve Butera
I am a graduate of the College of William and Mary, where I earned a BS, magna cum laude, in Mathematics. A native of New Jersey, I have been living and teaching in North Carolina since 2007, teaching mathematics, science, computer science, and robotics at both the secondary and middle school levels. Outside of the classroom, I have worked as an outdoor educator and environmental program coordinator, leading mountain biking and camping trips and facilitating school-wide composting and gardening programs. Here at RTHS, I teach AP Computer Science, Engineering, Multivariable Caculus, and hosts the Girls Who Code club.
SJ Casar
SJ Casar
Having attended multiple universities, many moons ago I finally joined the ranks of people who go to school for a living. I have mostly taught Latin and English, but have also wrangled the occasional History class.
Kristen Cook
Kristen Cook
I am a former EC (Special Education) teacher turned School Counselor. Throughout my career in education I have worked in both charter and traditional high schools.
Alex Drake
Alex Drake
I came to RTHS as one of the school’s original faculty members in 2012, teaching history and serving as the Athletic Director and President of the Central Tar Heel Conference. Immediately prior to coming to RTHS, I was a graduate assistant for compliance in the Auburn Tigers Athletic Department. I began my teaching career at Robinson High School in Concord, N.C., where I taught social studies from 2005 to 2010.
Leatha Fields-Carey
Leatha Fields-Carey
I am a member of the first group of North Carolina Teaching Fellows, earning a B.S. in English/Secondary Education from Appalachian State University and graduated summa cum laude from Campbell University with an M.Ed in English/ Secondary Education. A National Board Certified teacher in English Language Arts, I previously taught with Johnston County Schools for twenty years, serving as English department chair, Peer Coaching coordinator, mentor coordinator, School Improvement Team chair, SACS accreditation team chair, and testing coordinator. I was a semifinalist for Johnston County’s Teacher of the Year in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2009. In addition to high school teaching, I also trained lateral entry teachers through East Carolina University’s Project ACT program and have taught part-time at Campbell University.
Jarred Franklin
Jarred Franklin
I began my coaching career at Smoky Mountain High School while I was still an undergraduate at Western Carolina University. After graduating and spending a semester in graduate school I began my teaching career at Weldon High School in Weldon North Carolina. In the three years I was there I was an assistant football and baseball coach as well as the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator. I have been at RTHS since 2014 and I am the Assistant Athletic Director and the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator.
Eric Genesky
Eric Genesky
Since I began teaching in 2008, I have taught various core and Advanced Placement courses at the high school level. Thanks to a teaching fellowship at NCSU, I had the opportunity to teach Freshman Composition, which helps me to see how students’ experience in high school informs their post-secondary education.
Alan Goldstein
Alan Goldstein
I spent over twenty years working at PepsiCo World Headquarters as a senior systems design and implementation manager. After extensive international work and travel, I retired and relocated with my wife and son to North Carolina, where I took the opportunity to pursue my love of teaching. I have volunteered extensively, working as a tutor and math specialist in Wake County and as Director of Education at Kramden Institute.
Andrew Green
Andrew Green
I have been an EC teacher for 5 years. The first 5 years I worked at a middle school in Kansas City, KS. I co-taught in math, reading, science and social studies classes while working there. I also was a football, girls and boys basketball and track coach.
Akiba Griffin
Akiba Griffin
I am a NYC native with family roots in NC. I am relocating to NC with my family. I love to travel, shop, and watch football!
Jeff Guilford
Jeff Guilford
After graduating from NC State with a philosophy degree in 2011 (and as one of my class’ roughly 100 valedictorians), I got a job making minimum wage working as a outdoor educator and mountain biking instructor in Western NC. After I had had enough of that I returned to NC state to get my MA in history with a focus on modern intellectual history. Upon graduating in 2014, I got a job at RTHS and have been attempting to get kids to think really hard about their lives ever since.
Sue Hess
Sue Hess
I earned a BA in Spanish with a concentration in Latin American Studies and an M.Ed. in K-12 Foreign Language Education from the University of Florida. I began my career at Newberry High School in Florida teaching Spanish and French and coaching girls’ basketball. After moving to Raleigh, I joined the faculty at Carroll Middle School. In addition to teaching foreign language I have been a fitness instructor and has worked as a college student adviser.
Shelley Jones
Shelley Jones
I have been working with Exceptional Children for more than 20 years. I’ve created and opened two successful schools in New England, worked in residential, day, Montessori, and public school environments.
Alder Keene
Alder Keene
I love creating sketches of places that I’ve traveled to and make them into larger works of art. When I’m not teaching I enjoy running, hiking and spending lots of time adventuring with friends.
Cornelius Klein-Gloria
Cornelius Klein-Gloria
Born and raised in NYC and ended up in the south in 2010. I started working at Duke as the support lead of a proprietary psychiatric assessment tool for child and adolescents. Since then I have been at many big firms in the area such as NetFriends, NC Mutual Life, and COCG before finding my calling in education at The Exploris School and now Research Triangle High School. I have over 15 years of technical support experience and am one of those millennials without a college degree. I am happily married with two kids.
Danielle LaTour
Danielle LaTour
Hi everyone! A little about me is that I am a military brat and lived in over 20 different states. My side hobbies are nature photography, creating new desserts and reading murder mysteries. I look forward to meet everyone and being a part of the team.
Neal Myers-Perry
Neal Myers-Perry
Hello! I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Since earning my history degree from UNC-Asheville, my career as a K-12 educator has taken me from Asheville City Schools to Sogang University in rural South Korea, then to Central Park School for Children in Durham, NC. After taking a brief detour into the wild world of tech startups, I had the good fortune to arrive at Research Triangle High School in 2022. I enjoy cultivating a discussion-centered classroom environment, challenging students to make deep connections between historical and current events, and exploring new ideas through project-based learning. I’m honored to be part of such a talented team of educators and such a welcoming community.
Shana Nix
Shana Nix
I taught in Cabarrus County for a couple of years. I taught World, American I, and American II, but most of my time was spend dedicated to Civics and Economics. I have taken students abroad to Europe, and would love to do that again.
Sarah Overman
Sarah Overman
I worked in selective college admissions for ten years prior to becoming the Director of College Counseling at RTHS. Most recently, I was an Assistant Director of Admissions at NC State, where I worked directly with students and families throughout the application process and served on the admissions committee. Previously, I spent seven years working in admissions at American University in Washington, DC. I am an active member of the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling, where I have presented at the annual conference.
Christian Rainey
Christian Rainey
- Majored in communication
- From New Orleans
- Love playing soccer and watching sports
Jayshree Sadhwani
Jayshree Sadhwani
I have been teaching Spanish for over 12 years in diverse classroom settings ages K-12. I have contributed to developing curricula and procedures for assessment of Foreign Languages, namely Spanish and French in private schools. I have had experience in teaching Spanish to adults in professional fields and helped in translating technical documents.
Angelina Soulasinh
Angelina Soulasinh
I’m a recent graduate from Campbell University and I earned my degree in Sports Communication with a Sport Business minor! One interesting fact is that I got to travel to Los Angeles this past February to work at Super Bowl LVI with the official Super Bowl host Committee! My hobbies include cooking, baking, and singing!
Paul Stapleton
Paul Stapleton
I was born in Hoboken, NJ. My father was a high school math teacher. I’ve previously taught in two middle schools, four high schools, five prisons, five universities full-time and three others as an adjunct. I’ve taught in six states and in three of the four largest cities in the country. (This sounds like the beginning of a bad math question.) I’ll be teaching freshman English–which I’ve never done before. I’m hoping it’s going to keep me young(-ish), and I’m betting it’s going to keep me humble.
Jessica Stokes
Jessica Stokes
After receiving my undergraduate degree with a masters in English and a minor in Creative Writing, I stuck around UNC at Chapel Hill and tacked on an MAT degree. Then, I spent my first four years of teaching at Southeast Raleigh High School with the New Tech Program. Then, for a brief change, I hopped over to Heritage High School for a year. Then, finally, I found my home here at RTHS, where I am now celebrating my 10th year of teaching!
