Six new teachers, including three leave replacements, joined the Sacred Heart Greenwich Upper School community this school year.
Ms. Lesly Deschler Canossi is filling in for Upper School Photography Teacher Ms. Kev Filmore, who is developing personal works during her sabbatical. Ms. Deschler Canossi will be teaching all photography courses this year.
Ms. Deschler Canossi taught at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City for over ten years. At ICP, she taught photography to both teenagers and adults, but her primary role was as the lead faculty member in the one-year intensive image-makers program. The image-makers program is a competitive program for highly motivated high school juniors and seniors with a deep interest in photography as a means of visual storytelling according to icp.org.

“My overall goal [this year] is to honor and continue the thoughtful space Ms. Filmore has created while bringing the best of my experiences and knowledge to our students,” Ms. Descheler Canossi said.
While Upper School English teacher Dr. Allison Alberts is on maternity leave, Dr. Colleen Cusick is teaching Foundations of Literature to freshman for the first half of the school year.
Dr. Cusick previously worked as a graduate teaching fellow and a writing fellow as well as an adjunct professor at Queens College where she taught undergraduate students. She then transitioned to Townsend Harris High School in Queens, NY, where she taught seniors.
Accustomed to teaching in a large public school setting, Dr. Cusick is excited to be part of the Sacred Heart community and getting to know each of her students individually.
“My goals are to encourage Sacred Heart’s ninth graders to develop as writers and as readers of literature, to teach them new ways to think about written texts and to help them grow more comfortable expressing themselves on paper,” Dr. Cusick said.
The final leave replacement is Ms. Aimee Bolash. Ms. Bolash is teaching the first semester of honors and Advanced Placement (AP) biology while Upper School Science Teacher and Chair of Upper School Science Department, Dr. Kristina Gremski is on maternity leave.
Before coming to Sacred Heart, Ms. Bolash taught Middle and Upper School biology at the Castilleja School, an all-girls independent school in Palo Alto, California. Ms. Bolash is enthusiastic about teaching in a Catholic, all-girls setting again.
“I went to an all-girls Catholic high school myself,” Ms. Bolash said. “It is a very special environment, so I am enjoying being part of the Sacred Heart community.”
In addition to the three leave replacements, Sacred Heart also welcomes Mrs. Alycia Crane and Mrs. Christine Gerrity as the new Co-Directors of College Guidance and Dr. Tyler Wadzinski as a new Upper School chemistry teacher.
Mrs. Gerrity previously worked as the Director of Guidance and College Placement at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers, NY. Mrs. Crane worked as a college guidance counselor at Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford, CT. 
Before coming to Sacred Heart, Dr. Wadzinski attended graduate school at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In July 2017, he defended his Ph.D. dissertation in organic chemistry. During his time in graduate school, he took classes, performed laboratory research, and taught organic chemistry courses to Yale undergraduate students.
“I have two main goals for this year. My first goal is to be an effective and inspiring teacher […] I hope my students will have learned more about chemistry than they ever thought possible! My second goal is to be a helpful and trusted advisor, both to my advisory and to my students. I hope to learn as much from my advisees and students as they learn from me,” Dr. Wadzinski said.  
– Shantel Guzman, Co-Sports and Health Editor