News & Events

Our newest faculty members have officially been welcomed into the Norfolk Academy family!

The group received orientation Monday and Tuesday, two days when they learned about our Honor System, technology, and more. They were also able to tour campus and meet many of their new colleagues.

Here are the teachers joining our family for 2022-23:

Kristen Burns, Third Grade Teacher
B.A., Penn State
M.Ed., Vanderbilt University

Mrs. Burns returns to Norfolk Academy and to the third grade team, where she served in 2018-19. She has spent the past three years teaching at Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland, a leading independent boys’ day school. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Penn State, where she was a Schreyer Honors College Scholar. In addition to receiving many academic honors, she was a varsity swimmer with All-Academic Big Ten Recognition. She pursued her graduate work at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, earning a masters degree in teaching and learning. She then relocated to Pennsylvania, where she taught first and fourth grades during her years in the Quaker Valley school district. She has coached swim teams, Girls on the Run and volunteered in a variety of organizations. In addition to teaching, she will coach swimming.

Paul Carrezola, Strength and Conditioning Coordinator & Middle School Physical Education Teacher
B.A., Rutgers University
M.S., Concordia University

A native of the Philadelphia area, Mr. Carrezola graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication. While at Rutgers, he appeared in more than 50 games at tight end for the football team. During his collegiate football career, he helped win a Big East championship and participated in four postseason bowl games. Following graduation, he participated in minicamp with the NFL's Oakland Raiders. He began his coaching career at Rutgers, serving as both a professional intern and graduate assistant in the strength and conditioning department. He went on to serve as the athletic transition liaison, strength and conditioning coach, and physical education teacher at New Egypt High School and Central Regional High School in New Jersey. He has also coached football, boys basketball, boys lacrosse, and girls track and field. He earned a Master of Science degree in Applied Exercise Science with a focus in Strength and Conditioning from Concordia. He is a member of both the National High School Strength and Conditioning Association and NSCA. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the NSCA, a Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitator (TSAC-F) through the NSCA, and possesses a United States Weightlifting Level 1 certification.

Jordon Crichlow, Band Instructor - Lower, Middle, and Upper School
B.A., M.A.T., Hampton University

Mr. Crichlow is a Virginia native saxophonist, composer, and educator. A participant in Hampton University's five-year MT program, he graduated with honors and received the School of Liberal Arts and Education honors award. While at Hampton, he was a member of the Marching Band, Orchestra Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and Jazz Band. He also performed for and/or was a member of Pharrell Williams' Voice of Fire, the National HBCU Navy Jazz Band, and Attucks Theater’s 100th Anniversary Community Celebration Special. He has past educational experience working during the summers with students of all ages in Hampton’s Music Enrichment Program, Chesterbrook Academy’s Summer Music Enrichment Program, and as Graduate Assistant for the Hampton University Marching Band. He performs regularly throughout the Tidewater/Richmond Area and also provides clinics, coaching, and lessons, teaching all instruments, specializing in saxophone, clarinet, flute, and piano. He is trained in both classical and jazz repertoire and is equally accomplished in both.

Thierry Durand, French Teacher – Middle, Upper School
B.A., M.A., University of Lyon
M.A., Ph.D., Washington University

Mr. Durand comes to us from his native France with more than 30 years of teaching experience, including work in higher education at Washington University, Dickinson College, and Middlebury College. Most recently, he taught French Literature at the Lycée Français Guy de Maupassant in Casablanca, Morocco. He has also taught in the IB program of the International School of Indiana and is a professor emeritus of French studies from Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon. On top of French and English, he has basic reading abilities in both German and Spanish. He also has published a book about the contemporary French novel and a number of articles about 20th century French literature in peer-reviewed publications. In addition to teaching, he will coach soccer.

Daniel Garbutt, History Teacher – Middle School
B.A., Princeton University

Mr. Garbutt is a native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he had a distinguished high school academic and athletic career as a three-sport athlete. He pursued his undergraduate education at Princeton, majoring in history and also attaining All-Ivy League standing as a heavyweight rower and member of the University’s Crew Team. His mother and father were career teacher-coaches in the public and private school systems in New Jersey. Drawn to work in education by his parents’ example, he began coaching crew at the University of Washington and at Northeastern University before pursuing a high school teaching position in history and English in a private New Jersey high school, where he also coached football. He enjoyed a two-year stint as a senior specialist with Merrill Lynch's Centralized Business Review Unit before returning to coaching, having served most recently as the Old Dominion University Head Women's Rowing Coach for 14 years. He will teach World Cultures in our ninth grade history program and coach swimming and crew.

Kyle Goodson, Sixth Grade Teacher
B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.A.T., North Carolina State University

A native Pennsylvanian, Mr. Goodson journeyed south to North Carolina for his final year of high school before matriculating at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he pursued his undergraduate degree in English. He was a talented three-sport athlete in high school and has continued to stay involved in athletics as a teacher-coach. After several years teaching in the North Carolina public school system and completing his graduate work in secondary English teaching at North Carolina State University, he joined the Virginia Beach public system, teaching honors English courses at Cox High School for the past eight years, while coaching lacrosse and overseeing the National Honor Society. He will teach English and science in the sixth grade program, as well as coach football and lacrosse.

Griffin Hanes, Teaching Associate – Lower School
B.A., Christopher Newport University

Mr. Hanes, a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, joins our Lower School to work with the first grade team as a Teaching Associate and will coach three seasons in our athletics program. He enjoyed a decorated academic and athletic career in high school and was a highly-recruited lacrosse player, matriculating at Christopher Newport University, where he majored in history and minored in environmental studies while starring on a talented, nationally-ranked Division III men’s lacrosse team. He is a trained open ocean rescue lifeguard and has recently worked in our summer programs as a lifeguard.

Emma Johnson, Teaching Associate – Lower School
B.S., Longwood University
M.S., Virginia Commonwealth University

Ms. Johnson was a Kinesiology major at Longwood and Sport Leadership graduate degree holder from Virginia Commonwealth. During her time at Longwood, she was a leader on the women's lacrosse team as a three-year starter and captain, and she also served as a Fitness Supervisor, Performance Coach, and Student Wellness Ambassador during her undergraduate years. While a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth, she served as an assistant coach for the women’s lacrosse team at Randolph-Macon College. In addition to serving as a Teaching Associate, she will coach three seasons in our athletics program.

Michelle LaVigne, Teaching Associate – Lower School
B.S., University of Virginia

Mrs. LaVigne joins our Lower School faculty this year as a Teaching Associate after having served as a substitute teacher last year; she will work with the second grade team. She grew up in Virginia Beach, attending college at the University of Virginia. She previously worked for several years as a Teaching Assistant at Old Donation Episcopal Day School after having spent eight years on the staff at The Governor’s School for the Arts.

Rebecca “Becks" Nash, Math Teacher – Upper School
B.S., University of Bristol (UK)

Mrs. Nash joins Norfolk Academy after 12 years of teaching Math in the United Kingdom (IB, A levels, and GCSEs as part of the National English curriculum). Upon completion of her undergraduate degree program, she worked in Australia and the Philippines before returning to London to work for Lehman Brothers in mortgage and asset trading and then took on positions at Barclays Capital Group and Bank Austria. She opted to focus on raising her two children and supporting her Naval Officer husband before re-joining the work force as a teacher at Southampton University and then The Portsmouth Grammar School (UK), where she was also head of the Year 9 program. Most recently, she taught AP Statistics and Geometry at a leading Washington DC-area independent day school, Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. In addition to teaching, she will serve in the athletics department as a swimming coach.

Shelly Stearney, Fifth Grade Teacher
B.S., Texas A&I University

Mrs. Stearney returns to Norfolk Academy after a year’s respite to help take care of her mother in Texas, where she began her teaching career in an eighth and ninth grade English position in a public junior high school. She was recognized as the school’s Teacher of the Year in this first role. She continued in this same vein, teaching English in a public junior high school program in Florida before moving to California to teach high school English and serve in an administrative leadership role. She also was recognized with a Teaching Excellence Award there. After several years devoted to raising her children and supporting her Navy Officer husband, she joined the Baylake Pines School faculty to teach in the upper elementary program.