Archmere Welcomes New Faculty Members

The newest members of our teaching faculty are:

 

Rachel Briggs grew up in New Castle, Delaware where she developed a love for drawing and painting at an early age. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. There she majored in Drawing & Painting with a studio concentration in Video & Film. Later moving back to Delaware, Rachel taught painting and ceramics at New Castle County Community Services. She then moved to Philadelphia to pursue her Master of Fine Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she taught alongside Al Gury in the historic After-School Program which solidified her passion for teaching.

Rachel is thrilled to be a part of the Archmere community where she will be teaching Adobe Creative Suite, Ceramics, and AP Art & Design. By studying and creating, art students develop resilience, confidence, and problem - solving skills that go far beyond the classroom. Whether her students go on to study art or become lifelong art enthusiasts, Rachel hopes for her students to come to a deeper understanding of themselves and the endless possibilities of the world around them.

Hollie Lyko has been a maker since childhood. She comes to Archmere Academy from San Antonio, Texas but she's a native East Coaster. Originally from Hatfield, PA, Hollie attended North Penn High School and went on to earn a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Hartford and her MFA in Studio Art from Syracuse University. Hollie has taught various ceramics courses at Syracuse University, Central Texas College and Southwest School of Art. Most recently, she taught middle school art at a public charter school. Her work has been shown at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art and is included in the permanent collection of the Fuller Museum of Craft in Brockton, MA. Hollie is looking forward to a great year at Archmere, teaching Introduction to Drawing and Introduction to Design!

Lynne Fowler is originally from New Jersey but loves being a resident of Delaware. Her family has lived in Wilmington for 18 years. On the same day she graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Math and French, she was commissioned into the Navy. Lynne served in the Navy for 10 years, first as a helicopter pilot and then as an Associate Professor of Naval Science at Old Dominion University. While at ODU, she earned a Masters of Education in Exercise Physiology.

Prior to coming to Archmere, Lynne taught math at Salesianum. She has been teaching part-time at Archmere since 2021 and feels “lucky to teach both math and theology as well as serving in the office for a brief period of time.” 

In addition, Lynne has been teaching 8th grade religious education at IHM since 2006. She met her husband of 30 years at Vanderbilt and is blessed with 5 wonderful children. Together, they love taking long hikes with their dogs, traveling to new places, attending sporting events of all kinds, and paddleboarding. Lynne “loves math and is so excited to be teaching Algebra and Geometry full time this year”.

Taylor Tucker grew up mainly in Wilmington, DE and Trainer, PA, and now currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. She feels most at home in Talbot County, Maryland, where her mother's family still owns a house and land purchased by Taylor's great-great-great-great-grandfather following emancipation. Her family history serves as the biggest driving force behind her academic pursuits as she continues her career as an educator. 

 

After graduating from Archmere in 2016, Taylor went on to Swarthmore College, graduating in May 2020 with high honors and a Bachelor of Arts in Black studies and educational studies. Her undergraduate honors thesis research focused on the educational, racialized, and gendered experiences of Black women with incarcerated family members. Taylor also serves on the executive board of Swarthmore College’s Black Alumni Network and is a founding member/core leader of the Multicultural Alumni Collective at Archmere Academy.

 

Taylor earned a M.S.E.d and a secondary teaching certification in secondary English from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Her master’s capstone focused on the impact of teachers being rooted in responsive education and how Taylor could better align her own teaching practices to her students’ life goals. Through Penn’s Urban Teaching Apprenticeship Program, she partnered with the School District of Philadelphia as a Teaching Resident for the 2020-2021 school year.