Welcome to James S. Rickards High School, IB World School # 000881.

I have been teaching at James S. Rickards High School since August of 2007, and I became IB Coordinator in May of 2010. During my time at Rickards, I have taught IB Music, AP Music Theory, IB and AP History, IB Philosophy, and IB Theory of Knowledge. I began my teaching career at the University of Maryland in College Park as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and a Lecturer while I was working toward my Ph.D. My dissertation, Transmitting the Balafon in Mande Culture: Performing Africa at Home and Abroad (https://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/3527), is based on fieldwork I conducted in the West African nation of Guinea and in the Northeastern United States. I bring with me to James S. Rickards High School a love of learning and an international mindset that all students should be lifelong learners who are open to receiving knowledge from multiple perspectives and cultures. I am very proud of our diverse student body of outstanding young scholars and our accomplished IB faculty. I hope to inculcate in our students both a passion for learning and a desire to be responsible citizens and environmental stewards who use their talents and skills to give back to their communities through volunteer service.