Head of School Announces Two New Teaching Chair Endowment Recipients

The comprehensive campaign for St. Stephen’s aims to strengthen every aspect of the school, including direct support of faculty and staff salaries and increased funds for professional development. Thanks to the generosity of donors and the school’s early success during the advanced phase of the campaign, Head of School Chris Gunnin has announced the recipients of two new endowed teaching positions: the Laura Camp Endowed Teaching Chair and the Mary Crawford Wolff ’58 Endowed Teaching Chair in English.

In addition to recognizing these two faculty members with the honorary title and a monetary stipend for up to four years, the establishment of the endowed teaching chairs will add approximately $30,000 annually to the general faculty and staff salary budget line in perpetuity. 

“All faculty benefit from these gifts, so I hope you’ll join me in offering thanks to the donors who believe in the sacred mission of teaching and want to support our faculty,” said Gunnin in an email to faculty and staff members.

The inaugural recipient of the Laura Camp Endowed Teaching Chair is Film and Theatre Instructor Mike Dolan. 

“Mike Dolan is a teacher who for years has been known for his commitment to students and to the school.  In the classroom, he has both encouraged students to discover their artistic vision and done tireless work to help them realize their vision. He has directed plays, starred in and advised student films and orchestrated and recorded all kinds of events on campus. During COVID lockdowns in 2020, he made great use of his technological skill and creative vision to give students the chance to be together, even when they were apart. And for years, he has been the sole sponsor of two of the year's most popular events, the Upper School play and the Upper School Film Festival.

Both have required many hours of dedicated work outside of the school day. Dolan is also known as an advocate for many, many different kinds of students. As much as he has helped students learn how to act on the stage, he has also supported all manner of sports teams, including captaining the faculty “practice squad” for varsity Girls’ Basketball. For years, he went with students to spend a week of his spring break at our sister school in Haiti, St. Etienne. He has also been among the most active adults in our community in creating a school that is more appreciative of diverse, equitable and inclusive. As one of his colleagues has said, “his wide-ranging mind, his willingness to see the possibility in every kid and his ability to draw the best out of them is awesome.”

The inaugural recipient of the Mary Crawford Wolff ’58 Endowed Teaching Chair in English is Upper School English Instructor Ben Hines ’91.

Every day Hines’ classroom is a high-energy experience where he pours his intellectual energy and whole heart into every lesson. The conversations he sparks about some of the biggest and most important ideas in the human experience often carry over into after-class discussions by his desk, on The Hill, on the field or during informal lunch gatherings on free seating days. Students in Hines’ classes are eager to push themselves to deepen their perspectives and understandings of the world, and he asks himself and his colleagues to do the same. He generates conversations about pedagogy that make us better teachers and, in turn, make our students better readers, thinkers and citizens.

When you spend time with Hines, you’re always in for something thoughtful AND thought-provoking. He is committed to the art of teaching, reading and thinking about the philosophical underpinnings of all the literature he presents and constantly refining his lessons, no matter how many times he has read the book. Hines is also one of the first people to volunteer when someone needs a hand, and his generosity and fierce loyalty to his students, his colleagues, and his craft are among his most defining qualities. It’s ironic that he loves to take a deep dive into postmodern literature and theory, spending time thinking about what is “real,” when he and the work that he does are some of the most real, solid and meaningful things you will encounter on The Hill.