Dr. Boger 

Dr. Gretchen Boger has been at Baldwin for eleven years, teaching U.S. History to grades 8-12 and overseeing the Model Congress Club. 

Next year, she will become the Dean of Teaching and Learning and the Director of the Merck Center for Teaching at the George School in Newport, Rhode Island. Although this will be an administrative position, she will still have “one foot in the classroom,” teaching a section of Honors U.S. History.

Eliza Bryant ‘24 said, “She’s such a kind and understanding person…[and is] so respected.”

Dr. Boger said, “people [at Baldwin] can be their serious academic selves, their excited-about-extracurriculars selves, their leadership selves, their ‘I’m-having-a-terrible-day-and-leave-me-alone selves,’ and there’s space for all of it.”

Dr. Boger shared a memory from a classroom debate during her early years at Baldwin: “A student was really into playing a women’s liberation activist…and she started to take off her kilt…I was covering my eyes, thinking, ‘Oh, no, what did I unleash!’”

Having toured nine schools, Dr. Boger noticed that “Baldwin students love to learn, and that’s not a given everywhere. It makes our jobs a joy.”

After discussing what she wanted in Dr. Boger’s replacement, Aubyn Mackey ‘24 realized “we were just describing another Dr. Boger, which I think is telling of how amazing she is.”

Ms. Erb

During Ms. Emily Erb’s six years at Baldwin, she has conducted the Baldwin Belles and Bronze handbell choirs and also taught handbells to middle schoolers. Her next step is a graduate program for organ performances in sacred music. She is “really excited to devote some time to that study and challenge [her]self in new ways.”

Amelia Tang ‘25 said, “the thing that I’ll miss most about Ms. Erb is her unwavering enthusiasm and happiness towards life.”

Sara Min ‘23, a longtime member of the Baldwin Belles, will miss her “love for teaching.” 

Ms. Erb also has a memorable sense of humor. Piper Skoglund ‘26 recounted when Ms. Erb showed her class a seemingly normal video of people playing bells, until “this guy’s bell broke, and just fell over.” 

Min also remembers a common saying of Ms. Erb: “If you clang the bells together, you’re killing a puppy.”

What really sets Baldwin apart for Ms. Erb is the community, particularly how “people take care of each other here; they’re genuinely invested in your life outside of what happens in the classroom.” 

She has made some “wonderful friends” saying, “this has been the best teaching job that I’ve ever had. I’m really sad to leave it, and I will absolutely be in touch.”

Dr. Sullivan

Dr. Melissa Sullivan has been teaching English at Baldwin for nine years. She has taught all levels of English, AT English, The Roaring 20s, Journalism, and headed Mock Trial. 

Next year, she will become the Dean of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment at Gwynedd Mercy High School. Although she will miss being an educator in the classroom, she said, “if I am going to try something new, I should leave while I still love what I am doing.”

Dr. Sullivan’s students remarked on her impact on them. Amelia Dennis ‘25 said, “Her passion for English and the students in the whole community is very evident in everything that she does.” 

Dr. Sullivan said she loved the times when the classroom got “too wild, because that’s when it’s the most creative.”

A perfect example of why she loves Baldwin’s community comes from the Class of 2023. After reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the entire class went outside and had a Charleston dancing competition! “That was a fantastic moment,” she said.

There’s a lot that Dr. Sullivan will miss about Baldwin, from her fellow colleagues to the great conversations she’s had— she will even miss grading students’ projects!

Makenna Walko ‘23 said, “she really believes in you, sometimes even more than you believe in yourself, and that really pushes you to really go above and beyond.”

Wilke 

Ms. Janice Wilke has worked at Baldwin for seventeen years, or as she puts it: “longer than you’ve been alive.” She has taught Drawing & Painting and Art History. Once she retires, she plans to “travel, paint, draw, read, garden, and cook.”

When asked, Ms. Wilke said her favorite Baldwin memories are “when the whole class and I laugh together, because that makes us all equal…[and] the normal things, like when I threaten students with a hammer.”

Caroline Fenton ‘25 will miss how she “lets us follow our own vision of what our art should look like.” 

Lighthouse Wu ‘24 said that Ms. Wilke views her as “an equal” when discussing art-related topics, and she’ll miss having a companion to “nerd out” with. 

Ms. Wilke said the intelligence of the students she teaches is what makes Baldwin such a special place. Her “heart freezes over” in Art History “when someone raises their hand and I know they’re going to ask me a really sophisticated question that I won’t know the answer to.”

Although she is thrilled to be moving onto the next stage of her life, she is afraid to “miss all the young voices and the young people urging me on, because the ambition of the students helps me question myself: ‘Am I learning something new or trying something that I’m afraid to do?’”