Appointments for 2016-2017: Yan, Maniaci, Kaba

Dear SSIS Faculty –

We are pleased to share with you some additional hires for the 2016-2017 school year. This has been an unique hiring season thus far. We began posting positions back in October as our teachers began to declare their intentions to move on. While we are sorry to lose any member of the community, the world of international schools knows change in ways that many national schools do not. We are grateful to those departing for early notification and for the opportunity to begin our searches early.

These early postings elicited a very large number of contacts from teachers around the world interested in coming to work at SSIS. We are thrilled by the responses and very excited that these individuals will be joining us this summer.

Luxia (Lucy) Yan HS Mandarin Chinese

Regina Maniaci ES Art Specialist

Dawne Kaba MS Physical Education

Luxia (Lucy) Yan

Dr. Yan earned her BA in Chinese Language and Literature from Hebei Normal University and her MA and PhD in the same field from North Technology University and Beijing Normal University, respectively. She taught at international schools in China, including Dulwich College in Beijing, before moving overseas to teach at Sinarmas World Academy in Jakarta and Gyeonggi Suwon International School in Korea. She has taught all levels of Chinese including Mandarin Ab Initio, Mandarin B SL/HL, and both Mandarin A courses at SL/HL. Luxia is an IB Workshop Leader, an IB Examiner and an IB School Visitor. Luxia will join the SSIS community with her husband, a retired professor who runs his own educational resources firm, and her six-year-old daughter.

Regina Maniaci

Ms. Maniaci is a graduate of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. She worked as a designer and proprietor for Queens Orchard Studio in Chicago, as well as a regional director of resident arts program and arts coordinator, before entering international teaching. She served at the International Community School of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast and the Universal American School in Dubai before moving to China in 2011. There she taught at the Tsing Hua International School in Beijing and is now Primary Art Teacher at Yew Chung International School in Shanghai.

Dawne Kaba

Ms. Kaba has earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of British Columbia, one in Human Kinetics and a second in Education, and she holds a Masters in International Education Administration from Endicott College.  She is a certified Canadian instructor who taught physical education and health at the secondary level in her native Canada before moving to the Billingham School in the UK. From there she fulfilled a lifelong dream of moving to Africa where she has served since 2006 at the Lincoln Community School in Ghana as a teacher, department head, and Athletic Director. Dawne joins the SSIS community with her husband, a certified forensic accountant, and their two children, ages 5 and 7.

Please join Dan, Molly, Jacob and me in welcoming all our new hires.

Sincerely yours,

Mark Sylte, Head of School