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Meet the Admission Team

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Admission Interviewers

Interviews are conducted between June and January. Prospective applicants will meet with one of our interviewers that include admission officers, Choate faculty, and volunteer alumni. All interviews will be weighed equally in your Choate application, regardless of your interviewer.


Francie Irvine

Francie Irvine retired from New Canaan Country School in 2012, where she was Assistant Head for 13 years. She began her career as a French teacher at the Foote School, where she was also Director of Admissions. She was head of Ecole Bilingue in Boston and director of Secondary School Placement at Shady Hill School in Cambridge. Francie received her B.A. from Smith College and her M.A. from Middlebury College.

Edrik Lopez

Edrik Lopez teaches in the English Department and is the head coach of the varsity softball program. He was born in Puerto Rico, moved to Florida at the age of ten, speaks Spanglish, and is a loyal but suffering fan of the New York Metropolitans. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and has taught for twenty years at various institutions across the US. He loves Choate for its warmth, its intensity in its inquiry of knowledge, and its attention to a student’s overall well-being while in pursuit of excellence, in the classroom, the studio, the recital halls, or on the fields.

Selena Gell

Selena Gell joined Choate in 2016 where she is a biology teacher and Co-Director of the Choate Science Research Program (SRP). Before joining the faculty at Choate, Selena was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Genetics Department at Harvard Medical School and adjunct faculty at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (MCB) from Brown University and a BS in Biology from Brandeis University. She is also an alumna of Teach for America.

Rachel Kesler

Rachel joined Choate Rosemary Hall in 2019 as a member of the History, Philosophy, Religion, and Social Science department, where she teaches U.S. History, Government, and Contemporary Issues. Rachel is originally from Flagstaff, AZ, and moved to the east coast to attend Dartmouth College. She graduated with honors from Dartmouth with a B.A. in History and Native American Studies. Though she is new to the boarding school world, she is excited to live on campus with her partner Brad.

Smita Sen

Smita Sen is a multimedia visual artist and interaction designer. Sen serves as a Visual Arts Teacher at Choate Rosemary Hall, where she is teaching and designing the Emerging Media program. As a designer, Sen has worked for Discovery Communications, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, and the Urban Design Lab at Columbia University. She was the founding Creative Director of Sen Studio, a studio collective of artists and engineers. In her spare time, Sen enjoys poetry, dance, and travel. She holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from Columbia University.

Ian Wollman 

Ian Wollman joined Choate Rosemary Hall as a Chinese teacher in 2017 after working as a musical artist manager in Beijing and a Teaching Fellow at Phillips Academy Andover. Ian also coaches kayaking, teaches lifelong wellness, and is an adviser to the Student Council. He received his B.A. from Lewis & Clark College and his M.A. from Middlebury College.

Dan Zhao 

Dan began her Choate career in June 2010, as a Chinese teacher and residential adviser. Prior to Choate, Dan had 8 years teaching experience in secondary and high schools in the U.S. and in China. Dan earned her B.A. degree in English in China and her M.Ed. from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in 2007.

Sam Jonynas 

Sam Jonynas began work at Choate Rosemary Hall in 2016 when he joined the Math & Computer Science Faculty. Currently, he teaches honors and advanced calculus. In the past, Mr. Jonynas has taught honors precalculus, Algebra II, and statistics. When not teaching, he is also a dorm adviser, a boys’ soccer coach, and a track & field coach for distance jumps. He received his B.A. from Williams College and is currently pursuing his master’s degree.

Kolina Koleva 

Kolina joined the Choate community in 2013. She is a teaching faculty member in the Math and Computer Science department. When not teaching, Kolina is a dorm adviser in West Wing and has helped with our debate, math, and rock climbing teams. Before Choate, Kolina started her teaching career at project-based High Tech High School in San Diego, CA. Kolina is a graduate of San Diego State and was born and raised in Bulgaria. 

Joe Lampe 

Joseph Lampe came to Choate after beginning his teaching career at Avon Old Farms School in Avon, CT. He has been in the classroom since 2008. At Choate, Mr. Lampe teaches in the English department and coaches rowing. He graduated from Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in Film Studies in 2001 and later earned a master’s in liberal studies from Wesleyan in 2012.

Victoria Pierotti 

Victoria Pierotti grew up in Newport Beach, California. At eighteen, she moved to the East Coast to pursue her dream of playing Division I Women’s Water Polo at Brown University. Although she seriously considered retreating to the West Coast after her first winter, Victoria has now lived in the Northeast for eight years and has fallen in love with the vibrant and ever-changing seasons. In addition to her new role as English 100 section head, Victoria enjoys teaching lifelong wellness, advising UNICEF and The Baking Club, coaching Boys’ Varsity Water Polo, and working as a residential adviser and Head of House in the Library dorm. Victoria received her B.A. in Literary Arts (‘16) and her Master of the Arts in Teaching Secondary Education in English (’17) from Brown University.

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