School welcomes new faculty and staff

The new staff members are Melissa Hardaway, Victoria “Tori” Lloyd, Dr. Mauricio Escobar, Karn Richoux, Joshua Chambers and Pablo Molina.

Melissa Hardaway serves as the new educational technology manager. Hardaway earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science from Louisiana Tech University. She later received a master’s degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in educational technology. She worked for the Bienville Parish School Board as the instructional technology technician for nine years prior to joining the LSMSA staff. She is also currently an adjunct educational technology instructor for Louisiana State University at Shreveport. Hardaway said she is excited to be a part of such a special and interesting place.

Tori Lloyd is a student life advisor in Caddo Hall. She is a Baton Rouge native who transferred to LSMSA her sophomore year. She graduated from LSMSA in 2012. During her time as a student, she served as an ambassador and a peer mentor for first west. She attended Oglethorpe University and spent one semester at the L’Universite Catholique de Lille in France. She obtained her B.A. degree in theater with minors in physics and French in May 2016. While living in Atlanta, Ga., she interned and worked for the Imperial OPA Circus. She is excited to begin this chapter of her life at LSMSA.

Dr. Mauricio Escobar, who was born in Barranquilla, Columbia, will teach physics. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics in 2002. During his time as an undergrad, he taught in small institutes and worked as a private tutor. Once he completed his degree, he worked in several local high schools and colleges. In 2006, he left the country to pursue a master’s degree in physics from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, which he earned in 2009. Soon after, Escobar was admitted to the physics doctoral program at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. In 2016, he completed his doctoral thesis dissertation on Quantum Diffusion of Ultra-Cold Neutrons in Rough Waveguides. He likes to dissect apparently hard topics and make them accessible to people to understand them.

Karn Richoux will teach technical theater. Richoux, of Minnesota, has been involved in technical theater since her junior year of high school. She has a B.A. in theater arts from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minn., and then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in technical production of theater from Florida State University. She has worked at summer theaters in Minnesota and Maine, and most recently she was the technical director and technical theater teacher at McCallum Fine Arts Academy, a high school in Austin, Texas, for three years.

Joshua Chambers will serve as an adjunct visual arts teacher. Chambers received his B.A. from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. In 2009, he earned a Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana Tech University. He is a painter who works in acrylic, pen and ink and printmaking. His style has been described as “illustrative and illusive.”

Dr. Pablo Molina will teach Latin. He earned his B.A. in chemistry from USAL in Argentina, M.A. in science education from the University of Iowa, a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in Latin from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Ph.D. in classical and Medieval Latin from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His teaching and research interests include Latin Christian writers, Roman historians, Latin prose, textual transmission of Latin translations of the Book of Acts, Greco-Roman roots of Christianity, Greco-Roman roots of modern science, myth, Roman/Greek civilization, word formation and medical terminology. 

One new staff member joined the LSMSA Foundation. Angela Robinson is a member of the LSMSA class of 2993. She recently returned to Natchitoches to serve as the assistant director of development and external relations for the Foundation. Originally from Mangham, Robinson earned a B.A. in social studies education from Northwestern State University in 1997 and her M.Ed. in gifted education from Northeast Louisiana University in 1998. Most recently, she worked at the University of Louisiana at Monroe for 10 years, serving as an academic advisor and later as coordinator of advising support. She was instrumental in updating the articulation agreement between LSMSA and ULM in 2014 and designed the 2015 memorandum of understanding that allows LSMSA students to earn an associate degree from ULM using t heir LSMSA coursework. She has been an active member of the LSMSA Alumni Association for a number of years and is very excited to be back at LSMSA in a role that allows her to serve as the liaison between the Alumni Association and the school.