Daniel Liu '25
Oct 4, 2024
With many faculty members joining the school this fall, The Mercersburg News is profiling new faculty and continues its series of introductions.
Joining Mercersburg as Assistant Director of Summer and External Programs, Ben Doyka ’17 is among the newest faculty members. At the Academy, Doyka serves in many capacities. “Over the summer when everyone leaves, we bring upwards of 1500 people onto campus over [the] course of 8–10 weeks. In the fall, aside from coaching and advising, we're working on getting some marketing things set up,” explained Doyka. “It's a lot of planning, and in the spring, the planning gets taken up to another level because every month that goes by, we're that much closer to campers being on campus.” Beyond his Mercersburg commitments, Doyka said, “I love to read. When I was in school here and in college grad school, it was a lot of academic reading. But now that I'm finally, for now, done with school and academic reading, I love to read for fun.” On weekends, Doyka can be found rooting for Philadelphia and TCU sports teams. Doyka added, “I watch football until my eyes bleed.”
Coming from a background in business and having worked in two boarding schools before the Academy, Tia Afa serves as Associate Director of Admissions. Afa explained, “My role is to attract, attain, and enroll admission-appropriate students [from] around the world. I am primarily responsible for the junior boarding schools.” As a new faculty member and mother of a new student, Afa said, “I think I’m just excited to experience everything for the first time because it’s new. I’m super excited about that – to witness them and be a part of them and get more immersed in the community – and to get through one full admissions cycle.”
During Chinese teacher Grace Abel’s sabbatical this fall, Nancy Ni has joined the language department in both Chinese and Spanish. Having formerly taught at Broadfording Christian Academy and Hagerstown Community College in Chinese, Spanish, and English as a Second Language (ESL), Ni brings valuable experience to Mercersburg. Despite having taught locally, Mercersburg is Ni’s first boarding school. “I am really excited. I’ve never worked at a boarding school before, so I never really had dorm duties or PGAs and stuff like that, so I’m doing LMC for this fall and I have dorm duties as well, just to get to know more people and just see the boarding school schedule. And [I’m] also excited to teach,” said Ni. When she isn’t working, Ni keeps busy: “I also love to do photography, taking pictures, biking, and walking outside. Anything outdoors.”
Chaz Macklin, Mercersburg’s Technical Director of the Burgin Center for the Arts, can be found behind the scenes of any artistic performance. Macklin comes to Mercersburg with years of experience in theatre. “I started in College Station, moved up to Temple, and then I ended up in Waco, Texas with Waco Civic Theater,” he said. In his position, Macklin is a jack-of-all-trades. He attributes this to his experiences in Texas, “I was their technical director, resident designer, show technician, and master electrician. I wore a lot of hats, all at once. And every Saturday I would have work days where I would teach students from five-year-olds all the way into their sixties on how to build, how to paint, how to create the physical side of the theater that isn’t the acting side.” What excites Macklin about Mercersburg is the opportunity for student growth. “Being it my advisees or my students in PGA, I just see so much creativity and such a positive community [that] I haven’t seen before.” Macklin continued, “ That immediately drew me in, and it’s something that I’m excited to settle down, make roots, and watch these kids become adults and go on to do these amazing successful things.” Outside of school, Macklin enjoys playing video games and spending time with his dog. Macklin said, “I’m currently going through my next run of Baldur’s Gate and God of War. I just got through the Portal series and the Bioshock series. [I’m a] Big video game lover. I spend my time playing with my little German Shepherd Lola. I call her little, even though she’s giant and 75 pounds. But she’s a sweetheart.” For those interested in Game Club, Macklin also plays Dungeons and Dragons. To that end, Macklin said, “I can’t wait to see all that the future has to hold with me in Mercersburg and everything that Mercersburg has to offer.”