Kindergarten through 8th Grade Teachers

Elementary School

Kindergarten

Mina Giannakakos has eighteen years of experience working in Early Childhood Education. Prior to working at the Annunciation Day School, Mina taught Pre-K for fourteen years at Riverview Nursery School in Rockland County, New York. Mina attended Rutgers (the State University of New Jersey) and holds a degree in Sociology and Elementary Education. While in New York, she attended various professional workshops on early childhood development.

Mina believes that teaching play and direct exploration is a basic tool for learning. She is passionate about teaching young children and provides many opportunities for growth in their cognitive, social, and emotional development. Her favorite saying is “we are all happy at school,” and strives to achieve this goal for each child.

Mina enjoys spending her summers in Greece and visiting her mom, family and friends. In her free time, she also enjoys baking, gardening, reading and long walks. She has been married for over 25 years to her husband Panos, and is the proud mom of a daughter (a Cornell graduate) and a son (a college student at Kennesaw State University).

Mina feels very blessed to have lived in different parts of the United States such as New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Maine and to have gained such unique and personal experiences from her time in these places.

Kindergarten Teacher Assistant

Katina Tsirnikas has always had a passion for working with small children. Eager to become a teacher after high school, she studied early childhood education and volunteered for a first grade class at a local elementary school. However for 15 years she owned and ran restaurants along side her husband. For the last 8 years she has been a devoted stay at home mother to her two daughters Sophia, 8 and Anastasia, 3 who both attend ADS. She is very excited to get back in the classroom to encourage, motivate and uplift the next generation to be strong, confident, and courageous believers in Christ. 

In her free time, Katina enjoys spending time with her husband Adam and their children. She loves cooking (especially when her daughters are involved), crafting, watching movies, singing, and talking about Jesus.

1st grade

Kylnn Roe earned her Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Middle Georgia State University and taught in Byron, Georgia her first year of teaching. She was born in North Carolina but grew up all over South America (Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic.)  

Her second teaching position led her to Bahrain where she taught Kindergarten at a prestigious international school. After a few years in Bahrain, Kylynn moved back to the states where she taught kindergarten and Pre-K at a Christian school in Macon, Georgia. She enjoys traveling with her husband and shopping.

1ST grade TeachING Assistant

Margaret Stewart has worked with children for the past 15 years; first as a substitute teacher in Dekalb County and then as a private nanny for newborns as well as toddlers and 3-4 year olds. Fun fact: She also teaches the Kindergarten Sunday school class at our beloved Annunciation Cathedral - and has been doing that for 17 years. She enjoys inspiring children to be kind, patient, and positive.

In her free time Margaret enjoys spending time with her husband Jerry, two young adult children, Sarah and Charles, friends, watching movies, playing basketball, board games, playing with their Alaskan Malamute, and being involved with church activities.

2nd grade

Grace Jacobi comes to ADS after teaching 3rd grade for four years at Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta. She attended Berry College and has her bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education. She has a K-5 Math and ESOL Endorsement. Outside of school, Grace loves to spend time outdoors with her family, friends, and dogs. She is actively involved in her church through volunteering with the High School and Young Adult Ministries.

3rd Grade

Samantha Hill attended the University of West Georgia where she received her Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education. Samantha has a huge care for children of all ages. Throughout her life, she has nannied many families around the Tucker and Carrollton area. Samantha believes it is crucial to a classroom environment to nurture and care for her students and loves teaching our third grade class at ADS.Before ADS, Samantha did her student teaching in the Carroll County district where she taught Pre-k, 2nd, 4th and 5th grade. When not in the classroom, Samantha enjoys spending time with her family, participating in church events, swimming and walking her dog Chester.

Elementary school coordinator

4th and 5th grade Science and Math

Lauren Davis comes to ADS with seven years of experience in education. Three years were spent serving in public schools within the Atlanta area, including The Museum School, The Kindezi School, and Dresden Elementary. The remaining three years were spent teaching and assisting at Cliff Valley School. She was inspired to become a teacher at a young age, and graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.S. in Early Childhood Education in 2014. Lauren’s passion for teaching stems from her love for children, in addition to the belief that children should be taught in a holistic way, which nurtures social and emotional growth along with academics. In her personal and professional life, Lauren strives to gain a growth mindset, which she aims to develop in her students as well. 

4th and 5th grade Language Arts and Social Studies

Desiree Hernandez is originally from Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2021 with a dual major in Spanish and Education. Throughout her undergraduate career, she actively engaged in research with the psychology department, focusing on social-emotional education for early childhood and sensory/project-based learning. 

With seven years of experience working with children and youth aged 1-14, Desiree has honed her skills in various educational settings, including private and charter schools like KIPP Charter Schools and Atlanta Jewish Academy. Her expertise extends to working with children with intellectual disabilities, autism, and behavioral challenges. 

Desiree firmly believes that excellent, equitable education is a right, not a privilege, and she works diligently to provide every student she encounters with the best educational experience possible. When she's not at school, Desiree enjoys traveling abroad, trying new foods, and spending quality time with her loved ones and her cat, Demetrius.

GRADES Six THROUGH EIGHT

Social Studies

Rebecca (Becca) Parker received her B.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in geosciences from Mount Holyoke College. She is very passionate allowing students to grow their understanding of our world from a cultural, environmental, and geopolitical perspective. She believes that the path to peace is through understanding, and she hopes to foster an interest in learning about the rich diversity of communities all around the world. 

Becca has always enjoyed working with children, and she worked as an educator in both formal and informal settings prior to joining the ADS community. In her free time, Becca enjoys hiking, walking, and spending time with her cats. 

middle school coordinator

Science and Math

Alison Robson Smith graduated from the University of Oxford with a Master’s Degree in both Biochemistry and Neuroscience.  She worked in biomedical research at Oxford for several years before she met her husband, Whit, a professor at Georgia Tech, and moved to Atlanta.  Together they have one daughter, Fiona, who is about to enter middle school.

Coming from a family of educators, she became increasingly interested in teaching as her daughter entered school.  Alison spent four years at Intown Community School, teaching in a variety of capacities, including Middle School Science and Math.  She believes in encouraging curiosity in her students, and equipping them with tools to explore the wonders of God’s Creation.  

When not in the classroom, Alison is an active member of her church, teaching Sunday School and helping with preschool activities.  She enjoys walking and spending time outside with her daughter, as well as baking, and doing a variety of handicrafts.

English language arts

Stephanie Benzur graduated from Rollins College with a degree in anthropology, and later received her MA in archaeology from University College Dublin. She lived in Ireland for the last few years attending her Masters program, and then working in commercial archaeology. She returned to her hometown here in Atlanta, and inspired by the educators in her family, decided to try teaching herself. Stephanie joined the ADS family in 2021, teaching 4th and 5th grade social studies & language arts (ELA). She now teaches middle school ELA and is so happy to move up with her former students. Being an avid reader, she hopes to encourage her students to explore the joys of reading more thoroughly. Coming from an anthropological background, she is also excited to teach her students the importance of learning about the different cultures of the world. When not teaching, Stephanie enjoys spending time at home with her family and cat. In her free time, you can usually find her enjoying a book or playing video games.

Math

Matthew Barker studied mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and the State University of New York at Albany where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Mathematics specializing in Actuarial Science.  He discovered his talent for teaching math by helping to pay for his own education by working as a math tutor for his fellow students.  He worked for the NY State Legislature and Insurance Department until his youngest son was diagnosed with developmental apraxia of speech.  

Since that diagnosis, Matthew has been blessed to have had the opportunity to work part-time as a math educator. He has worked as a tutor, substitute teacher, and as themath enrichment instructor and math coach at Annunciation Day school while working full-time with Simon to develop his speech abilities, which now test as age appropriate.

Matthew has worked with many students, including his own 3 sons, at every level of math instruction from preschool to calculus.  He is excited to share his love of math with the students at Annunciation Day School as their math teacher.  He looks forward to helping them develop their understanding of mathematical concepts and calculation skills.  Just as importantly, he will teach them why those lessons are so important to making good decisions over the course of their lives as well as to preparing them for future academic challenges.

When Matthew isn’t pondering the elegant intricacies of math and how to best share them with his students, he lives with his wife, three sons and 2 dogs.  He loves to cook, play games and root for the NY Yankees.

Instructional Resource

Deborah Benzur comes to ADS from Sagamore Hills Elementary school where she taught for over 27 years in 3-5th grades.  She received her B.A. in Art History from Randolph-Macon Women's College in Virginia, her teaching certificate from Mercer University, and is also certified in teaching gifted programs in the state of Georgia.

She has lived in Atlanta for over 35 years and joins the ADS family with her daughter Stephanie Benzur, who teaches Language Arts in our Middle School.   

Her passion is reading and is very excited to share this with her students at ADS.

When she is not at school, her hobbies include spending time at her lake house with her husband and curling up with a good book!