On a steel blue bike attached to a red and yellow trailer that holds an orange flag and her four-year-old daughter Jozi, new 7th grade Parker science teacher Angela Miklavcic Brandon rides past the old facade of Wrigley Field. On her journey, she looks south at the Chicago skyline from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and reacquaints herself with the Midwest.

“I grew up in Cleveland,” Miklavic said. “I have an appreciation for the Great Lakes and for midwestern kindness and generosity.” After ten years teaching science and coaching basketball in Newtown Square, PA at The Episcopal Academy, Miklavcic decided to move to Chicago following her husband Justin Brandon’s appointment as the new Head of the Upper School at Parker. “I began my search in Chicago looking at several opportunities, and I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to be at the same school or not,” Miklavcic said, “but once we came for a tour, I knew that Parker was a place that I wanted to be as well.”

On her tour, she gained a positive first impression of the school. “It seemed like a really incredible place,” Miklavcic said. “It was welcoming, people were kind, it had both a sense of seriousness and a sense of casualness.”

Having taught at both the Episcopal Academy and the Emma Willard School in Troy, NY, Miklavcic, who attended Euclid Senior High School, college at Harvard University, and received her Masters of Education at Columbia University, is excited to adjust to a different teaching style. “I think that the project-based learning is something that I’ve tried to do in my classroom, but it hasn’t always been something that could be achieved as easily at different schools that I’ve been at,” Miklavcic said. “So, I’m really excited about the opportunity.”

While the education style at Parker may be different from that of the Episcopal Academy, Miklavcic’s experience at Parker will not be completely different as she again has the opportunity to work in the same building at her husband. “We could commute together,” Miklavcic said, which is something she enjoyed in the past. “We could have one car going places.”

Despite working at the same school together for five years, Miklavcic and Brandon did not see each other all the time. “We worked in different areas— so I was in science and he was in history,” Miklavcic said. “There was enough separation that we did not feel we were on top of each other.”

The same would be true at Parker, so she decided to apply for a teaching position. Miklavcic engaged in a Skype interview with various members of the Parker faculty, including Intermediate and Middle School Division Head John Novick, who was impressed with her qualifications and attitude. “We look for someone who’s enthusiastic and who’s optimistic, and who enjoys early adolescents and is educated, deeply, in their subject,” Novick said. “Ms. Miklavcic Brandon was engaging, interesting, and highly organized.”

Novick and other faculty members, including Upper School science teacher Kara Schupp, Upper School science teacher and Department Co-Chair Elizabeth Druger, and Seventh Grade mathematics teacher Christopher Stader, chose her out of many applicants from across the hemisphere, including one candidate from Chile and another from San Jose, California. Looking through all of them, it was clear to Novick that Miklavcic was the right choice. “Ms. Miklavcic Brandon is a very open, transparent person with a high degree of cultural competency,” Novick said. “We feel fortunate to have landed her. This is a strong, strong science teacher with a lot of experience.”

During the hiring process, Novick was not at all concerned with the fact that Justin Brandon will be working at the same school. In fact, Novick is quite familiar with teachers working in the same institution at their spouses. “It’s not atypical,” Novick said. “It’s not uncommon at independent schools.” Although he has not seen this at Parker in his five years, he has at his previous two schools: Roycemore in Evanston, and Le Mans in Indiana. “We would never hire someone whose spouse, or their parent, or their family member was going to be their supervisor,” Novick said. “This is a different situation. They’re in two divisions.”

After the Skype interview, Miklavcic was chosen to come down to the campus, teach a lesson, go on a tour with seventh-graders, and meet with various faculty members and administrators.

The Brandons have fully invested in the Parker experience. In fact, Miklavcic’s daughter Jozi is attending Parker as a Junior Kindergarten student. “We were excited to find a school that really cares about everything about the child,” Miklavcic said. “I love the fact that you’ll find and educate citizens for a democracy.”