Faculty Focus: Dr. Daphne O’Brien

Colby Kirkpatrick, Editor-in-Chief|January 25, 2015

This week’s Faculty Focus centered around middle and upper school English teacher Daphne O’Brien. Since starting her career here at Rocky Mount Academy in 2007, Dr. O’Brien has made ample contributions to the school, whether it be in the classroom or coaching the Battle of the Books team each year. Students young and old can easily recall her Greek mythology project, engaging lectures on literature, and overall love for teaching. Check out the interview below:

1. Where are you from originally?

Tarboro, NC

2. Where did you go to college and what major did you pursue? Graduate school? Beyond?

NCSU: B.A. English–Writing and Editing Concentration
NCSU: M.A. English–Literature
UNC-CH: Ph.D. English–American Literature to 1900, Literature of the American South

3. Have you had any careers previous to your time at Rocky Mount Academy?

University teaching: NCSU, UNC-CH, ECU, North Carolina Wesleyan College
Freelance writing and editing: clients included Oxford University Press and UNC Press (I was assistant editor for the journal Early American Literature)

4. How long have you been at RMA?

Seven years

5. What are your hobbies/interests?

Growing cut flowers
Operating a winery
Listening to bluegrass music
Playing cribbage

6. Have you been involved in sports, music, art, etc. growing up? If so, elaborate.

Only in the usual ways–I sang in a small choral ensemble in high school.

7. Have you had any experiences abroad?

No, not yet.

8. If you had to select one moment in your life that defined you, what would it be?

I don’t think there is one moment. At different stages, I find myself becoming redefined, my life more like a collage than a line.

9. What made you want to pursue a career in teaching?

To pay for graduate school at NCSU, I accepted a teaching assistantship, which meant that I had to teach composition to university freshmen. I found that I loved working with them. Before that experience, I had absolutely no interest in teaching.

10. What is something nobody knows about you?

I once went to a Halloween party dressed as a figure of speech.

11. Describe a person who has made the biggest impact on your life.

It is impossible to name one. I have been (and continue to be) shaped by contact with many kind, wise, and gifted people–my parents, my husband and my son, family members, friends, teachers, colleagues, students–who have taught me very important lessons.

12. What are your biggest pet peeves?