Gulf High School Faculty

A - F | G - L | M - R | S - Z

Andrew Madeloni joined the GHS faculty at the start of the 2007-08 school year. He teaches social studies. He came to Gulf from Chasco Middle School, where he taught for one year. Before that, he taught for nine years at Hudson Middle School. He served in the U. S. Navy for 15 years. He was born in Brooklyn and attended Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station, N. Y. He earned a B. A. degree in Social Science Education from USF. One of his brothers is a principal of a school in Massachusetts; the other works for the YMCA in Long Beach, N. Y.

George A. Mayer III has taught government, history and economics at Gulf High School since about 1976. A resident of Lutz, he is a graduate of Robinson High School, Hillsborough Community College and Oral Roberts University. He also has an M. A. degree in U. S. History from USF. He is married and has two children. He was a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1971.

Jeannette McCabe teaches English. She joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2006-07 school year. She previously taught English almost 18 years at Dunedin High School in Pinellas County and most recently taught English for one year at River Ridge Middle School. She was born in Buffalo, N. Y. She attended three high schools in New York state and graduated from Fox Lane High School. She attended George Washington University and the University of North Florida. She graduated magna cum laude from UNF and holds a B. A. degree in Literature and English from there. She came to Florida in 1974. In 2006 she reported that she had a grown daughter who was recently engaged and she had two stepsons, one of whom was in the Navy currently in the Mediterranean.

Wanda McClellan teaches English and social studies. She joined the Gulf faculty in the middle of the 2003-04 school year. Mrs. McClellan was born in New Orleans and was raised in Monroe, Louisiana. She has a B. A. degree from Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe. She taught at the Renaissance Center in Citrus County for seven years. She has three children, ages 20, 18, and 15. Her husband runs the MRI Center at Community Hospital in New Port Richey. She says she likes sports, and her favorite sport is baseball. She was the Citrus County Teacher of the Year in 2002.

Jeff Miller teaches Advanced Math Topics, Probability & Statistics, AP Statistics, and AP Calculus AB. He joined the Gulf High School faculty in 1995. Before becoming a teacher, Mr. Miller worked in radio broadcasting. He also served in the U. S. Air Force, where he worked in electronic communications. He was born in Beckley, W. Va., and attended Woodrow Wilson High School there. He has a B. S. degree in Mathematics Education from the University of South Florida and also attended Duke University. Mr. Miller maintains the Gulf High School web site.

Barbara Munday teaches Soccer, Volleyball, Tennis and Personal Fitness, and is the Junior Varsity Volleyball Coach. she has been teaching for 29 years, 28 of which have been at Gulf Middle and Gulf High School. Coach Munday received her Bachelors degree from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, and a Masters from the University of South Florida.

Samantha Murchie joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2003-04 school year. She teaches Integrated Science and Biology. She previously taught at Ridgewood High School but has also worked in private industry. She has two children. She is from Orlando. She has a B. S. degree from the University of Florida in Exercise Physiology and an MBA degree from St. Leo University.

Lizzette Nazario joined the Gulf faculty at the start of the 2003-04 school year. She teaches Spanish. She began her teaching career in Palatine, Illinois, where she taught for nine years. She then taught one year in Venezuela, seven years at Deer Park Elementary School, and one year at Chasco Middle School. She has B. S. Ed. and M. Ed. degrees from Loyola University Chicago. She was born in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, and grew up in Chicago.

Anne Nelson is the Performance Based Diploma Program Guidance Counselor. She works with students who are having difficulty reaching their goal to graduate from high school. She joined the Gulf High School faculty during the 2006-07 school year.

Steve Nesthus is the senior naval science instructor. He joined the GHS faculty at the start of the 2007-08 school year. He served 22 years in the U. S. Navy, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He worked as a cryptologic officer as his final duty. Before coming to Gulf, he started the NJROTC program at Charles W. Flanagan High School at Pembroke Pines, Florida. That program won first place at the 2007 National Academic, Athletic and Drill Championship, with the academic team attaining the highest score in National Championship history. The program also won first place in the Florida Athletic, Athletic, and Drill competition for the last three years in a row. Cmdr. Nesthus was born in Kankakee, Illinois. He graduated from Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Wisconsin, and earned a B. A. in business administration from Upper Iowa University. He has two adult children and three grandsons.

Melissa Ortiz is one of our paras in charge of student discipline. She began working at Gulf High School at the end of the 2005-2006 school year. She came here from Gulf Middle School, where she was in charge of the ISS program. Ms. Ortiz grew up in Holiday. She attended Gulfside Elementary and Gulf Middle and graduated from Gulf High in 1995. She has an Associate of Science degree in Criminal Justice.

Sharon Oster began her teaching career at Gulf in September 1994. Before coming to Gulf High, she substituted at Land O'Lakes High School and T. E. Weightman Middle School. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of South Florida, studying accounting and business education. At Gulf High she is chapter adviser for FBLA and District XI Director. She serves as the lead for the Institute of Business and Technology learning community and coordinator for the BCE-OJT work program in business education.

Holly Palmerton joined the Gulf faculty during the 2007-2008 school year. She is an ESE teacher with ESOL endorsement. She has a B. A. degree in Special Education and a Master's degree in Education Administration. She is a new resident to Florida, from Texas. Prior to teaching she was a substitute for the Department of Defense schools, and a high school secretary at a private school. She is married with three kids and two dogs, and she reports that she loves boating and Harleys!

Deborah Pitcock became a member of the Gulf High School faculty, at the start of the 2006-07 school year. She was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, and grew up in Mt. Clemens. She graduated from L'Anse Creuse Senior High School. She has a B. S. degree in Spanish Education from the Ohio State University and a Master's in Administration from the University of Tampa. Ms. Pitcock formerly taught at Land O' Lakes HS and Ridgewood HS. She currently teaches mathematics.

Amy Riddle has been the Choral Director at Gulf High School since 1997. She has an A.A.S. from Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, a Bachelor's Degree in music from USF and a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from National Louis University. She is a native of Grand Gorge, New York, and has been involved with music since childhood. She learned to play the piano at age 7, the guitar at age 8, and sang in the school chorus and church choir. Since 1996 she has been the director of the Suncoast Harmony Chorus, a women's barbershop chorus. Her husband Glenn is a chiropractor. They have two daughters, Brianna and Alyssa.

Gene Robinson teaches Algebra I and Algebra I-B. Mr. Robinson has taught at Gulf High since January of 1980. He also taught in New Jersey for six years. Mr. Robinson graduated from Monmouth College with a B. S. degree in business and mathematics. Mr. Robinson is married with seven children.

Clara B. Rodriguez earned her Bachelor's degree from Marymount Manhattan College and her Master of Science in Education degree from the City University of New York. She began her teaching career at New York University Medical Center teaching "Medical Spanish" to second year medical students. She taught "Bilingual Drop Out Prevention" for eight years at a local middle school in the South Bronx just a few blocks from where she was born and raised. In 1995 Señora Rodriguez joined the Gulf High School faculty and taught at the Motivational Alternative Program (MAP) until the year 2000 when she began teaching upper level Spanish.

Jose Rodriguez joined the Gulf High School faculty at the start of the 2005-06 school year, having just retired from the Navy after 20 years of service. Chief Rodriguez teaches in our NJROTC program. He formerly worked in Navy recruiting in Miami and was the supervisor of recruiting for the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region.

Bill Rutherford is the Gulf High School Director of Bands. His responsibilities include conducting Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, teaching jazz with a Jazz Ensemble, and teaching music theory. He has worked at increasing enrollment, and has succeeded in making Gulf band the second largest band in Pasco County. Mr. Rutherford graduated from Gulf High School in 1988 and received a BA degree from the USF School of Music in 1992. He was born in Portsmouth, Va. He says his goal is to teach his students to perform music to their greatest potential.