lnealey@jacksonprep.net Senior High 601-939-8611 ext. 226

This is my tenth year at Jackson Prep. After seven years managing the finances and facilities here I moved buildings and became the head of the Senior High. I am still enjoying teaching AP chemistry, where the students get funnier, smarter and harder working with each passing year. My job as Head of the Senior High presents many challenges but the positive interactions with our great students, our committed and very capable faculty, and our supportive parents make the job something I look forward to every day. How did I get so lucky to find this place?

It’s a long story so I’ll have to start somewhere in the middle. I sandwiched a year as an exchange student in Bangkok, Thailand into my high school years in a suburb of Milwaukee. I spent the next four years at Rice University in Houston which I exited with a BA in Religious Studies. I then attended graduate school at The Institute of Paper Chemistry where I received an MS and PhD working primarily in carbohydrate chemistry. My desire to explore other cultures led me to find a job in Kakogawa, Japan where I worked as a researcher in the R&D center of a medium sized chemical company. I returned to the U.S. for another stint at school, this time pursuing an MBA at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. I was lucky enough to be able to study a semester at the Stockholm School of Economics while at Wharton. After leaving Wharton, I joined a small company based in Pensacola, Florida that manufactured chemicals for the paper industry. I held positions as a product manager, plant manager and finally as manager of manufacturing and R&D. The rewards of this job did not make up for the travel and stress, however, and I found myself looking for something more fulfilling. Amazingly, a school named Jackson Prep needed a finance and operations person who could also teach AP Chemistry. I guess it was meant to be.

I golf, throw pots and cook when I can. My wonderful wife, LeAnn, and I live in Ridgeland with two cats.