Head of School

As Moses Brown’s Interim Head of School, I am honored to invite you to explore – on our website and in person – our remarkable learning community. Having worked at MB for 14 years and with my two children having been students, the school has played a central role in my professional and family life. And, after all these years, the teachers and students at MB – and the values our school represents – continue to inspire me every day.

I’d like to share a little bit of what I love about Moses Brown, and that I hope you will take the time to discover for yourself.

Our Mission
A simple, yet profound, missions statement grounds all that we do:

Moses Brown, a Friends School, exists to inspire the inner promise of each student and instill the utmost care for learning, people, and place.

Our History
Founded in 1784, MB has been a leader in independent education for nearly 240 years. Our stunning 33-acre campus – formerly the farm of our founder, 18th-century Quaker abolitionist and entrepreneur, Moses Brown – provides expansive academic, artistic, and athletic facilities right in the heart of Providence. With a deep-seeded commitment to teaching, and a dedication to fostering character and confidence in young people, MB has been preparing generations of students to lead lives of accomplishment and purpose.

A Friends School, A Distinctive Education
As Quaker or Friends School, we are rooted in Quaker values: simplicity and integrity, community and equality, care and peace. Applying these values every day, we create an academic culture of deep reflection, expansive curiosity, and spirited inquiry. We believe in the importance of silence and reflection, and we work to foster a learning environment of joy and wonder.

Learning at Moses Brown is defined by the relationships between our students and teachers. Our faculty set high expectations, display belief in their students, and provide the support that helps them achieve at their best. We see and nurture the Inner Light in everyone. Our students are known and feel valued.

Ours is an education that is time-tested, fully immersive, and ever more relevant to today’s world. We engage students in an expansive and challenging educational experience, including 17 musical and performance groups across the school, 50 clubs and activities, and 58 middle and upper school athletic teams competing in 18 different sports. Travel and immersion experiences – locally, nationally, and internationally – are a regular part of an MB education in all three divisions. Upper school students choose from among 19 AP, 20 honors courses, and a dynamic set of electives and team-taught interdisciplinary courses that engage students across a range of disciplines and intellectual interests.

We believe that education is both a personal passion and a public resource. Every day, our students become people who are ambitious not only for themselves but also for their neighbors and those they’ve yet to meet.

Evolving and Innovating
Recognizing that the world is constantly changing, world-class education needs to evolve with it. Over the past eight years, the school has made a series of historic investments as part of a transformational strategic plan – MB Believes: a vision for learning, people and place – resulting in:

• New educational initiatives in Engineering & Design, Travel, Research, and Immersion Program (TRIPs), and Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation.
• Dramatic growth in scholarship funding (42% of students now receive support with any average scholarship award of $23,290).
• A doubling of annual funding to support the growth and ongoing professional development of our teachers.
• 400,000 square feet and nearly $50 million of new and renovated facilities, including: the Woodman Family Community & Performance Center, the Jones Library, the Y-Lab (a 5,000 sq. ft. engineering, robotics, and maker space), a new Lower School, the Gorgi Family Squash & Education Center, a new turf field, and new or upgraded facilities for tennis, baseball, softball, and soccer.

I hope that you take some time to learn more about our school, to ask questions, and to share your thoughts with us. Please feel free to reach out to me (rdalgliesh@mosesbrown.org) or to our Director of Institutional Enrollment Management, Bobbi Krein (bkrein@mosesbrown.org).

And, please come visit, to see how an MB education can nurture and inspire you.

In friendship,

Ron Dalgliesh P’21
Interim Head of School