Update: October 17
Welcome to Katie Titus, our next Head of School! Read more.
Welcome to Katie Titus, our next Head of School! Read more.
Dear Moses Brown School Community:
The Head of School Search Committee has been working with RG175, our consultant partners, over the summer to identify the head of school candidate who will ensure that MB continues to fulfill its promise as an educational leader regionally and nationally. I am pleased to report that the search is going very well. There has been tremendous interest in the position. We have conducted a thorough review of a large and diverse pool of candidates, including sitting heads of school, other independent school senior administrators, as well as public, charter, and international school leaders and some from outside of the world of education.
A thoughtful examination of qualifications led the Committee to choose a group of semifinalists who interviewed at the end of July. Out of that group, three outstanding finalists have been identified. The Committee is now preparing to host each of the finalists for two-day visits to Moses Brown in September and early October, and the finalists will have the opportunity to meet with students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and get to know all that Providence, Rhode Island, and the southern coast of New England have to offer. Those finalist visits will be held on:
This next stage of the search is critical to MB securing the best possible head to lead our school into the future. During the finalists’ campus visits, there will be opportunities for you to meet each of them. Your presence and engagement at this juncture in the process is vital. As a Friends school, it’s essential that each voice is heard, and your collective hopes and concerns are integral to our work. Just as your thoughts on the survey sent in May were seminal to the drafting of our position statement, your reflections on our finalists are critical to the integrity of our process.
It is also important to remember that this is a two-way street. As we work to identify who best fits Moses Brown School’s current realities and aspirations for the future, we also want to be gracious, thoughtful hosts to ensure that we land our top choice.
As mentioned in previous communications, following the campus visits, the Head of School Search Committee will make a candidate recommendation to Moses Brown’s Board of Trustees, the body that ultimately bears responsibility for appointing the head of school. We are on track to announce the appointment of the new head in October.
Stay tuned as we near the start of school and prepare for finalist visits in September. The Search Committee will communicate more details about the schedule of events, when you can meet the candidates, and how you can offer feedback.
Thank you for your continued support at this exciting time for our Moses Brown School.
All best,
Dawn Tripp, P’19, P’24
Clerk, Moses Brown Head of School Search Committee
Friends Coordinator, Moses Brown Board of Trustees
Dear Moses Brown Community,
On behalf of our Head of School search committee, I want to thank you for your contributions during the recent Discovery Visits with RG 175. Your participation in this process demonstrated a collective commitment and care for our school, and provided great insight for our Head of School search. We had 511 responses to our survey, and our team of consultants have told me that what was shared and offered during the April in-person sessions were amplified and confirmed throughout the survey responses.
The position statement for the Head of School search has been finalized and active recruitment has begun. You can view the position statement here. We will be in touch with further updates as the search evolves through the summer.
I want to express my deep gratitude to each of you for your engagement in this process, as well as for your dedication to our community’s future and the integrity of our mission as a Friends school.
All best,
Dawn Tripp, P’19, P’24
Clerk, Moses Brown Head of School Search Committee
Friends Coordinator, Moses Brown Board of Trustees
Dear Moses Brown Community,
The Head of School search is an opportunity for our community to think about who we are as a school and who we want to be. In addition to on-campus conversations taking place this week, our search partner RG 175 has compiled a written survey, and we hope each of you will take a few minutes to share your perspective.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MosesBrown2022
The survey will be open from now until 3:00pm this coming Friday, April 29. Please be sure to complete it before then.
Stay tuned to this page for more information and ongoing updates about the Head of School search process.
All best,
Dawn Tripp, P’19, P’24
Clerk, Moses Brown Head of School Search Committee
Friends Coordinator, Moses Brown Board of Trustees
Dear Moses Brown Community,
On behalf of our Head of School search committee, in service to the Moses Brown Board of Trustees, I’m writing to share that, after interviewing a national pool of search firms, we have chosen Resource Group 175 (RG175) to partner with us in the search for our next Head of School.
RG175 is a firm renowned for their strength in recruiting leadership to independent and international schools. In the past five years alone, RG175 has completed more than 120 leadership searches for schools such as Lake Forest Academy (IL), Shady Side Academy (PA), Worcester Academy (MA), St. Luke’s School (CT), Cranbrook School (MI), University School of Nashville (TN), American International School of Johannesburg, and American School of Dubai.
Our team of RG175 consultants — Tony Featherston, Bob Henderson, and Cathy Hunter — will steward the search process and recruit exceptional candidates. Our three consultants are experienced, skilled, and highly regarded former independent school heads. In our preliminary meetings with them, their insights reflect a commitment to thoughtful discernment, and their questions reflect a commitment to understanding the unique strengths and needs of Moses Brown.
While many dimensions of a Head of School search are by necessity confidential, we are committed to leading an intentional and inclusive process — one that engages the diverse perspectives of each member of our MB community, and one that honors our Friends identity and the mission of our school. Through in-person forums, meetings, and written surveys, we will seek to gather the thoughts and input of our alumni and parents; our faculty, staff, and administration; our Board of Trustees; and our students, who are the heart of our future.
The next step in the search process is a series of Discovery Visit Days scheduled for April 26–28, during which the RG175 team will visit our campus to meet with many members of the Moses Brown community. A detailed list of events will follow in the coming week. These events will seek to engender thoughtful and inclusive dialogue about who we are as a school and, more essentially, who we want to be. Our goal is to take what we learn from you and use it to shape the job description for our next Head of School. As we laid out in December, we hope to post this description publicly in May, and we aim to review the first pool of candidates over the summer.
As Clerk of the Head of School search committee, I am committed to stewarding a meaningful search process, and a successful transition that reflects the collective vision of our community and our shared commitment to Moses Brown.
All best,
Dawn Tripp, P’19, P’24
Clerk, Moses Brown Head of School Search Committee
Friends Coordinator, Moses Brown Board of Trustees
Dear Moses Brown Community,
Following up on our recent communication, we wish to share further information on the Head of School search process. Our priority over the past several weeks has been to identify a Search Committee that will represent the values and ambitions of our community and, given the time that a search will require, to establish a plan for interim leadership for the 2022-2023 school year that will ensure continuity.
We are grateful to the following members of our community who have agreed to commit themselves to many months of intensive work on the Search Committee. With alumni spanning decades of student experience, current parents who have children in all three divisions, current and former Clerks of the Board as well as the Alumni and Parents’ Associations, we believe this accomplished group, well-versed in Friends’ decision making, will skillfully represent the perspectives and experiences of the entire MB community as we seek the school’s next leader.
Dawn Tripp P’19 ’24 – Clerk, Search Committee (Clerk of the Board’s Nurturing Friends Education Committee; Friends Coordinator, Board of Trustees)
Cheryl Cohen ’81 (Clerk of the Board’s Enrollment and Marketing Committee)
Elaine Dickson P’18 ’30 (former Trustee)
Victoria Ekk (Trustee; Clerk, Providence Monthly Meeting)
Habib Gorgi ’74, P’08 ’10 ’12 ’17 (former Clerk, Board of Trustees)
Austin Jaspers ’11 (Trustee)
OJ Martí (Head of Lower School; Clerk, Faculty-Staff Advisory Council)
Dave Murphy ’91, P’27 (Clerk, Moses Brown Alumni Association)
Jane Ritson-Parsons P’17 ’21 (Clerk, Board of Trustees)
Reza Taleghani ’90, P’21 ’23 (Clerk, Board of Trustees)
Recognizing the essential and unique perspectives of our faculty and staff, we have asked OJ Martí to form and clerk a Faculty-Staff Advisory Council that will work in parallel with the Search Committee. Our expectation is that this Council will include representatives from all three divisions and staff from different areas of the school. In addition to the Council’s role in assisting with the search, it will also play a key role in the transition team that positions our new Head of School for success. We will work with OJ to ensure that the voice of the Advisory Council is a consistent and essential part of the search and decision-making process.
While the Search Committee will establish the specific timeline, we expect that our process will follow the standard roadmap for national searches. In our case, that means selecting a search firm this winter with a view towards vetting candidates over the summer. We anticipate finalists being interviewed during Fall of 2022 with an announcement once that process is completed. The new Head of School would begin in the summer of 2023.
Given the time that a national search will require, we believe that interim leadership for the 2022–2023 school year will ensure continuity. We are fortunate to have a deep bench of educational and administrative talent that puts the school in an enviable position of stability in terms of its leadership across all divisions. To that end, we are pleased to announce that Ron Dalgliesh P’ 21, Assistant Head of School for Community Engagement, will serve as Interim Head of School from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023. Debbie Phipps, Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs, is being elevated to the role of Associate Head of School.
This is Ron’s 14th year at Moses Brown, where he has played a central role in the strategic leadership and community-building that have meaningfully strengthened our school. His knowledge of Moses Brown is unparalleled, his passion for our mission and our entire community has been transformational. He has demonstrated impeccable skills as a leader and actively engaged in the experiences of our students, from chaperoning and designing TRIPs to co-teaching an upper school course and coaching in the middle school. As Interim Head, he will be charged with oversight of the day-to-day management and operations of the school, stewarding our mission and values, and ensuring that academic leaders and our faculty have the resources to provide a world-class educational experience.
In her 15th year at Moses Brown, Debbie is an exceptional and caring educator. She brings decades of experience as an innovative academic leader and mentor to faculty, including serving as the Head of Upper School from 2007–2015, and she has strengthened both our academic program and our Quaker community. As Associate Head, she will be charged with strategic leadership of all academic programs and oversight of three divisions, including faculty evaluation and hiring.
Debbie and Ron have worked closely together as Assistant Heads since 2015, and we are thrilled that Moses Brown will continue to benefit from their inspired and energetic leadership during this time of transition.
As we begin the search for our next Head of School, we hope you share our confidence that the upcoming year will be one of continued growth and progress. Moses Brown has been a special place for so many of us, and we are glad to be embarking on this process together. We will continue to post updates on this page. In the meantime, we wish you and your families happy holidays.
Jane Ritson-Parsons P ’17 ’21
Reza Taleghani ’90 P ’21 ’23
Clerks of the Board of Trustees
Dear Moses Brown Community,
It is with deep emotion that I write to share that this will be my final year as Head of School at Moses Brown. Beginning on July 1, 2022, I’ll be taking on the leadership of Hopkins School in New Haven, CT, a 360-year old school (grades 7-12) whose values and priorities are similar to ours at MB.
Having spent the last 12 years working with our community to develop and complete the MB Believes strategic plan and capital campaign, I feel a tremendous sense of fulfillment, both personally and professionally. Put most simply, having accomplished nearly all that I aspired to do at MB, the time is right for me to consider a new challenge. I think that MB too is poised to be looking ahead, and a change in leadership will allow our community to assess what paths to pursue toward a very bright future.
Serving as the Head of School at Moses Brown has been the highest honor of my career. Since 2009, I have been privileged to work alongside some of the most passionate, dedicated educators I have known, in support of a community of students, parents, and alumni who are incredibly talented and devoted to the school. It’s the people, especially the students and teachers, who make MB such a special place; living and learning with all of you has been both inspiring and rewarding.
It has been gratifying to watch MB grow and evolve purposefully over the past decade. With completion of the Lower School renovation in sight, MB is well positioned to continue thriving and, as one of the nation’s oldest Quaker schools, to continue delivering on its mission—to nurture the inner promise of each child and instill the utmost care for learning, people, and place.
Both Katherine and I will miss the many friendships we formed here, and the strong sense of community that unites the school. We feel fortunate to be moving just a few hours down the coast, allowing us to maintain our ties to the school and to Providence.
Naturally, I will dedicate my remaining time at MB to making sure this is a great school year for all faculty, staff, students, and parents. And I am ready to assist the school in whatever capacity necessary to ensure a smooth transition. Change can be hard, but it is also vital and exciting — a chance for regeneration. Knowing this community as deeply as I do, I am sure you all will embrace this opportunity to write an exciting new chapter in MB’s long and continuing story.
I’d like to thank the Board of Trustees and the entire school community for the trust and confidence you have shown in me. Moses Brown will always have a very special place in my heart.
In friendship,
Matt Glendinning
Head of School
Dear Moses Brown Community,
As Clerks of Moses Brown’s Board of Trustees, we are writing to share the news that Head of School Matt Glendinning will be leaving MB at the end of this school year, as he assumes the leadership of Hopkins School in Connecticut beginning next July.
We are extremely excited for Matt and this next step in his career, even as we also feel a sense of disappointment at no longer having the chance to partner with him as we chart the next chapter in Moses Brown’s future. We want to express our deep gratitude for his 13 years as Head, one of the most creative and productive tenures in the history of MB.
A scholar and thought leader, Matt has managed the school with characteristic expertise and professionalism. He listens carefully, is patient and exacting in his decision-making, and — true to our Quaker identity — demonstrates both integrity and a willingness to honor multiple voices and perspectives. Just as important, Matt has been an ardent champion for student engagement and a joyful presence in our community. We will miss his enthusiasm at games and performances and his playfulness as well, whether lip syncing in snow day videos, carving pumpkins with the Lower School, or arriving at school on a bright orange bicycle.
Central to this work has been the transformational vision for Moses Brown that Matt laid out in 2012, after deep consultation with trustees, faculty, staff, students, parents and alumni. Since then, our community has worked collaboratively to bring that plan to fruition, with impressive results: experiential education is now a mainstay throughout our curriculum; our campus has been transformed, from the Y-lab to Woodman, from the Gorgi squash center to the new Lower School; our commitment to scholarships more than tripled; and with record enrollment, our student body is vastly more diverse socio-economically, ethnically, and racially than it was 10 years ago. As many of you will recognize, Matt has impacted MB in such a myriad of exceptional and innovative ways, and we want to take the appropriate time to celebrate his contributions and leadership more formally toward the end of this school year.
As we prepare for the pending transition, Moses Brown is fortunate to be supported by a highly engaged Board, a dedicated and experienced administrative team, tremendously talented faculty and staff, and a dynamic group of students, parents, and alumni. As a community, we have every reason to look ahead with optimism, confident in Moses Brown’s bright future under new leadership. We also know that it is vital to every single one of our students, parents, guardians, and families that we don’t miss a beat this year; especially as we are all finally able to be on campus as a learning community together again.
The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees is already convening a search committee to lead the process and search for Moses Brown’s next Head of School. We are committed to a process shaped by and inclusive of the many voices in our community. We have created this page where information and updates about the search will be posted.
We will have an occasion near the end of the school year to celebrate Matt’s tenure more formally. In the meantime, please join us in thanking him for his dedication to Moses Brown and congratulating him on this next exciting step in his career. We are honored to have had the chance to work so closely with Matt and look forward to making this a successful and celebratory year both for him and the entire MB community.
In friendship,
Jane Ritson-Parsons P ’17 ’21
Reza Taleghani ’90 P ’21 ’23
Clerks of the Board of Trustees
A primary responsibility of the Board is the selection of and support of the Head of School. The Board must do so in the best interests of the entire Moses Brown community, by gathering input and perspectives from all members of our community. The detailed task of conducting the search is being undertaken by the Board-designated Search Committee clerked by Dawn Tripp.
The Search Committee is a sub-committee of the Board of Trustees and is charged with engaging and learning from all constituents to define the qualities required of the next Head of School. The Search Committee will review candidate files, interview the most viable candidates, speak with multiple references, engage in Friends discernment, and make a final recommendation to the Board of Trustees. The Moses Brown Board of Trustees ultimately bears responsibility for appointing the Head of School.
Search Committee members were selected by the Board Clerks and the Executive Committee. Search Committee members share a deep appreciation and understanding of Moses Brown’s history and the integrity of our mission as a Friend School. The committee includes individuals who offer a diverse set of experiences and points of view as well as a strong degree of commitment to, and involvement in, the Moses Brown community.
After evaluating the experience and proposals of a number of qualified search firms specializing in the independent school arena, the Board engaged Resource Group 175 (RG175) to assist the Search Committee. As a consultancy focused exclusively on leadership and governance at independent and international schools, in the past five years alone, RG175 has completed more than 120 leadership searches for schools such as Lake Forest Country Day School (IL), Shady Hill School (MA), Shipley School (PA), St. Luke’s School (CT), St. Mark’s School (TX), and American International School of Johannesburg. RG175 consultants Tony Featherston, Bob Henderson, and Cathy Hunter, help guide our process, serve as coaches to our search committee, and recruit qualified candidates.
The search for the new Head of School is international in scope. A primary goal is to make the search process as transparent as possible, with opportunities for community updates and feedback along the way. Confidentiality about individual candidates, however, remains a critical component for success. Some potential candidates may not be actively looking for a new position, and others may not want it known at their current institution that they are pursuing an interest in Moses Brown. As such, the Search Committee will not comment on candidates participating (or not participating) in the search until finalists visit campus.
The position statement, written by RG175 and based on community interviews and survey data, will serve as the basis for candidate evaluation.
We are currently planning to announce the appointment of a new Head of School in fall 2022. The new head will assume responsibility on July 1, 2023.
Our Faculty/Staff Advisory Council was established by the Clerks of the Board to provide additional support at critical junctures in the search. Council responsibilities include detailing for RG 175 the key attributes necessary in our school’s next leader; providing input on finalists selected by the Search Committee; and meeting with the finalists to share insights on Moses Brown’s strengths and opportunities for growth. Though atypical of traditional search processes, our Head of School Search Committee also includes a member of the school’s administrative team, who also serves as Clerk of the Faculty/Staff Advisory Council.
Broad community input is critical to effectively defining the leadership, professional, and personal qualities required in the new Head of School. Thus far, we have provided forums for faculty, staff, and parents to meet with our consultants, and community members have had an opportunity to complete an online survey. Finalists for the Moses Brown’s Head of School position will also participate in open sessions with parents, faculty, staff, and students.
Press inquiries should be directed to Interim Director of Communications Darrel Frost at dfrost@mosesbrown.org.
Questions or comments about the search for our next Head of School can be directed to the Clerks of the Board of Trustees: Jane Ritson-Parsons P ’17 ’21 (jritsonparsons@me.com) and Reza Taleghani ’90 P ’21 ’23 (Reza.Taleghani@samsonite.com).