Head of School Announcement

Board of Trustees Selects Christina Breen to Lead Laurel

10/10/2024

Dear Laurel Community,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Search Committee, we are delighted to announce that Christina Breen has been selected to serve as Laurel’s eleventh Head of School, effective July 1, 2025. After a robust search and vetting process, including the review of extensive input from the Laurel Community, Ms. Breen was recommended to the Board of Trustees by the Search Committee, who unanimously voted to appoint her Laurel’s next Head of School.

This is a milestone moment in Laurel’s illustrious 129-year history, and we want to thank everyone—parents, students, alums, faculty and staff and friends of Laurel—who participated in the search process over the course of the last nine months. It was critically important to the Search Committee, from the outset, to follow well-established best practices for independent schools, running a transparent search where all voices were heard and valued at each key step in the process.

As you may know, there are many active head searches currently taking place at fine schools across the country. The quality and enthusiasm of the more than fifty candidates who applied for our Head of School position speaks to Laurel’s national (and international) reputation for academic excellence, innovation, and leadership in girls education. This reputation was only reinforced by firsthand, memorable interactions with alumnae, faculty and staff, and other Laurel community members.

What became abundantly clear, not only to the Search Committee, but also to all who had the opportunity to meet Ms. Breen, virtually or in person, is that she possesses the experience, skills, knowledge and personal qualities that we as a community outlined in our Leadership Profile as being “essential.” She will bring to Laurel a breadth of independent school experience, from her own days as a graduate of Phillips Andover, as a founder of a middle school and as a teacher, coach and member of leadership at one of the top independent schools in the nation.

Ms. Breen comes to Laurel from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. As Associate Dean of Student Life at Exeter, she conducted a campus-wide strategic plan, designed and implemented the Student Leadership Training program, managed aspects of the student conduct system and co-designed and implemented the Advising Curriculum. With a commitment to attending to the needs of all children, she founded Fight Club, a student grief support group, and launched a national campaign for college admission directors raising awareness about applicants who have experienced loss.

A longtime English instructor, she has served on key campus life committees and chaired the faculty agenda committee which acts as liaison between faculty and Exeter’s administration. She is the recipient of the Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., Distinguished Faculty Award (twice), the Rupert Radford Faculty Fellowship Award and the Graves Family Teaching and Innovation Award.

Ms. Breen received her undergraduate degree in English from Tufts University, where she also played varsity lacrosse. She coached the nationally ranked varsity lacrosse team at Exeter to ten consecutive winning seasons and founded the Captain’s Council Student Leadership Program. Prior to Exeter, she was a lecturer in English at the University of Vermont, an instructor in English at St. Mark’s School and the founder and administrator of Heronfield Academy, where she led the buildings and grounds, development and pedagogy committees, designed curriculum, served as director of admissions, chaired the accreditation process and helped to guide two strategic planning processes. She holds two master’s degrees, from the Universities of Vermont and New Hampshire respectively, and will soon complete her third in independent school leadership as a Klingenstein Scholar at Columbia University.

In enthusiastically accepting the position, Ms. Breen shared how excited she is in carrying on the legacy that started with our founder, Jennie Prentiss, in 1896. “The simplicity and power of the Laurel mission, to inspire each girl to fulfill her promise and to better the world, has embedded within it the belief in the potential of every Laurel girl to nurture her passions, to care for her community, and to try new things with the knowledge that she will be supported every step of the way,” she remarked. “I am thrilled about this opportunity to lead Laurel, to honor the traditions that have made Laurel so successful, and to partner with the community to steward the school’s strategic vision moving forward.”

While much has evolved at Laurel since those first days in Miss Prentiss’ mother’s living room in downtown Cleveland, the heart of who we are—the finest girls school in Cleveland, committed to knowing and caring for each student and preparing her for the world she will inherit and which she will better through fulfilling her own promise—remains our constant.

We look forward to welcoming Christina Breen next summer. Until then, we will continue to celebrate not only all the small and major moments and achievements that typically punctuate a school year but, of course, our own Ann V. Klotz as she concludes her remarkable and transformative headship.

Warmly,