Head of School Welcome

My path to Upland was, in many ways, written long before I arrived. Years in the classroom and in school leadership have convinced me that the K-9 model, or in our case Bee to 9, is not a smaller version of something larger. It is its own thing entirely, a community where children grow up knowing one another, where the oldest students are still young enough to be shaped by those around them, and where the whole child has room to develop at every stage. That sincere belief is what drew me to Upland.

It helped, too, that Upland’s own framework speaks directly to my own philosophy. Academics, Athletics, Arts, and Attitude are not pillars I admire from a distance. They are the story of the educator I became. I pursued a career in education because I love the classroom, a space where learning, communication, and the free exchange of ideas are celebrated. The role of the teacher is to spark critical engagement. Learning happens when teachers allow students to think for themselves, to be independent, to challenge. Students will do that when given the right access point, a well-chosen subject, and a useful set of tools. At Upland, that learning happens in classrooms, in the IDEA Center, on stages and fields, and on the ice.