Interview with Head of School Dr. Anne E. Stavney

Dr. Anne E. Stavney is leaving Blake after being its Head of School for 14 years.

Q: Can you outline your professional journey before Blake?

I went to graduate school and when I was in graduate school, I taught English because I was getting a doctorate in English. So I went from one university setting to another university setting where I taught English for about 8 years.

I had the opportunity to go back to my independent school that's a lot like Blake and help change the English curriculum, to have the literature be from all over the world. And so I went back there and over the course of the following 12 years, I had virtually every job but being the head of school.

So then I was ready to head up my own school and bring some of what I learned to Blake. So, and throughout, until I came here, I taught English, but I did get a chance to teach English here twice to 8th graders one year and to sophomores.

What is one thing you are most proud of from your time here?

I'm extremely proud of expanding our financial assistance program.

When I came here, about 10 to 12% of students received financial assistance, and we didn't have a budget … to supply more. So part of our big $80,000,000 campaign, I was out talking to people about building resources for financial assistance. So now about 27%, one in four, receive financial assistance.

And what that means is that we have much greater access for students to be able to come to Blake and families. I'm really proud of that because that will go on. After I leave, that will continue. So I'm really proud of that.

What do you do as ahead of school?

One or two main things. So all the people who run the different programs in the school, from the lower, the middle, the upper school, and then communications, business office, and admissions. All of the people who are the heads of those programs and divisions report to me. And then I help them do their work.

So that's a big part is I work with them to keep evolving and improving things, to hire people, to admit students who really are going to add to the school and thrive, and so I work with them and they in turn work with everybody. So I do a lot. One of the things I really love doing is helping them develop as leaders. So that's a big part of it.

And then I also work with the Board of Trustees who's in charge. They have one employee and it's me and they're ensuring that the school is sustainable for the long term, both financially and reputationally. So we set goals for me every year and then they have me report on them. So I'm working with those two groups of the trustees and then all of the leaders in the school.

So lots and lots of meetings.

What is your favorite school tradition?

I really love Convocation and Legacy Day.

It is just so powerful to have us all together and then year after year to be with the same group. You know, see kids grow up, so that's a big one. I really, really enjoy that.

I also like homecoming and the way we've developed that to include the youngest kids, like last weekend, at Defend the Den, having really young kids there, older kids doing face painting on younger kids. I love those where we can all be together. So those are a couple of them.

What was an interaction with a student that was really memorable for you?

I just had some this morning.

Well a funny thing that sticks with me, when I taught 8th grade English, the students were nervous around me initially, and I knew some of their parents and their parents said, they want to know if they should talk in class. I'm like, 'of course they should'.

And so as they became more comfortable with me and we played games and stuff, the day I came in and I went to write on the whiteboard, and there were no pens, zero pens. So I'm looking all around, and then I look up and they had put the pens all high around the room, on top of the projector, on top of the clock, on top.

And they were all just sitting there innocently. And so I thought 'this is a good sign. They can tease me. This is good.' So I walked right over [to] the clock. I knocked down my shoe, one of the pens, picked it up, went back and started writing, and they were in hysteria.

And so that was a really fun moment for me. I remember it because it felt like we had become humans to each other, you know, and really that they could tease me and I could go with it. That was a memorable event.

If you could summarize your time at Blake in three, or about three words, what would they be?

I would say meaningful. Powerful, meaning it has been a powerful experience for me. Connected.

What is one wish you have for Blake in the next 14 years?

I think that's a great question, and I'm going to share what first comes to mind because I think it's the most genuine. And that's for our whole community, and actually students do a really good job of this, but the adults, parents, faculty as well, is to be kind to each other.

I think sometimes we get really intense in our own world and we forget to just simply be kind. So that would be my wish, is to have have that be kind of a guiding start for the future. Because I think only good things come of that.