Phillips Academy Andover

We are pleased to announce the completion of our search for the Deputy Head of School at Phillips Academy Andover. From a strong pool of candidates, Merrilee Mardon, PhD has been selected for this important role, effective summer 2023.

Currently the Associate Head of School and Dean of Faculty at the Hotchkiss School, Merrilee oversees a team that includes campus life, athletics, and academic department heads, in addition to the human development program, mental health counseling, and health services. Her responsibilities include leading the process to evaluate faculty work around academic, residential, and athletic priorities. She is focused on enhanced feedback and professional support for faculty and attention to equity in faculty assignments. She also oversees faculty recruitment and retention, with a focus on unconscious bias training to ensure strong and diverse candidate pools. 

Among her proudest accomplishments, Merrilee created the Walter Crain Fellowship, which promotes the development of underrepresented populations among independent school leadership. The program will soon have six fellows who will go on to earn a master’s degree in private school leadership with the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University Teachers College.

A graduate of Smith College, Merrilee earned her PhD in economics from the University of Massachusetts and taught economics and gender and women's studies at Connecticut College before joining the Hotchkiss faculty in 2008. She was appointed associate dean of academic life in 2013 and dean of academic life in 2014.

The full announcement may be found here. 

Katie Rockman led this search with Berkley Burke and Maria Connor.