About

Head of School Transition

On June 22, 2022, the Board of Trustees announced Dr. Jeneen Graham as the next Head of School for St. Margaret’s Episcopal School. She will begin in this role on July 1, 2023.

Announcing Our Next Head of School

Dear St. Margaret’s Community,

On behalf of our Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bishop John Harvey Taylor and the full Board of Trustees of St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, I am thrilled to announce Dr. Jeneen Graham as the next Head of School beginning July 1, 2023.

After conducting a search process that spanned the globe, we were overwhelmingly drawn to Jeneen’s unparalleled depth and breadth of experience as both a visionary educator and leader in our community. As a result, she became the unanimous choice to be the fifth Head of School in St. Margaret’s history.
 
Conducting this robust search in a highly competitive market not only afforded us the opportunity to meet many dynamic educators and independent school leaders, it also served to benchmark our school against the deep talent and extensive experience of the marketplace. By this standard, it was abundantly clear to our search committee, the Board of Trustees, as well as the many community members who participated in our finalists meetings, that we have something special at St. Margaret’s, including an exceptional leader in Jeneen who will help write the next chapter of our school’s history.

Academic Innovator

Jeneen is a highly credentialed educational leader. Her background includes significant time at the University of California, Irvine working as both a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Education. As a researcher, she was the Assistant Director and Acting Director of the Center for Research on Cognition and Learning.

She also served as Assistant Director of Admission at St. Andrew’s School, in Boca Raton, and at the highly regarded educational consulting firm Carney Sandoe and Associates in Boston. As Academic Dean at St. Margaret’s, Jeneen led a number of impactful, cross-divisional initiatives including a longitudinal student achievement tracker that not only led to significant enhancements in St. Margaret’s curriculum, but became a model for the broader network of independent schools. Recognizing Jeneen’s potential as a gifted administrator, Will Moseley appointed her to Principal of the Upper School where she has led the school’s largest professional team, pursued operational excellence in every dimension and prioritized student centered educational enrichment.

Collaborative Community Builder

Throughout her tenure at St. Margaret’s, Jeneen has drawn upon multiple lenses through which to view St. Margaret’s and consistently demonstrated her unique perspective to thoughtfully and expertly make connections between divisions and build community throughout the school. As one of our community interviewers shared, “Jeneen’s superpower is her ability to connect with people.” 

A Vision Centered on Hearts & Minds

As a researcher, administrator, teacher and parent, Jeneen embodies the balance of our commitment to educating both hearts and minds. Her Ed.D Dissertation, Elements of Human Effectiveness: Intelligences, Abilities and Personality Traits that Predict Success and Fulfillment in Life, reflects her lifelong professional commitment to integrating academic achievement with health, well-being and long-term personal fulfillment. This perspective is consistent with St. Margaret’s focus on student well-being and demonstrates her aspiration to develop young adults able to thrive not just in the present but for lives of learning, leadership and service.

We are deeply grateful for the leadership Will Moseley has provided our school for the past nine years. The strength of our community was evident to all of the candidates who engaged in our search process, and it is a testament to Will’s outstanding mentorship that we were able to find our next Head of School within our own professional community. We are extraordinarily lucky to have a year of overlap between Will and Jeneen to ensure a smooth handoff.

During the next few weeks, the Board of Trustees will identify a Transition Committee to support Jeneen as she assumes this new leadership role. Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, the Transition Committee will create opportunities for Jeneen to connect with St. Margaret’s students, parents, professional community, alumni and Board of Trustees.
 
Thank you for your engagement and continued support throughout this process. 

Go Tartans!

Sincerely,

Paul C. Westhead
President, Board of Trustees

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  • About Dr. Jeneen Graham

    Jeneen Graham, Ed.D. is the Principal of the Upper School at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano and has been serving in this role since 2018. As Principal, Dr. Graham leads a community of 475 students and over 75 professional community members. She also teaches AP Psychology. Prior to becoming Principal, as Academic Dean of St. Margaret’s, her responsibilities included curriculum development and alignment for the school community, teacher professional development, database development and data analysis, and the pursuit of promising pedagogical practices and assessments. Dr. Graham has collaborated with edX, a provider of high-quality online learning opportunities governed by MIT and Harvard, to develop their first-ever high school MOOCs. She has been a frequent presenter at industry conferences including the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the National Association of Episcopal Schools (NAES), California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and the Educational Records Bureau (ERB). She is the Co-Chair of the CAIS Think Tank for Data Based School Improvement and a Board Member for the California Teacher Development Collaborative (CATDC). She also provides advisory support for St. Margaret’s community programs, Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano and Special Camp. Dr. Graham’s dissertation was entitled, Elements of Human Effectiveness: Intelligences, Abilities and Personality Traits that Predict Success and Fulfillment in Life.

    Prior to working at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, Dr. Graham served on the St. Margaret’s Board of Trustees while she was on staff in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine as a lecturer and a researcher. She was the Assistant Director and later the Acting Director of the Center for Research on Cognition and Learning. Before joining UCI, Dr. Graham was the Assistant Director of Admission for St. Andrews School in Boca Raton, Fl. She began her career at Carney, Sandoe and Associates, a well-known educational consulting firm in Boston, MA. Dr. Graham holds a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Spanish from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH and an Ed.D in Educational Leadership from a joint UCI/UCLA program.

    Publications and Presentations

    • Graham, J. and Mazzola C. (2022). Measuring Your Mission and Vision: Systems of Data Collection and Analysis. Presentation at the 2022 CAIS Trustee/School Head Online Conference. Online.
    • Robles, M., Graham, J., Durgin, J. & Barrett, S. (2019). Creating a Mission-Driven Assessment System: Lessons from the CAIS Assessment Think Tank. Presentation at the National Association of Independent Schools annual meeting. Long Beach, CA.
    • Graham, J., & de Forest, J. (2018). Better Understand How Well you Meet your Mission: Calling All (Aspiring) Independent School Researchers. Presentation at the National Association of Independent Schools annual meeting. Atlanta, GA.
    • Allen, R., Dahlem, R., Greene, R. & Graham, J. (2017). Roots and Wings: Preparing Students for the New College Campus Reality. Presentation at the National Association of Independent Schools annual meeting. Baltimore, MD.
    • Graham, J. (2015 and 2017). Measuring what Matters. Presentations as Faculty member of Leading from the Middle Annual conference, California Association of Independent Schools. Palm Springs, CA.
    • Graham, J. & Johnson, J. (2017). WRAP: An illustration of Teacher and Student Self-Reflection. Presentation at the ERB 90th Annual Conference. Boston, MA.
    • Graham, J., Blount, J. & Wiersma, A. (2016). Using ERB Data to Measure What Matters. Presentation at the ERB 89th Annual Conference. Chicago, IL.
    • Graham, J. (2015). What Teaching a MOOC with edX Taught me. NAIS Blog. Washington, D.C.
    • Graham, J. (2014). Measuring What Matters. Presentation at NAES Annual Meeting. Anaheim, CA.
    • Rutherford, T., Farkas, G., Duncan G., Burchinal, M., Graham, J., Kibrick, M., Richland, Tran, N., Schneider, S., Duran, L. & Martinez, M.E. (2014). A Randomized Trial of an Elementary School Mathematics Software Intervention:Spatial Temporal Math. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 7:4, 358-383.
    • Graham, J., (2013). Measuring What Matters. Presentation at the CAIS annual Conference. Los Angeles, CA.
    • Rutherford, T., Burchinal, M., Farkas, G., Graham, J., Kibrick, M., Long, J.J.,…Martinez, M.E. (2012, April). Evaluation of Spatial Temporal Mathematics: Main and differential effects on standardized test scores. Paper submitted to the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, Vancouver, Canada.
    • Long, J. J., Rutherford, T., Richland, L. E., Graham, J., Antenore, F., Coulson, A., & Martinez, M.E. (2011,May) Fidelity of implementation in ST Math. Poster presented at the Science of Student Success conference of the Learning & the Brain Society, Chicago, IL.
    • Lee, D.S., Rutherford, T., Hinga, B., Graham, J., & Martinez, M. (2011, May) Brain Boost: A Model for Direct Cognitive Enhancement. Poster presented at the Science of Student Success conference of the Learning & the Brain Society, Chicago, IL.
    • Rutherford, T., Graham, J., Kibrick, M., Burchinal, M., Lee, D.S., Long, J.J., Martinez, M. E. (2011, April). Change in standardized test scores in response to an individualized math intervention. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, New Orleans, Louisiana.
    • Martinez, M.E., Klunder, J. & Graham, J., (2010). Strategies for the direct enhancement of intelligence. Presented at the annual meeting of American Education Research Association, Denver, CO

Thank You!

Dear St. Margaret’s Community,
 
As Co-Chairs of the Head of School Search Committee, we extend deep gratitude to the many members of our community engaged throughout this process – professional community, parents, students, alumni, and Trustees – who contributed to the ultimate selection of Dr. Jeneen Graham as our next Head of School.  We appreciate your participation, feedback and trust throughout the entire search process.  We’d especially like to thank the Board of Trustees Search Committee members who spent countless hours and channeled our community’s common goals to reach this successful outcome.
 
Cathy Stahl and Dana Sullivan

HOS Transition Committee

Committee Co-Chairs
Cathy Stahl P '22, '23
Dana Sullivan P '25, '28, Past PTF President
 
Committee Members
Suad Elias-Atala P '26, '28
Susan E. Brown P '17, SMEC
Joyce Lee P '23, '27, BOT Vice President
Mattingly Messina '13, Alumni Council President
Ali Monge P '26, '28, SMEC
Jason Weiss P '22, '22, '24, BOT Past President, SMEC
Paul Westhead P '17, '22, BOT President

HOS Transition Announcements

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HOS Transition Events

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An independent preschool through grade 12 college-preparatory day school in Orange County, California
NON DISCRIMINATION POLICY
St. Margaret's Episcopal School does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, sexual orientation or national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational, admission, financial aid, hiring and athletic policies or in other school-administered programs.
St. Margaret’s Episcopal School
31641 La Novia Avenue
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
949.661.0108
 
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