Loyola School’s New Principal

Uniquely Jesuit, Independent, Coeducational

December 18, 2013 Dear Loyola School Community, I am so very pleased and excited to announce the appointment of Kristin Ross as the next Principal of Loyola School. Ms. Ross’s selection is the culmination of an extensive search. This fall, after narrowing a broad pool of candidates, our search committee met with semifinalists and decided upon the finalists for this important leadership role. School leadership and representatives continued conversations with selected finalists which included an opportunity to meet with administration, faculty, students, alumni, trustees, and parent representatives. In considering who the next Principal of Loyola School would be, we recognized the importance of selecting a candidate who is well grounded in Ignatian spirituality and possesses a deep understanding of Loyola School’s mission; Ms. Ross clearly demonstrated those characteristics. Ms. Ross will officially begin her responsibilities as Loyola’s Principal on July 1, 2014, and we are already working with Ms. Ross and Mr. Lyness to ensure that her transition will be a seamless one.

Ms. Ross brings an impressive breadth of experience from a variety of educational settings. She has been the Assistant Principal of Regis High School since 2008; Regis's Director of Guidance from 2001 to 2008 and College Advisor from 1999 to 2008. Prior to her 15 years in Jesuit Education, she was a Guidance Counselor Intern at Stuyvesant High School and a Middle School English Teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools. She earned her B.S., Magna Cum Laude, in Psychology and Education from James Madison University in 1996 and her M.A. and Ed.M, in Organizational Psychology and Psychological Counseling in 1999 from Columbia University, Teachers College. She also expects to be awarded her Ed.D in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014. Ms. Ross served on the New York Province Secondary Education Advisory Board and currently is a member of the Dominican Academy Board of Trustees as well as Saint Peter’s Preparatory School Board of Trustees. She has finished five New York City Marathons, including the most recent race in November 2013, just days before her first interview for the role.

I am extremely grateful to our Search Committee, and other community leaders who helped in the finalist meetings, for the hours they dedicated to this process. I also wish to express my profound appreciation to Mr. Lyness for his contributions to Loyola as our Headmaster and I am equally thankful for the role that he will play in helping Ms. Ross transition to her new role.

Please join me in extending Kristin Ross an enthusiastic welcome as Loyola School’s next Principal!

Sincerely,

Tony Oroszlany ‘87 President

980 Park Avenue • New York, NY 10028-0805 Telephone: 212.288.3522 • Fax: 212.861.1021 • Website: www.loyola-nyc.org

Uniquely Jesuit, Independent, Coeducational

December 18, 2013 Dear Members of the Loyola Community, I am honored to have been selected as Loyola School’s next Principal. I have been blessed that my work as a school leader has been deeply meaningful and energizing to me on a daily basis, and it is with humble gratitude that I look forward to joining Loyola’s community. I would like to thank the Search Committee and the members of the Loyola community involved in the interview process. I am especially grateful to Tony Oroszlany and look forward to a terrific working relationship in the years ahead.

As I reflect on my time as an Ignatian educator, I have come to understand what a gift it is to support and shape the academic, retreat, service, athletic, and extracurricular programs we provide our students. I have spent the past fifteen years just around the corner at Regis High School, in a Jesuit community that deeply roots me and has become a part of the person I am today. My years on the other side of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola have been among the very best of my career as a teacher, counselor, advisor, department chairperson, and administrator. My tenure has been formative, not only professionally, but personally, as well. Every day, I am happy to come to school, to find meaning in my work, to see value in the Jesuit mission. I enjoy the privilege of working with my students and alongside exceptional faculty and administrative colleagues whom I value as trusted friends.

I will always cherish my time at Regis, and I now look with enthusiasm to the unique opportunity to continue to grow as an Ignatian educator in a school community I have long admired. In ways similar to students who leave their former schools and home communities to venture to Loyola School, I, too, have been graced with an opportunity to set off along a new path of growth and learning: exactly the type of positive challenge that I love. I have a very real faith in God’s will, and am wholly grateful to take the next steps along my path as part of the Loyola School community.

My philosophy as an educational leader has long been rooted in my strong belief that an education is to be cherished. A fundamental respect for learning permeates each of my undertakings in and out of the classroom. From this stems my deep respect for the privilege of educating young people. I can recall going for my very first teaching interview after college, and when asked why I was there, I simply responded “I love working with students.” I said the same fifteen years ago when I was blessed to find my way to Regis. I repeat it again today as I joyfully embark upon my new role at Loyola School. As years have gone by, my focus has always remained the same: I enjoy working with young people in a cohesive, community-based, educational environment – one that is committed to a mission that nurtures the formation of the whole student, with the ideal of magis at its very core. For these reasons, and so many more, I am drawn to Loyola’s uniquely Jesuit, independent school identity, where close attention is paid to each and every student.

I am truly honored to follow once again in the footsteps of Jim Lyness, for whom I have the deepest respect. In 1999, I began my first year at Regis with Jim, as he held the role I will shortly be departing. I look forward to the challenge of ensuring that the Loyola community continues to flourish, to thrive, to pursue excellence, and to share its many gifts with the world beyond 83rd and Park. I am excited by the 980 Park Avenue • New York, NY 10028-0805 Telephone: 212.288.3522 • Fax: 212.861.1021 • Website: www.loyola-nyc.org

Uniquely Jesuit, Independent, Coeducational

opportunity to work with such an outstanding, highly energetic, and mission-driven community, as together we seek to lead Loyola into the future.

St. Ignatius was rooted in a deep and reflective focus on the experiences of his life, and this notion of the “experience” is at the heart of Jesuit education. In many ways, the human experience is always the starting point in Ignatian pedagogy. My own experience in Jesuit schools has long revolved around the people with whom I work. As I reflect on the path that led me to this moment, there are few things I am more proud of than the many relationships I have come to treasure with the students, faculty, administrative colleagues, parents, and alumni whom I have been so privileged to know. I very much look forward to building new relationships with the various members of the Loyola School community, as we embark together on this next chapter of Loyola’s history.

Sincerely,

Kristin E. Ross

980 Park Avenue • New York, NY 10028-0805 Telephone: 212.288.3522 • Fax: 212.861.1021 • Website: www.loyola-nyc.org