A DRIVEN AGENDA Continued from page 1
New face at the top During a year unmatched by any other in recent memory, Kathy Crow takes over as President of the Board of Trustees. STORY Robert Pou, Henry McElhaney, Jack Davis PHOTO Collin Katz
K
athy Crow never attended St. Mark’s. She’s never been to a class reunion or alumni weekend. Her sons don’t even go to the school anymore. Jack Crow, who attended the school through his junior year, now works in real estate here in Dallas, and his younger brother Rob ’17 is studying at The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. So why is Kathy Crow, a Board member of 17 years, taking on the role of Board of Trustees president in arguably one of the most chaotic years in the school’s history? Because it’s “home.” It’s “literally the first place boys go when they get back for Thanksgiving after their first semester of college.” It’s a “place where the relationships boys make are one in a million.” So that’s why Kathy Crow, just the second woman to ever become President of the Board of Trustees, keeps coming back.
September 25, 2020
Issues
The ReMarker
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Crow attended Princeton University in her home state of New Jersey before moving to work at the Trammell Crow company in Texas, where she first met her husband. “I was there for four years working as a financial analyst,” Crow said. “Then I left there and went to SMU for business school, graduated in ’94 and got married a month later.” Years later, shortly after her second son, Rob, graduated from the school, Crow was approached by the leaders of the Board. Her first thought: she was going to be politely asked to leave since she no longer had any sons attending the school. But, instead, she was informed that her work on the board had been noticed, and the position of Board president was in her future. In 2018, Crow became vice president and formed a partnership with then-president Clark Hunt ’83. “Mr. Hunt and I have a really nice relationship, and I learned a lot from him,” Crow said. “He’s been very professional, very calm-headed. The 2019-2020 school year was a hard year to be Board president. Obviously there was so much going on, and he was just so optimistic. We worked really well together.” After working with Hunt for two years, Crow officially stepped into the role of President this past June, and, like every president before her, she has created a list of goals he or she wants to achieve during her two-year term. With the school still recovering from last October’s tornado and currently dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, an emphasis on dealing with risk sits at the top of Crow’s list. “I am really focused on risk management and risk review this year with two things that hit us this year that we weren’t expecting,” Crow said. “As a Board, it’s really our job to be managing the risk of the school, and so we’re going to get a committee together and then do frequent reviews with outside professionals.” Crow wants to add this committee to the list of the nine current committees. This structure allows the Board to meet four to five times a year as a whole, then break off into committees and work on their specific areas of focus. The entire Board will tackle broad issues like character and leadership and health and wellness, while still working on their committee-specific goals. For example, Crow hopes to focus on access and affordability during the next two years. Taylor Wilson ’81, a past Board president, is working with Director of Admission and Financial Aid David Baker to make the school available to more prospective students. “That’s going to mean increasing financial aid,
Five goals for this year Board of Trustees President Kathy Crow plans to direct her efforts toward improvement in these key areas.
• Access & Affordability • Diversity & Equity • Risk Management • Character & Leadership • Health & Wellness
SURROUNDED BY BOOKS After becoming President of the Board of Trustees in June, Kathy Crow now leads a 52-member board and a 13-member executive committee. The Board is made up of nine committees in total.
but also strategizing about how we move outside to the perimeters and find kids that are going to be great additions to St. Mark’s,” Crow said. “Twice last year, we had a field trip to schools in the Northeast, to boarding schools that have done a really good job with access and affordability.” Crow will also continue to address the planning of a new athletic center to replace Hicks Gym. “We have to work with the city, and we have to have a master plan.” Crow said. “Those things take time. There’s a lot of energy about an athletic center and the possibility of having a pool put there. And we have some people who, financially, are interested.” And in light of the social unrest that rocked the country over the summer, the Board will focus even more on diversity and equity issues this year than they have in the past. “We’re really going to get involved in the diversity and equity issues this year,” Crow said. “It’s a priority for us. I think St. Mark’s already does a really good job, but that’s not to say we don’t have changes to make. We just want to do it in a way that’s calculating and the best thing for the school and for everybody.” Crow sees the Board’s role mainly as strategic, letting the school administration focus on the daily operations. “Our first job is to make sure that our headmaster is doing what he needs to be doing,” Crow said. “And then for us, we’re focused on strategic issues at the school. Goals for St. Mark’s IV is our Bible. Everything we do, every Board meeting,
Rapid FIRE
we should be focused on [Goals IV].” Crow believes she’ll have a great partnership with her vice president, David Campbell ’86. “He’s a great guy,” Crow said. “He runs the most efficient meetings. When his meeting is supposed to be over, whether you’re done or not, he cuts it off. And he keeps us all in stitches because he’s got a very funny, dry wit, which I adore. That’s kind of my sense of humor, and he’s just smart and good-natured. We’re going to work really well together. He tells it like it is, and that’s the way I like it.” Campbell also looks forward to their partnership. “Mrs. Crow has served on the Board a long time,” Campbell said. “She has two sons who have attended the school. She loves the school and knows a ton about it, so we’re in very good hands with her leadership.” Despite not being an alumnus of the school, Crow believes creating relationships between herself, the Board as a whole, the faculty and staff will be crucial to the Board’s success in the upcoming years. “A lot of what I’m trying to focus on is just having relationships,” Crow said. “Reaching out to the faculty, reaching out to the leadership team, reaching out to my executive committee and making sure that we stay connected. Especially now with so much happening over Zoom, that’s going to be a pretty big job. An alum, because they have friendships with a lot of people from their time as a student, maybe could do a better job with that, but I’m just going to work harder.”
Board of Trustees President Kathy Crow opens up about some of her favorite things.
Vacation spot
Adirondacks
Pet peeve
Complaining
First car
Volkswagen convertible
Board game
Rummikub
Favorite meal
Fettuccini Alfredo
Pets
Four dogs