THE HILL NEWS Kathleen Devaney appointed as Hill’s first female Head of School

By MICHELLE LAWRENCE ’26

On January 4, during an all-school meeting, Hill School Board of Trustees chair James Alexandre ’75, announced that beginning on July 1, Kathleen Devaney will serve as The Hill School’s 12th Head of School.

When former Head of School Zachary G. Lehman announced that he would depart Hill at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, a search committee led by Michael W. Harris ’84, vice hair of the board of trustees, was formed.

“We had four major responsibilities: helping our consultants gather campus voices for our position statement, reading resumes and educational philosophies, interviewing candidates during a weekend in Philadelphia, and spending time with our top three candidates when they visited campus,” Edward Tuck Hall Distinguished Chair in English Courtney Neese ’00, a search committee member, said.

Devaney was the second major candidate who visited Hill from December 4-6 in 2022. Head of Tour Carrington Bernabei ’24 interned at the Admissions Office during this time and led Devaney’s tour around campus. Bernabei showed Devaney some of the H-term classes taking place around campus, such as “Mastering the Market.”

“I remember thinking how exciting it was that I got to tour her as a candidate and began to hope that she would become our next Head of School. She was very curious to hear about our personal experiences as Hill students and showed genuine interest in hearing the student body’s perspective on Hill life,” Bernabei said.

Passion for Hill programs and traditions was exactly what the search committee looked for in Hill’s next head of school. Aside from being an authentic and experienced independent school leader, they wanted someone who would be able to be empathetic and passionate about their work.

“At the start of the search process, we sometimes wondered if we were trying to find a unicorn,” Neese said.

“Did someone really exist who could prioritize honesty, empathy, respect, and kindness while also preserving our traditions, fundraising, building community, championing our academic excellence, and continuing to propel our community forward?”

“Somehow in Kathleen, we managed to find all those things and more,” Neese said. “Kathleen was the best person to be our next Head of School. She was the strongest, most qualified candidate in our search process.”

While selecting a candidate to fill the vacant head of school position was not easy, Devaney stood out among the others.

“From the moment we met her in Philadelphia, our entire committee was incredibly impressed,” Neese said. “She brings extensive boarding school experience, she leads with compassion and purpose, and she believes in the mission of our school. Our community felt so strongly about her that during her campus visit, students and faculty kept asking if we could hire her on the spot.”

Dean of Spiritual Life and Equity Rev. Khristi Adams, another search committee member, added that “ultimately, we wanted to choose someone that we felt could best represent Hill and acclimate the best to serving and leading in their community.”

“Devaney has years of experience in all different aspects of boarding school from teaching, to coaching and to administrating,” Adams said. “She has had her hands in pretty much all areas of student and community life in independent schools.”

Devaney currently serves as the founding Executive Director of Horizons, a summer program at Westminster School. She has also held many administrative positions in addition to teaching