On a warm June afternoon, Daniel Hwang ‘26 reads a school-wide email sent to all faculty, staff and students at The Masters School. The message leaves Hwang with a disheartened feeling, a mix of sadness, curiosity and confusion.
The Head of School, Laura Danforth, had just announced her retirement at the end of the 2026-27 school year. As Danforth served as the head of school since 2015, Hwang found it hard to believe that The School would find a worthy replacement.
Nonetheless, The Masters School will need a new leader.
To educate the community about the transfer of leadership, Jodi Innerfield ‘05, president of the school’s alumni association board and co-chair of the head of school search committee, commented on the process. Innerfield described the method, starting with Resource Group 175, a consulting team that mainly searches for school administrators for a variety of international and independent schools.
Innerfield said,
After this step is complete, the recruitment of applicants by Resource Group 175 will follow, culminating in a search committee of ten members — primarily consisting of faculty, trustees, alumni and parents of students who will continue the search.
As of now, the process remains in its initial stages, with a brief panel between students and recruiters occurring on Sept. 29. The main goal of this event was to voice the goals for the future of Masters’ leadership.
Jim Fabian ‘26 explained the discussion further, highlighting that Masters’ decision to involve students within the process meant a lot to those on the panel. Fabian said, “It made us [the students] feel like we had a voice in the process.”
In the midst of this process, Danforth also commented on the state of Masters through her own personal angle.
She said, “So, we are a really complicated school… We have people that live on campus, people who live off campus, we have five-day boarding and seven-day boarding. It’s a complicated place, so you really need to know to be comfortable with all of those moving parts.”
The Masters School’s course in leadership is still uncertain. However with the feedback from Danforth, as well as Innerfield’s insight as the president of The Masters School’s alumni association Board, the student body is more informed in both the process and desired characteristics of the school’s new leader.
