Camille Seals named head of school at Columbus School for Girls

Columbus School for Girls has named Camille Seals as the next head of school.

Seals will begin July 1, replacing Jennifer Ciccarelli, who is taking over as head of school at Marlborough School, an all-girls academy in Los Angeles.

Seals is assistant head of school at the Agnes Irwin School, an all-girls preparatory school in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.

Seals, who will be CSG’s first African American head of school, said several factors influenced her decision.

“The first is the mission," she said. "The values in the programs that are taking place at CSG was really compelling. Columbus School for Girls has this mission of empowering girls to discover their distinct potential as learners and leaders, and that speaks to this idea of every girl as an individual.

“Each person has their own journey, has their own set of things that they need, and a community that is actively designed to cultivate scholarship and leadership and confidence in those girls in an environment that’s designed specifically for them. That was really captivating.”

CSG board of trustees president Elizabeth Kessler, a 1986 graduate, said the search included an outside consultant, an internal search committee and community input.

“We sought input from a wide variety of school constituents – most importantly, our tremendously talented faculty and staff, our parents, our alums and our students, and they had visibility into the process,” Kessler said.

To guide the process, CSG drafted a position statement that outlines the school’s mission and history. The statement also details the head of school’s responsibilities, which include overseeing academics and athletics, administering a $14 million annual budget and a $22 million endowment and developing and implementing a strategic plan to guide the school into the future.

The position statement emphasizes CSG’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and empowering girls to reach their full potential.

“We need somebody who understands how to run a diverse institution and make sure that everybody is supported,” Kessler said. “It really is about learning to use your voice … learning to use interpersonal skills, and Camille has done all of that in her career.”

At the Agnes Irwin School, Seals oversees prekindergarten through 12th-grade academics and leads the school’s DEI initiatives, as well as the Center for the Advancement of Girls, the Innovation Team, technology and robotics.

Before joining the Agnes Irwin School, Seals held leadership positions at her alma mater, Hathaway Brown School, an all-girls academy in Shaker Heights.

At Agnes Irwin, she served as director of the Aspire Program, a leadership development program for sixth- through ninth-graders from low-income communities in the Cleveland area, and as director of the Center for Multicultural Affairs.

She also served as assistant director of multicultural affairs at the Noble and Greenough School, a boarding school near Boston.

Kessler said CSG is planning to hold events to introduce Seals to the community.

“She’s already met all of our internal stakeholders, but we really are going to expand that and make sure that that includes all students, all faculty and staff, all parents,” Kessler said.

A Cleveland native, Seals said she is looking forward to returning to Ohio and getting acquainted with the Bexley community. She and her husband, Dominic, a math teacher, have two daughters, Astrid and Alaia.

“I've heard that Bexley is a very close-knit community with a population that is collectively committed to excellence in teaching and learning and the education of our children, and so I’m really enthusiastic to be a part of that community,” she said. “At CSG, we draw students from more than 50 ZIP codes around Greater Columbus, and so I’m excited to get to know the entirety of the community and to build relationships with individuals, community partners and organizations, and all of the communities where our students live.”

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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Camille Seals named head of school at Columbus School for Girls