New Head of School

Join us in welcoming our Incoming Head of School: Dr. Michelle Odell

November 30, 2021

Dear Members of the LCDS Community,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am delighted to announce the selection of Dr. Michelle Odell as our next Head of School. After a comprehensive, thorough, and deliberate search process and vetting, the Board of Trustees unanimously voted for Dr. Odell’s appointment. While Dr. Odell will officially begin her tenure on July 1, 2022, she will begin working with the Board and senior leadership in the coming months in preparation for her arrival.

Dr. Odell comes to LCDS from Flint Hill School in Oakton, a school familiar to many as a popular destination for graduates of LCDS to attend high school. Dr. Odell currently serves as the Assistant Head of School for Signature and Special Programs at Flint Hill. Currently, in her fourth year there, Dr. Odell has been responsible for the leadership, vision, strategic initiatives, and financial planning for many of Flint Hill’s signature programs including fine arts, athletics, college counseling, social-emotional counseling, the learning center, student travel, and after-school programs. Additionally, last year she co-chaired Flint Hill’s COVID-19 planning and response task force, and she recently led their strategic planning process.

Her current Head of School lauded not only her professionalism, her attention to detail, and her ability to follow through and bring projects to closure, but also her impeccable integrity and her strong relationships with the faculty nurtured by an abiding curiosity, an eagerness to work collaboratively, and an abounding energy that leaves many wondering how she manages to do everything that is in her purview! We are confident that these qualities will serve her well as she builds on the incredible foundation Dr. Hollister and his team have built to lead LCDS into the future.

Dr. Odell has been an educator for thirty years and began her independent school career at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, one of the largest independent schools in the United States with over 2000 students. Her excellence as a middle school science teacher led to her appointment as Associate Director of Upper School at Lake Highland, a position she held for eight years. While in that role, she was instrumental in facilitating Lake Highland’s membership in the Global Online Academy, which dramatically expanded the curriculum, allowing Lake Highland students to access many courses that otherwise would be unavailable to them. In addition, she designed and implemented several new summer programs, including a summer science research program that took Lake Highland students to the Keys and the Bahamas to study.

Dr. Odell then spent three years as the Assistant Head of School and Head of Upper and Middle Schools at York Country Day School in Pennsylvania before joining Flint Hill in 2018. Dr. Odell’s tenure at York Country Day was during a time of great transition and growth there, and she was instrumental in building consensus for strategic initiatives including an expanded partnership with York College and a redesigned student schedule that allowed for greater flexibility. She also created policies and structures to professionalize the school, created and oversaw the budget for two divisions, and increased student enrollment and improved retention in the upper and middle school.

Dr. Odell has a passion for and a track record of creating programs that help students understand and reach their potential. She is committed to being available and visible in classrooms and hallways, as well as at school events, so that she can listen to and learn from both her students and faculty and staff in support of that goal. During the search, Dr. Odell shared that she is “eager to work with a committed board and strong faculty to forge a collegial culture where everyone trusts each other and bravely dares to pursue the goal of preparing children for a world that needs empathetic, gallant and honorable leaders.” After the Flint Hill team visited Apple and learned of a position at the company called Chief Listening Officer, colleagues assigned her that moniker because of her expertise in empathy, culture, and relationship building.

In selecting Dr. Odell, LCDS has chosen an outstanding communicator and a true team player, described by her peers and supervisors as long ready to lead her own school. One member of the LCDS community who interviewed Dr. Odell summed up her candidacy well: “She represents all of what LCDS embodies and desires to be. She has the vision, intentionality, and executive leadership that would take the school to the next level.”

Dr. Odell, a native Texan, is a graduate of Abilene Christian University where she studied biology and physical education. She received her Master of Science degree in Exercise and Sport Science from the University of Arizona and her Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California. She and her husband Marcus are parents to two grown children, Mikaela and Jake, as well as Cricket, their 7-year-old Australian Shepherd rescue. She is an avid sports fan, a passionate cook and a foodie, a hiker, and a paddle board enthusiast.

The Board would like to thank our partners at Southern Teachers who assisted the ten-member Head of School Search Committee in conducting an in-depth, inclusive, and thoughtful process over the past six months that brought us a robust pool of candidates from around the country. I especially wish to express my gratitude to the members of the LCDS community — trustees, parents, faculty, staff, and students — who participated in focus groups and interview sessions and who offered input that informed Dr. Odell’s selection as our next Head of School. We commend all who were involved in this process. Your participation demonstrated the collaborative nature of the LCDS community as well as your dedication to finding the candidate best suited to lead our school into our next chapter.

Throughout this process, the Board had the opportunity to get feedback from many of you. It is clear to us that our community is committed to safeguarding the mission, the vision, and the culture of the school that we all know and love. It is also clear that the community is eager to ensure that the distractions that we are seeing all too often in our county and beyond do not inhibit our ability to thrive as an institution. As we got to know Dr. Odell during the search process, it was evident that she understands our mission to inspire students to become lifelong learners, to think critically and creatively, and to lead with courage, compassion, and character and embraces the core character values that we are reminded of as we walk among the banners in our foyer: Respect, Citizenship, Responsibility, Caring, Fairness, and Trustworthiness. We are excited to see LCDS grow and evolve under her leadership while remaining true to these core values.

Please feel free to reach out to me or any member of the Board with any questions.

The Board of Trustees thanks you for your support and asks you to join us in warmly welcoming the Odell family to our community.

Sincerely,

Allison Wood, Chair
LCDS Board of Trustees

Nonprofit / Independent
Preschool — 8th Grade
Contact:
703.777.3841
info@lcds.org
Fax: 703.771.1346

 

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