In 2024, Collegiate School appointed Bodie Brizendine, former head of Spence, as its new leader, replacing David Lourie, who had served since 2020.
Brizendine’s appointment is historic: she is the first woman ever to helm this nearly 400-year-old boys’ school, a rare break from centuries of male leadership. The significance is clearer when you compare it to New York’s elite girls’ schools: Paul Burke has led Nightingale-Bamford for 13 years, becoming the only man ever to run a top Manhattan girls’ school, while Brearley, Chapin, Spence, Hewitt, Marymount, and Sacred Heart have always been led by women.
Today, single sex private schools are clearly less concerned with finding a gender role model for their students and more with simply finding a competent leader willing and able to navigate the political and social pressures of running an elite institution.