Lisa MacFarlane Named Principal
The Vice President of the Trustees Eunice Panetta ‘84 announced Exeter’s fifteenth principal, Lisa MacFarlane, during assembly last Friday. The former Exeter English teaching intern and current provost at UNH will assume her new role at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year after the current principal, Tom Hassan, retires.
The search process has been in effect since last July, when Hassan announced his retirement. The search committee worked with search firm Spencer Stewart, solicited opinions from students, faculty, staff and alumni and used their own knowledge of the school to narrow down the candidate pool to a list of finalists, whose names were not publicly announced.
Two finalists underwent rounds of interviews with the faculty search committee to examine their potential for the position. The trustees then discussed and agreed upon the final candidate most fit to undertake the demanding responsibilities of Exeter’s principal.
In a press release sent to Academy community members shortly after the assembly, President of the Trustees Tom Hutton ‘73 praised MacFarlane’s qualifications. “I could not be more excited to share with you that Lisa MacFarlane…has accepted the Trustees’ offer to be the Academy’s fifteenth principal,” he said.
The role, however, is not an easy one to fill. Hutton explained that beyond its simple definition, a principal’s position at the Academy is “highly complex and challenging.”
A principal at Exeter is primarily responsible for administrative management. Like Hassan, MacFarlane will serve as the manager of “operations,” which includes dispersing funds, balancing staff and salaries and managing heating, lighting and food, while simultaneously acting as the “ultimate manager” for functions of the principal’s staff.
“I am delighted with the search committee’s work, and the Trustees’ choice of Dr. MacFarlane as principal.…I am certain that she’s going to be a perfect fit.” - Tom Hassan
Past principals have also been expected to maintain a close relationship with alumni, donors and trustees and serve as the Academy’s spokesperson to the outside world. And since their title is the shortened form of “principal instructor,” many teach a class as well.
In order to select the right applicant, the search committee held extensive listening sessions and held open communication with students, faculty, staff and alumni. They received hundreds of emails and in-person opinions on the most vital traits of the fifteenth principal.
The greatest underlying trend, religion instructor and search committee member Russell Weatherspoon said, was that of enthusiasm for the school. “Exonians are very passionate about the school,” he said. “They think that what is going on here is very important….They think that Exeter should seek to be a leader in phases of education for the nation and for other parts of the world.”
Tony Downer, co-chair of the Search Committe, who was also present for many of the listening sessions, said that despite the closed search, they provided a link between the committee and community members. “We sought to be inclusive,” he explained, “and through our communications and our sessions, we received a rich stream of opinions and suggestions from the community which very much informed our thinking in terms of the background, experience and talents we should be focusing on.”
After the sessions, the committee worked to narrow down the strong candidate playing field. And despite time constraints, Hutton said with certainty that MacFarlane was the most qualified and best fit candidate for the job. “We are convinced that we would have selected Dr. MacFarlane even if we had spent two years and interviewed four times as many candidates!”
Hassan, too, was encouraged by the decision. “I am delighted with the search committee’s work, and the Trustees’ choice of Dr. MacFarlane as principal.…I am certain that she’s going to be a perfect fit.”
Hassan also explained that during his final months in the position, “I’ll work with her to ensure a smooth transition as she gets to know us better.”
Dean of Faculty Ronald Kim will also try and help smooth MacFarlane’s transition. “As the Dean of Faculty and then as the Assistant Principal next year, my primary responsibility is to assist Professor MacFarlane. We are in what I would call a welcoming phase, and then we will go into a transition phase. Once we get started in the fall, my role thereafter is to do whatever I can to help her succeed and in the process to make Exeter an even greater place,” Kim said.
Despite the challenges MacFarlane is sure to face, the search committee and trustees finalized the decision with near unanimous confidence. Her prior work and character have primed her for the job.
A graduate of Phillips Academy Andover, MacFarlane is also the mother of two Exeter graduates from classes of ‘09 and ‘13. A seemingly singular point of difficulty was with regards to her ex-husband, then UNH engineering professor David Watt. In 2006, he was arrested for online solicitation of a minor. MacFarlane disclosed this information early in the search, and it was included in the email sent to community members announcing her selection on Friday.
Watt and MacFarlane are now divorced, though he currently lives in the town of Exeter. Hutton explained in the email that Watt will not visit campus without permission from the Academy. Hutton assured the recipients that these complications have “no bearing on Dr. MacFarlane’s ability to lead Exeter today.”
“If you are talking about the person she used to be married to, then you are talking about a person that she used to be married to,” Weatherspoon said, stressing that their focus remained on her, not on the actions of her former husband.
He described her qualifications on the whole as overwhelmingly impressive. “She understands not only boarding schools generally, but she also understands Exeter through her direct experience through her daughters,” he said.
Downer described her stand-out qualities as working in a “unique” combination. He explained that she clearly cares about her work teaching in the classroom, evidenced by her desire to hold an appointment in the Exeter English Department. MacFarlane is also a skilled administrator. At UNH, she was responsible for a budget “over four times the size of Exeter’s and a student enrollment over 12 times the size of Exeter.” Change, too, has been a top priority for MacFarlane.
During her time as provost, she has headed the UNH honors program, helped revise the University’s curriculum and also managed their strategic planning process, which will be directly applicable to her work at Exeter. Search committee members also praised MacFarlane on her eloquent oration skills and kind nature. Weatherspoon said that during her interview, she conducted a Harkness discussion that easily differentiated itself from the others in its ease and general demeanor.
It is with care, too, that MacFarlane hopes to begin her work at the Academy. She visited on Tuesday and will come again on Saturday to meet with students, faculty and staff and accustom herself to life on campus. On Tuesday, uppers Cesar Zamudio and Holly MacAlpine met with MacFarlane to give her a tour of the Academy.
Zamudio said that since MacFarlane was already familiar with the majority of the campus, they focused on visiting renovated sites, though the main purpose was “to give her an opportunity to talk to students, to faculty and to staff.”
During the tour, it became clear to Zamudio that MacFarlane “truly had a passion for Exeter, and I know that she was eager to see and meet everyone.” He also explained that she asked many questions, eager to learn all she could. In coming months, MacFarlane hopes to visit again to familiarize herself with the campus and various community members. Once she assumes her position next fall, Hutton said that she will develop short-term goals based on the strategic planning work that has taken place over the past year. “We are confident that her own perception of the needs for her role are very closely aligned with those of the other trustees,” he said.
In all, MacFarlane hopes to lead Exeter with genuine interest and care for the community. With this in mind, MacFarlane noted that while she is neither a “dog” nor “cat” person, “With people, I prefer to get to know each of them individually.”