New Directors to Assume Positions

English instructor Brooks Moriarty, health instructor Shane LaPointe and Associate Director of Summer School Elena Gosalvez-Blanco will be assuming new administrative positions on July 1 as the new Director of Studies, Director of Athletics and Director of Summer Schools, respectively. The decision was announced on Feb. 12 in an email sent to all employees by Principal Tom Hassan. Moriarty will take over for current Director of Studies Laura Marshall, LaPointe for current Athletics Director Robert Morris and Gosalvez-Blanco for current Director of Summer Schools Ethan Shapiro, who was selected as the new Dean of Faculty.

“One of the nice things about this school is that you have all these opportunities to serve the school in different ways and administrative positions are one of the ways to do that.”

A committee that met with indivodial candidates and looked over their letters of interest chose the new directors. The committee then sent their recommendations to the Chair of the Trustees Tom Hutton, who made the final decisions.

According to Hassan’s email, Moriarty will bring “imagination, compassion and a strong work ethic” to the position, and LaPointe will bring “organizational skill, a commitment to sports and health and leadership to an important and evolving interscholastic program.”

Both Moriarty and LaPointe “are excited” for the challenges their new positions entail and for the opportunity to make changes in the Exeter community. Each have their own ideas for how to improve their respective departments.

As director of athletics, LaPointe’s new position entails supporting Exeter’s sports teams and managing certain financial aspects of the athletics programs.

LaPointe said she would like to focus on building better community support on campus for athletics and make members of the community feel like they could come out and support the school’s teams.

She said she hoped to focus on athletics as a performance and help students to become the “most functional athlete they can be regardless of their sport” or lack of sport. She also said she hopes to represent female sports on campus as a long standing coach for girls’ sports teams.

“I want to make it clear that we should promote the success of both boys and girls teams,” LaPointe said, “and I really want to make Exeter sports something everyone feels like they are a part of.”

Former Director of Athletics Morris said LaPointe will be a “champion of sportsmanship.”

“Coach LaPointe will bring energy and creativity to the position as well as a great deal of integrity and good judgment,” Morris said.

LaPointe’s co-worker, health instructor Michelle Soucy, said LaPointe is a dedicated, conscientious and positive worker and will bring imagination and a new perspective to the new position.

“[LaPointe] is a true team player. She is always willing to help others,” she said.

As Director of Studies, Moriarty will be in charge of the curriculum committee, organizing the school calendar with Hassan and continuing projects from the dean of faculty.

Moriarty said that he hopes to take advantage of the recent conversations on campus for strategic planning to make curriculum changes that faculty members want to see. He said this includes putting a lot of focus on creating more interdisciplinary opportunities across campus, letting student organizations participate in and work with academics departments and continuing the academy’s experiment with technology.

“I’m really excited for a new challenge,” Moriarty said. “One of the nice things about this school is that you have all these opportunities to serve the school in different ways and administrative positions are one of the ways to do that.”

History instructor Michael Golay said Moriarty was a “good choice” and agreed that more interdisciplinary work was a “direction a lot of [faculty] would like to pursue.” Golay said he hopes Moriarty will provide good leadership in that area.

New Director of Summer School Gosalvez-Blanco hopes to keep Exeter’s summer session healthy and strong and wants to better connect summer session to regular session.

Exeter’s summer program is the biggest and oldest in the country, as far as the Academy knows, Gosalvez-Blanco said, and the program attracts students from all over the world.

Gosalvez-Blanco plans to continue to change the search across the country and world for “the best kids” while also finding more ways to increase financial aid opportunities. Gosalvez-Blanco was associate Summer School Director for three years, according to current director Ethan Shapiro, and will be familiar to the budgeting, hiring, admission, curriculum and all other aspects of summer school that she will now be in charge of. Shapiro said she was an “excellent choice” and will bring “energy, enthusiasm and proven administrative experience.”

“Summer school is a terrific part of Phillips Exeter Academy. My advice to her would be to trust and listen to the experienced summer school faculty and administrators and to think broadly and creatively about the future of summer school,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro will be taking over the position as new Dean of Faculty in place of current dean Ronald Kim, who will be taking over as vice principal next year.

Gosalvez-Blanco will also focus on looking for new clusters for Access Exeter and new partnership opportunities with regular school as well as other institutions such as admission, alumni relations and global initiatives.

“The goal is to better serve all students and help faculty develop new concepts,” Gosalvez-Blanco said.

Summer School has a big impact on the students who attend, Gosalvez said. Over 10 percent of Exeter’s regular students attended summer session and even for summer students who do not end up going to Exeter during the year, the time they do spend at Exeter is influential.

“Thinking of all those kids that only came to Summer School, maybe even just once, but are back home inspired and stronger thanks to Exeter. They feel they are Exonians, too, and that is very special,” Gosalvez-Blanco said.

Gosalvez-Blanco hopes to makes sure Exeter Summer School continues to do this for the future students of the summer session during her time as director of Summer School.

Gosalvez-Blanco also said Exeter Summer School has reason to commemorate this year.

“Exeter’s Summer School started in 1919 so we have our 100th birthday coming up,” Gosalvez-Blanco said, “I am thinking we should all celebrate.”