Reverend Heidi To Leave Post Next Year
After four years of serving as Interim Director of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Academy has chosen not to reappoint the Rev. Heidilee Heath for the coming school year, according to Heath.
As one of the chairs of the Search Committee for the director position, Assistant Principal Karen Lassey explained that the extensive search began last winter, with finalist interviews conducted this January. “Through a series of phone and video interviews and after much deliberation, the committee decided on finalists who will visit campus early in the spring term to meet with the community,” she said. “I have appreciated working with Rev. Heath immensely over the last few years. She has brought much to this community and we are better for having the opportunity to know and work with her.”
According to Heath, four years ago during the hiring process, she “went through an extensive interview meeting with many members of the Academy in both one-on-one meetings and group settings,” she said. “I was then invited back for the following three years as the Academy discerned the future of this role [Interim Director].”
Heath could not provide any additional information regarding the following stages of the new director hiring process. “I can only say that the search is taking the committee in a different direction, and they chose not to include me in the finalist pool for this role,” she said.
Senior Helen Xiu first met Heath her prep year through Christian Fellowship. “Rev. has always provided good guidance to Christian Fellowship and has helped me develop my perspective on various parts of the Bible,” she said. “I think her understanding of the text is something that I will take with me as I grow in my faith, and I am going to miss her guidance as I graduate.”
Senior Andrea So met Heath at Amen, where So appreciated Heath’s warmth and outreach. “Rev is so generous, funny as hell, and full of light—there’s no other way to put it. She’s very approachable even to complete strangers. When you speak to her, you get the feeling that you’re truly being heard,” she said. “My favorite part about her is probably her infinite capacity for love. She puts so much of it out into Exeter, and we are truly a better community because of her.”
So said she will miss the unique perspective Heath brings to Exeter. “There’s no other faculty on campus I feel completely comfortable discussing queer struggles with besides her, and I’m so angry that future Exonians may not experience that understanding now because she’s leaving. Being not straight at Exeter is hard enough. So many people love her, and for good reason,” So said.
Senior Alisha Simmons also appreciated Heath’s identity as an LGBTQ+ campus minister. “Coming in as a new lower from a not-so-open high school in the South, I hadn't seen that much LGBTQ+ representation in my everyday life,” she said. “Just knowing that the campus minister was queer, married with a spouse and completely open about it affected me so deeply and made me feel more welcome as a queer student than anything else ever did.”
Simmons believes Heath connected her to her own sense of faith and religion. “I've always had a difficult relationship with religion for many reasons, but especially coming from the South, religion and queer identity never seemed like it could ever mix,” she said. “But she is a representation of that mixture and living in harmony of the two.”
Senior Ben Gorman expressed how Heath’s presence on campus gave him confidence in his identity. “I’m definitely going to miss how much she legitimizes being queer for me and many others just by being on campus and being as influential as she is,” he said. “Exeter constantly surprises me in how comforting and human it can be sometimes, and I think a large portion of that humanity and compassion comes from what Rev. Heidi does on campus.”
Simmons also valued Heath’s supportive nature—she remembered when she received a note in P.O. from Heath. “It got to me late, as it was meant to be received at the end of lower spring, but it was exactly what I needed at the time. The note was short but heartfelt, an expression of support and a reassurance that if I needed an adult on campus, she would always be there,” she said. “Never before had I felt as seen and noticed by a faculty member before.”
When speaking of her career at Exeter, Heath especially appreciated the impact students had on her. “Hands down my favorite part of this work has been all of you, the students,” she said. “The opportunity to create caring community together, explore religious and spiritual identity, hold your stories, laugh together and engage difficult questions has been such a gift.”
Instructor Mercy Carbonell expressed how Heidi’s impact and support extended to the faculty as well. “Sometimes, all I want is to know she is across a room, over a brick building or two, because being queer as an adult at PEA has been, since I began my career here in 1993, a lonelier place than I have allowed myself to feel,” she said. “And I know some of our students have often felt that loneliness, have opened the church doors and sought Rev. Heidi in her office, seen her smile, accepted an invitation that they may not even have known how much they needed, sat down in one of her chairs and begun to tell their truth to her, for she gives always the present tense of being and receiving.”
Heath’s care and commitment to helping the school appeared also after the sexual assault sit-in for students, according to Simmons. “The way that she stood up for us that day and validated our experiences after such a grueling experience of feeling invalidated was just yet another way that she's been able to help students feel seen and loved,” she said. “‘I see you,’ she said to us, and my friend broke down into tears. Because it’s hard to feel that way on this campus as a marginalized identity. It’s hard to feel that way as a queer woman of color, as a sexual assault survivor, as a low-income student. And she’s always been there for me and so many others to help us feel seen and remind us that we matter here.”
“I can’t imagine getting through these past three years without her constant support and assurance,” Simmons said. “She’s so supportive to others in all of their endeavors, and really wants to know who you are. Her Instagram page is a constant stream of motivative and supportive posts, and seeing them makes me smile on days that it feels difficult to.”
Xiu recognized that Heath’s impact on campus will be missed by many communities. “The religious community, the LGBTQ+ community, her dorm and many more all treasure her presence on campus,” she said. “It is very rare that a person can unify so many people in love.”
Gorman hoped that the new Director will offer the intersectionality and queer representation that Heath has brought to campus. “It just makes me really sad how few queer faculty we have on campus and how little they’re appreciated. I hope the new Director of Religious and Spiritual Life will be as intersectional, but that seems unlikely,” he said. “Rev. really is one in a million.”
Heath recognized her unique role and legacy in the community and thanked Exeter for providing this opportunity. “There is no role quite like this one on campus. This is the first time Exeter has had someone with explicit training as a chaplain, in advanced spiritual care and counseling, and in interfaith work in this role,” she said. “I am the first woman and the first queer person to serve as the head of Religious and Spiritual Life. That is an honor I will carry with me for a long time.”