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• Carrollton's New Leadership Named! April 22nd, 2022

  Dear Carrollton Community,

   

  On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I want to thank the entire Carrollton Community for all the assistance, support, and prayers you have offered in our search for new leadership.  We appreciate the time that so many of you spent helping us search for qualified candidates, arranging for campus visits, meeting with finalists, and sharing your views on the candidates with the search committee and the Board.  The search committee spent many hours, in conjunction with our search consultant partner, reviewing and vetting candidates’ applications, interviewing the selected qualified individuals, narrowing down the pool, accompanying finalists on their day-long visits to campus, calling references, and meeting several times to discuss the candidates.  Thank you for your prayers and patience during this critical time of discernment.

   

  When we began our search last fall, the Board had approved a new model of leadership for our school.  We decided that a Head of School and a President, working in tandem and collaboration, would help bring Carrollton into the future.  The Head of School will lead the academic life of the school, manage curriculum and instruction, faculty hiring and development, counseling and student life, faith formation of our students and faculty, and athletic, art, and extracurricular programs.  The President will focus on institutional advancement and development, manage advancement and fundraising, facilities and infrastructure, public relations, marketing and communications, faith formation of our non-educational staff, and alumnae relations.  The Head of School and the President will also share many duties, such as spiritual leadership, Board relations, strategic planning, education to mission, social justice, inclusion and diversity, community engagement, and admissions and financial aid.  We needed to find two extraordinary individuals who could fill these roles and ensure that our new model will succeed.

   

  We found one of these people here at home and are happy there is no learning curve to our community.  The second person comes to us with strong skills and is eager to bring best practices.  The Board of Trustees is excited to announce that our new Head of School will be Heather Gillingham-Rivas and our inaugural President will be Patrick Coyle.  We are confident that Heather and Patrick will work well together for the success of Carrollton now and in the future.

   

  Heather is an alumna of Carrollton (’94), Harvard University (A.B. cum laude, ’98), and Barry University (M.S., ’09) and is a Carrollton parent (’22).  She has 7 years of experience as a high school teacher, and for the past 16 years, has been Carrollton’s Intermediate School Head.  Additionally, Heather was appointed by the Provincial of the Society of the Sacred Heart United States Canada Province to serve for six years on the Sacred Heart Commission on Goals, which oversees the twenty-five Network schools for adherence to the Goals and Criteria.  In short, she brings a range of experiences that will help us with ongoing curriculum development that will continue to position Carrollton as a leader in the Miami community, in the Sacred Heart Network, and beyond.  Heather, her husband, Pablo Gustavo Rivas, and her daughter, Olga Rocio Rivas (’22), are well-known to many of you who have been coming to Carrollton for some time.  She is excited to transition to this next phase of her own professional growth.

   

  Patrick is an alumnus of Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland (’03) and Dickinson College (B.A., ’07).  Patrick comes to us from Lake Forest Academy in Illinois, where he has been serving as Chief Communication Officer.  Prior to LFA, Patrick was the Director of Marketing & Communications and Chief of Staff at Georgetown Prep for over 8 years and served in many unofficial and interim roles, including de facto co-president and Acting Director of Development, during times of other leaders’ absences.  He has extensive experience in strategic planning, capital campaigns, crisis communication, social media marketing, and alumni relations. Before Georgetown Prep, he served as Director of Marketing at a hospitality-focused private equity and investment firm based in Washington, D.C.  Patrick and his wife Hayley (SH ’04) are the parents of two young sons, Liam and Reid.  They are beyond excited to come to Miami, especially Hayley, who previously spent a semester at Carrollton as an exchange student while at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart.

   

  We believe that together Heather and Patrick will be a successful team in our new leadership model, and we ask that you join the Board of Trustees in congratulating them.  We are excited to welcome Heather and Patrick to their new roles officially on July 1, 2022.  We also thank you in advance for your continued support in ensuring they both are successful as they help guide Carrollton into the next phase of its growth as a Catholic, independent, Sacred Heart school of excellence.

   

  Sincerely,
  

  Raphael M. Bastian, SH’83

  Chair, Board of Trustees