Sacred Heart Greenwich adds new president to leadership team
GREENWICH — Sacred Heart Greenwich will shift to a dual leadership model, the school’s board of trustees announced, hiring back Michael F. Baber to serve as the school’s inaugural president alongside Meg Frazier, the current head of school.
The announcement was made in a letter to the Sacred Heart Greenwich community Monday afternoon.
The role will be somewhat familiar to Baber, who worked at Sacred Heart Greenwich from 2000 to 2015, including more than a decade spent as assistant head of school. He also served as interim head at Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, La., and as head of school at the network’s Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill School in St. Louis.
“Working with Meg Frazier to lead Sacred Heart Greenwich is an opportunity of a lifetime,” Baber said in a statement provided by the school. “I am beyond belief that this opportunity — one where I can to return to a community that is deeply in love with the mission of a Sacred Heart School — has come to fruition. I am excited to work with so many students, parents, alumnae, and faculty and staff whose generosity and dedication know no bounds.”
The letter said that Baber has “dedicated his career to education and the last 20 years to Sacred Heart education in particular.” And it noted his previous experience “in areas that are essential to our vision for the future, including philanthropy, community and stakeholder engagement, admissions and financial aid.”
Located on a 110-acre campus, Sacred Heart Greenwich is an all-girls Catholic, independent college-preparatory day school for students of all ages.
During his time in Greenwich, Baber led a capital campaign that raised $21 million, chaired the Education to Mission and Curriculum Committees, established a diversity committee, coached athletic teams and helped with the farming program during Summer Outreach.
The school’s board of trustees also praised Frazier’s leadership over the past 18 months. “We are confident that, together, Meg and Michael will be able to create a shared sense of purpose, unity, and excitement as we build institutional excellence and innovation at Sacred Heart Greenwich,” the letter said.
Frazier said in a statement that she had worked under a dual-leadership model for 15 years at Georgetown Prep.
“I welcome Michael back to Greenwich and look forward to collaborating in our next chapter here on King Street,” her statement said.
The board of trustees said Baber was chosen from more than 40 candidates through a search by Partners in Mission School Leadership Solutions, a firm that specializes in Catholic school administration searches.
Baber’s wife is an alum of Sacred Heart Greenwich, the board noted. He will begin his term on July 1, 2022. Opportunities for the school community to meet him “are forthcoming,” the board said.
The Board concluded during the 2019 Head of School search process that a shift to a dual leadership model would best serve the long-term needs of the Sacred Heart community. The collaborative model aligns senior executive functions around institutional leadership under the president and instructional leadership under the head of school.