Mitty High names first Black president
Archbishop Mitty High School has named the first person of color to lead the prestigious San Jose Catholic school in a groundbreaking move months after dozens of alumni spoke out about a culture of racism and discrimination that they said administrators did little to expunge.
Bishop Oscar Cantú of the Diocese of San Jose and the school’s board of regents announced this week that Latanya Nailah Hilton, a former Mitty alumna and administrator, will be returning to her alma mater to serve as the school’s new president starting July 1, 2021.
“Ms. Hilton is a recognized leader in education and social justice advocacy with a passion for Catholic education and its power to develop leaders who will impact the world for good,” Cantú said in a statement.
Hilton, who grew up in San Jose, graduated from Mitty in 1992 and returned as an administrator for an eight-year span in 2004, serving in the roles of director of admissions, assistant principal, and executive director for advancement. More recently, she worked as a vice president for the nonprofit Center for Youth Wellness and was a founder of a media company called The Ambassadors Circle, a diverse and creative collective with a mission statement to “do more good.”
Hilton has been a member of Mitty’s newly established Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee since its creation over the summer.
“The stakes are high, and there is no better time for current and future students to know that each and every single one of us has the capacity to shatter barriers, contribute at the highest levels, and change the world,” Hilton said in a statement. “As a Mitty alumna, a wife, mother, and social justice warrior with deep family roots in education, I will serve this community with a continued commitment to faith, healing, justice, equity, and most of all, compassionate leadership.”
Earlier this summer, as demands for racial justice consumed the country in the wake of the police killings of Black Americans such as George Floyd and Breanna Taylor, dozens of alumni of Archbishop Mitty took to social media to share their stories of enduring racism and discrimination at school. The students’ stories ranged from teachers using the “n” word to minority students facing harsher punishments than their white peers to a lack of recourse for those who were subjected to the discrimination.
Since then, the school has created a diversity, equity and inclusion committee as well as a new diversity administrator position, hired a consultant to create a plan to address systemic racism within the school and held a handful of listening sessions with alumni, parents, staff and faculty. The school also created a new page on its website to keep all interested parties abreast of their progress and initiatives.
Former Mitty President Tim Brosnan retired in August after 30 years at the school and Principal Kate Caputo has been serving as the interim president since then.
After conducting a national search and weighing feedback from the Mitty community, the search committee and board of regents found Hilton to be “the kind of visionary leader they were seeking,” according to a statement from the Diocese.
“We are confident that Latanya will be an incredible advocate for, and leader to, the Mitty community,” Johnny Gilmore, board president and chair of the search committee, said in a statement. “Her wealth of relevant experience, her drive and passion, and her warmth and humility led us to the conclusion that she is absolutely the right leader for the school going forward — she will lead us all, with grace, in driving the school to reach even higher levels of excellence in the years ahead.”