Photo credit: Maya Hernández

Upper School Director Maggie Cenan works at her new desk in the administrative hallway. She accepted the role this summer after serving as the math and computer science department chair.

While students were relaxing and enjoying their summer break, Archer’s faculty and hiring committee were working to fill the position of upper school director in the wake of former Upper School Director Samantha Hazell-O’Brien’s decision to step down. Head of School Elizabeth English sent a school-wide email announcing former Math and Computer Science Department Chair Maggie Cenan as the new upper school director Monday, June 17.

Associate Head of School for Teaching and Learning Karen Pavliscak said finding a candidate who was a match for other administrators and had the ability to evolve alongside the school and implement new practices were key factors in making the decision. Department chairs were natural candidates, Pavliscak said, as they are leaders at an administrative level. She said Cenan had impressed faculty members with her data-driven approach to leadership within the math department.

“[Cenan] is clear and transparent,” Pavliscak said. “She is committed to the growth and development of her team, and those are leadership essentials.”

Student Council Executive Board member Francie Wallack (’25) was one of five students on student council invited by the hiring committee to do an interview with candidates for the upper school director position. The chosen students prepared interview questions the night before they met with the applicants. Wallack said she felt it was important to chose someone with the student body’s best interests in mind.

“I think one thing that really impressed me when we were talking with [Cenan] was that she had so many ideas for how she envisioned the future of Archer looking like, and how she really knew where she wanted to bring Archer,” Wallack said.”She had very specific examples in mind that seemed very appealing to all of us, and we could tell how much she loved the school, which was really comforting.”

Two years ago, Cenan started taking courses on school leadership and said she began envisioning herself in an administrative position. She started her teaching career at Bishop Conaty Our Lady of Loretto High School, as a math teacher in 2009 and joined Archer in 2016 as a seventh grade teacher. She said when this position at Archer opened up in the spring, she wanted to return to working with high school students.

Cenan worked as a math teacher for the past eight years and said her experience as an educator has helped her navigate her new role and limit her fear of the unknown.

“I’m coming in with that mindset of being in the classroom, being with the students and having that perspective of what it felt like to be a teacher or to interact with the students,” Cenan said.

Cenan said she hopes to make all systems within school as clear, logical and consistent as possible. She said she is focusing on making changes as needed and collaborating with other administration to make scheduling reflective of the community’s needs.

“I think the biggest thing is my goal to really to listen to what the needs of the students are,” Cenan said.”To listen to the needs of the faculty and to seek first to understand, and then see if there is an area where we can improve on, or an area that could be adjusted.”