HEAD OF SCHOOL SEARCH

Dr. Lara Wulff Appointed the
10th Head of Roland Park Country School

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Lara Wulff has been unanimously elected as the 10th Head of Roland Park Country School beginning
July 1, 2026! A lifelong and warm-hearted educator with a strong passion for connecting deeply with students inside and outside the classroom, Lara’s outstanding qualifications and strong belief in a single-sex, all-girls educational environment make her the perfect candidate to lead RPCS.

Thank you to David S. Clapp, P’26, who served as the Chair of the Head of School Search Committee, and to every member of the RPCS community who participated in our strategic search effort over the past 10 months. Also a big thank you to Joan Smith, whose transformational leadership as our Head of School over the past two years brought us to this point. The future is exceptional for RPCS!

Read the full announcement and learn more about Dr. Wulff below.

"I am inspired by Roland Park Country School's carefully crafted learning experiences and deeply honored and humbled by the opportunity to lead and serve RPCS in its next chapter."
Dr. Lara Wulff
The 10th Head of Roland Park Country School

Head of School Search Updates

Announcing the 10th Head of Roland Park Country School - July 2025

Dear Roland Park Country School Community,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Head of School Search Committee of Roland Park Country School, I am pleased and honored to announce that Dr. Lara Wulff has been unanimously elected to serve as the next Head of Roland Park Country School, commencing with the 2026-2027 school year.

Lara’s exceptional qualifications and belief in a single-sex, all-girls educational environment distinguished her from more than 60 highly qualified candidates who applied for this critical position. A lifelong educator known for developing close connections with students and faculty both inside and outside the classroom, Lara currently serves as the Associate Head of School at Moravian Academy, a multi-campus private school with more than 800 students located in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. Her career has spanned more than 25 years and includes senior-level teaching and leadership roles at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, where she served as Head of the Upper School for 10 years. Previously, she was at Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, where she served as a teacher for 10 years and as History Department Chair. Lara also was an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Villanova University and taught at the University of Virginia and Dickinson College. In her current role, Lara leads Moravian Academy’s Educational Leadership Team, oversees faculty and professional development, works closely with the Moravian Academy Board of Trustees' finance and advancement committees, and has served as acting Head of School on numerous occasions, while continuing to work closely with students and faculty across three separate campuses.

Lara wholeheartedly embraces the student-centered philosophy of our current Head of School, Joan Smith, who firmly believes that tradition is the foundation on which innovation is built. Equally important, both Lara and Joan support our strategic plan proposition that the pursuit of excellence is not mutually exclusive with fostering a community filled with passion and joy. "From the beginning of the process, Lara stood out as someone who genuinely enjoys working with children, is present in the community, and has the vision and understanding to advance the mission of RPCS," noted David Clapp, P’26, Chair of the Head of School Search Committee.

A Fulbright Scholar, global education instructor, and collegiate swimmer, Dr. Wulff’s wide-ranging background – which also includes earning a Ph.D. in History from the University of Virginia and a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School – will serve our community well as she leads RPCS into the next 125 years of teaching girls and young women to prize “We” over “I,” how to think and not what to think, and the value of honor and character above achievement alone. Her husband Bob and their two college-aged daughters, Halle and Caroline, are thrilled to move to Baltimore and join the RPCS community.

“The privilege to teach and guide girls as they grow and learn is a sacred trust,” Dr. Wulff emphasized. “As the daughter of educators, a classroom teacher and administrator in all girls' schools for 20 years, and the mother of two daughters who are alumnae of an all girls' school, I know how impactful the educational journey is for shaping girls' confidence, sense of self, and ability to thrive in a complex and changing world.”

The Board of Trustees and I cannot overstate our appreciation to the Search Committee, which worked closely with our consultants at The Finney Search Group over the last 10 months to achieve this fantastic outcome. We are also profoundly grateful to you, the members of our RPCS community, who actively engaged in the search effort through participating in listening sessions, attending in-person and online meetings with our candidates, and providing invaluable feedback. The steadfast commitment of our parents and guardians, faculty and staff, students, and alumnae – combined with the transformational leadership of RPCS over the past year by Joan and her team – continues to position our School to thrive under Lara’s leadership for years to come.

Although Dr. Wulff will not assume her new role until July 1, 2026, we are planning various events over the coming months to introduce her to the RPCS community formally. I look forward to providing additional information about those events and our ongoing leadership transition efforts, as well as the various ways RPCS plans to celebrate its 125th anniversary during the coming school year!

Please join me in welcoming Lara and her family to RPCS. I hope you do not hesitate to reach out to me or the RPCS leadership team at any time with any questions you may have.

We are many, we are one!

W. Kyle Gore, P’15, P’17, P’20
President, Roland Park Country School Board of Trustees

Head of School Search: Update and Invite - May 2025

Dear Roland Park Country School Community,

As I shared in my last update, over the past two weeks, RPCS hosted four exceptional candidates for the position of Head of School commencing on July 1, 2026. The schedules for the visits were intentionally designed to consist mostly of small group meetings with the leadership team, faculty representatives, and of course, a few Middle and Upper School students. The feedback received on all of the candidates was very positive and informative to the Search Committee and has guided us to the next stage in the process.

As the next step, to ensure the wider RPCS community has an opportunity to meet the candidates and provide feedback to the Search Committee, we are planning to host 60-minute Zoom meetings with candidates over the course of the next few weeks, beginning with two next week on:

Monday, May 19 at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, May 21 at 7 p.m.

If you are interested in participating in one or more of these sessions, please click here to complete your registration. The day before each Zoom meeting, the registered participants will receive an email providing the link and related instructions for that Zoom session.

Thank you for your interest in the Head of School search effort. Please email HOSSearch@rpcs.org if you have any questions or comments you would like to be addressed during the Zoom meetings.

Sincerely,

David Clapp, P’26
Head of School Search Committee Chair

Head of School Search Update - April 2025

Dear Roland Park Country School Community,

On behalf of the RPCS Head of School Search Committee, I am very excited to share that we have narrowed our search for the next Head of School to four impressive candidates. Each of them possesses extensive experience in all-girls, independent schools, and each has served as a Division Head and as an Assistant or Associate Head of School, in addition to possessing the personal traits and leadership skills we believe are essential for the position. We invited them to RPCS for separate all-day visits starting next week and continuing the following week and all four have enthusiastically accepted.

While we may not have provided many updates recently, please know that the Search Committee has been hard at work with our consultants at The Finney Search Group to get to this stage. Since the beginning of this calendar year, we and they have carefully received and evaluated numerous resumes submitted by more than 50 highly qualified candidates throughout the country, had detailed conversations and Zoom interview sessions with over a dozen of those selected for consideration as potential finalists, and worked as a team with Finney to ascertain who should be invited to meet with others in the RPCS community. Throughout this process, we have kept in mind the feedback gathered over the fall and winter from various groups, including employees, parents, and alumnae, both via the listening sessions conducted on campus by Finney and in direct conversations with members of the Search Committee. In short, we have been and remain determined to use every available resource to support this critical endeavor.

Joan and the Search Committee are working to set the schedules for the four candidates invited to visit RPCS and to organize the process to gather feedback from RPCS community members as the process unfolds. While this initial visit process will not allow for everyone in the RPCS community to participate and offer their insights at this stage of our efforts, rest assured that we will share more information about these exceptional leaders and provide additional opportunities for all to participate and provide feedback to the Search Committee about the final candidates as the Search process continues to next steps.

Thank you for your continued support as we progress on our path to identify the next Head of Roland Park Country School.

Sincerely,

David Clapp, P’26

Head of School Search Committee Chair

Update from the Head of School Search Committee - March 2025

The search for the new Head of School at RPCS continues to progress extremely well. Last month, our consultant for the search process, the Finney Search Group, presented the Search Committee with a culled list of resumes of exceptional leaders from Baltimore and around the country, including several with ties to Roland Park Country School. The Search Committee began interviewing a few candidates with RPCS ties last month and has scheduled more interviews over the next few weeks with additional candidates.

Simultaneously, the Finney Search Group continues to hold listening sessions with various stakeholders at RPCS. After meeting with employees on campus last fall and into the winter, the team at Finney has focused more on parents and alumnae in recent weeks. Finney held sessions with graduates of RPCS on February 27 and with parents on March 3 and March 6. These conversations with people who care deeply about RPCS and come with various perspectives and ideas allows the team at Finney to help the Search Committee in evaluating the candidates for the position.

Looking ahead, the Search Committee is hoping to complete the interviews of these highly-qualified applicants by the middle of next month and will then begin the process of selecting a few to visit the campus and meet with a wider audience. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to direct those to the Finney Search Group by emailing HOSsearch@rpcs.org.

Thank you for your support in this important and exciting endeavor,

David Clapp, P’26 on Behalf of the Search Committee

Update from the Head of School Search Committee – January 2025

After several days of visiting campus and meeting with faculty, staff, administrators, parents and guardians, and selected canvassing of others, The Finney Group and your Search Committee have begun the formal search process. Although not apparent to everyone, much has transpired. The Search Committee meets regularly and has been sorting through feedback provided by the various constituents of the School and The Finney Group to develop a profile which will be used to help evaluate candidates. We have heard repeatedly that culture is so important at RPCS, and that the next leader should enjoy working with children, be an experienced leader of faculty, and maintain the positive and supportive environment that is the bedrock of the school experience for both children and adults.

At the same time, The Finney Group has also been reaching out to their national network, fielding calls and questions from potential candidates, and reviewing resumes from interested applicants. While it is still early in the process, the pool of candidates that is beginning to form is very impressive. There is still much work to do as we move into the stage of reviewing resumes and having preliminary conversations with candidates. We are not sharing names of candidates yet because total confidentiality is required to allow the highest quality candidates to explore the option of applying and to produce the desired result of finding the absolute best person to lead RPCS in the future.

We appreciate that so many candidates are very interested in the role. Rest assured, we are pursuing a strategic course and thoughtful process to deliver to RPCS its next Head of School. We will update you with more details in the weeks ahead as the search process unfolds.

Sincerely,

David Clapp, P’26 on Behalf of the Search Committee

Update from the Head of School Search Committee - November 2024

Dear Roland Park Country School Community,

As Chair of the Search Committee, I am privileged and honored to lead the effort to find a new Head of School. Clearly, the most important decision a school makes is its selection of an aspirational, inspirational leader who embraces the school’s mission and values, and we have assembled an excellent group committed to the task. The Search Committee (listed at the bottom of this page) is composed of Trustees from varied professional backgrounds with strong ties to the school: three alumnae, four current parents, four past parents, and a former member of the faculty. We share one thing in common — a heartfelt love for the school and a belief in its future.

As was communicated earlier this fall, The Finney Search Group has been selected as the search consultant to assist us in finding the school’s next leader. One of their most important tasks will be to gather your feedback throughout this process and give you ample opportunities to provide your thoughts. The Finney team has already scheduled a visit to the campus next week to talk with Joan and tour the school. In the weeks ahead, you will receive information about the important role you play and how you can participate when the Finney team returns to campus in the near future. In the meantime, you can email the Committee at HOSSearch@rpcs.org if there is anything you would like to share.

We are committed to conducting an inclusive, deliberate, and thoughtful search and will continue to keep you updated. On behalf of the Search Committee, thank you for your engagement, support and commitment to Roland Park Country School.

Sincerely,

David Clapp, P’26

Head of School Search Committee Chair

An Important Message From the Board of Trustees President - September 2024

Dear Roland Park Country School Community,

Last year at this time, I wrote to the RPCS community about how the Board of Trustees, the RPCS leadership team, and key members of our faculty have jointly undertaken a strategic planning effort to ponder how we build on the school’s nearly 125-year tradition of excellence, purpose, and passion. We have remained focused on ensuring that the young women who are graduated from RPCS in the years to come are best positioned to be extraordinary leaders who make profoundly positive differences on the lives they touch and potentially the entire world. Our tasks have centered on defining as specifically as possible who we are, who we are not, who we want our graduates to aspire to be, and the incredible spirit that differentiates our school.

As the 2024-2025 school year enters its fifth week, on behalf of the entire Board, I am writing to you to provide you with key updates as we enhance our longstanding commitment to our exceptional people, place, and programs. Specifically:

We will formally launch our new Strategic Plan - Creating Pathways to Endless Possibilities - on Tuesday, October 1^st. This Plan will guide our shared sense of purpose as a community and impact RPCS in profoundly positive ways for generations to come by emphasizing our commitments over the next five years on four key priorities, each of which include aspirational yet actionable initiatives.
As a key part of creating Pathways to Endless Possibilities, we are thrilled to formally announce that Joan Smith has agreed to remain in place and serve as our Head of School through June 30, 2026. Words alone cannot articulate the degree to which Joan has imbued the RPCS culture with a renewed sense of strong purpose, passion, tradition, and excellence. Echoing Joan’s wise and prescient words again, tradition and innovation are not mutually exclusive, as tradition is the foundation on which innovation is built. Her steadfast commitment to strengthening our community and executing the critical initial phases of our new Strategic Plan over the next 20 months will greatly benefit us all for years to come.
Guided by our new Strategic Plan and the extraordinary leadership of Joan and her team, we have selected fellow Trustee David Clapp to lead our Search Committee to secure Joan’s successor as the next Head of RPCS, and we have selected The Finney Search Group as our Head of School search consultant. David’s prior experiences in both private and public school operations, combined with his business background and key roles on our Board, make him uniquely qualified to lead our search effort. Finney offers a crucial blend of RPCS-specific knowledge, local private school market experience, and national access to exceptional senior leadership candidates. David and Finney are committed to including a wide range of parent, faculty, staff, student, and alumnae voices to ensure that the entire RPCS community is actively involved in this extremely important endeavor. To that end, we will launch a special website dedicated to the search effort and will start our community outreach as this process unfolds over the coming months.
Undertaking significant upgrades to portions of our campus and investing in our physical spaces to support our students, faculty, and programs is a key “actionable initiative” in our Plan. To support that process, we engaged Hord Coplan Macht to complete a Campus Master Plan to govern the creation of new spaces needed to elevate fifth grade to Middle School for the 2025-2026 school year, a significant renovation of our Lower School and Little Reds spaces, and modernization of the classroom experience for all divisions. We look forward to announcing the initial renovation projects which we expect will commence in Spring 2025. Rest assured, we are focused on ensuring minimal disruption to the student experience as our campus undergoes our planned enhancements.

Reiterating my message to you in May, we reaffirm our commitment to the proposition that academic excellence need not preclude personal happiness, and that the Pathways to Endless Possibilities on which our girls will engage in lifelong learning and success extend well beyond their college years. We also remain steadfast in our belief, forged over our nearly 125 year history, that the pursuit of excellence is meaningless without purpose, passion, and a lifelong commitment to learning and seeking new ways to improve the lives of those around us.

We look forward to engaging the entire RPCS community as we forge our Path forward together, always mindful that “We Are Many, We Are One!”

W. Kyle Gore, P’15, P’17, P’20

President, Board of Trustees

Meet Our Search Committee

We are pleased to share that we have formed a search committee to work with our consultants, The Finney Search Group.
The committee is comprised of the following individuals.

David Clapp, P ‘26
Head of School Search Committee Chair
Vice President, Board of Trustees

Shannell Richardson Cockrell, 1997, P’21, P’26
Secretary, Board of Trustees

W. Kyle Gore, P’15, P’17, P,20
President, Board of Trustees

Janet Bauer Hartman, 1968, P’96
RPCS Arts Faculty, 1972-1974 and 1977-2005
Trustee

Carroll Knott McGill, 1993, P’25
Former President, Board of Trustees
Vice President, Board of Trustees

Donna Parker, P’12, P’14
Trustee

Niki Whitecar, P’36, P’38
Trustee

Page updated July 30, 2025

HEAD OF SCHOOL SEARCH

Dr. Lara Wulff Appointed the 10th Head of Roland Park Country School

Dr. Lara Wulff Appointed the
10th Head of Roland Park Country School