Suzanne Fogarty

Suzanne Fogarty is The Chapin School's 7th Head of School and comes to Chapin with an exemplary record of driving performance, creating innovative programs and fostering collaborations, not only during her five years at Lincoln School, but also at three New York City independent schools where she spent more than two decades as a teacher and administrative leader. With instructional experience in all three divisions, Suzanne has created environments in which community members are willing, able and excited to collaborate and innovate to best meet the developmental needs of children in Kindergarten through Class 12.

Lincoln School, where Suzanne served as Head prior to coming to Chapin, is a Quaker, all-girls K to grade 12 school with a robust coed program for children ages six weeks through PreK. The only independent all-girls school in Rhode Island, Lincoln has benefited tremendously from Suzanne’s direction. There, she enhanced the curriculum by forming strategic partnerships with local and global institutions and thought-leaders, and has significantly increased both enrollment and the endowment.

Previously, Suzanne spent 15 years at The Berkeley Carroll School, the last nine as Head of Upper School, where she oversaw 40 teachers and a student body of 240. Prior to this, Suzanne was an English middle- and upper-school teacher and also the English Chair for a year there. Before that, Suzanne was head teacher of 1st and then 2nd grade at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn and served as director of the Associate Teachers Program for 1st-3rd grades. Her first teaching position was as an Associate Teacher in the 2nd/3rdgrade, a combined class at the time at The Brearley School.

Suzanne earned a Masters in Elementary Education, Magna Cum Laude, from Bank Street College and has a B.A. in English and French from Bowdoin College. She is a member of the Community Roots Board of Trustees (Brooklyn, NY), as well as a former member of the A.I.S.N.E Board of Trustees (Milton, MA) and the Sophia Academy Board of Trustees (Providence, RI). Suzanne is a frequent presenter, having spoken on girls’ education at Private Schools for Public Purpose conference in NYC, at the Global Gathering NYC: Schools of Purpose conference, and at the Wonder Woman Conference: Leadership and Design, among others.

While the pandemic has presented everyone with challenges, Suzanne takes Chapin’s reins at a time where there is also tremendous opportunity with the school’s 56,000 square-foot building expansion scheduled for completion in Winter 2020. Suzanne is continuing Chapin’s forward-focused work in enhancing, developing and implementing programming to fill these new spaces and integrating athletics, wellness, arts and other programs with their broader educational mission.