New Head of School Chosen at Ethel Walker

The Ethel Walker School has appointed Dr. Meera Viswanathan as its next Head of School, effective July 1, 2016.

Dr. Viswanathan will join Walker’s from Brown University, where she is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies.

A lifelong educator and scholar, Dr. Viswanathan holds her undergraduate degree, her M.A. and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Dr. Viswanathan’s appointment is the culmination of a national search that began in January of this year.

Stuart M. Bell, Chair of the Board of Trustees, said, “In Dr. Viswanathan, we have found a powerfully visible presence in the community; a skilled and thoughtful listener; an eloquent, inspiring communicator who loves young people and has the ability to steward and mentor Walker’s outstanding faculty; an approachable leader who is passionate about educational excellence and is committed to preparing girls for a global future.” Mr. Bell continued, “We are confident that Dr. Viswanathan will lead Walker’s with great intellect and heart, and with a cohesive and compelling vision for taking the School to even greater heights as a premier institution for girls’ education.”

Dr. Viswanathan has said, “Education is always provisional—we never achieve closure or end, i.e., perfection, in our understanding. What we learn tomorrow will reshape our understanding of today, not simply add to it. I am taken with the Walker’s motto, ‘nullas horas, nisi aureas,’ understood as ‘no hours, except only golden ones.’ At the heart of education is the question of how we learn to live our limited lives on this earth with an attitude that sees the potentiality of each hour, each moment as significant.”

Dr. Viswanathan was born in Madras, India, and emigrated at age five to Los Angeles, where she received her undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. She joined Brown University as a Japan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies departments. Subsequently, she became an assistant professor and was promoted with tenure.

At Brown, she earned the Barrett Hazeltine Award for Outstanding Teaching, and the John Rowe Workman Medal in the Humanities. She delivered Brown’s University Convocation Address, has received several National Endowment for the Humanities grants and awards, and has been both a visiting scholar and professor abroad. Dr. Viswanathan has served as a reviewer for the National Endowment of Humanities, on the review board of the journal College Literature, on the board of Community Preparatory School in Providence, and is a Trustee at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. She has frequently led seminars locally and nationally about developing curriculum and resources on Asian literature. She has studied and speaks a number of languages, including Japanese, French, German, Latin, Classical Greek, Old English and Old Norse.

Dr. Viswanathan and her husband, Dr. Eric Widmer, resided at Deerfield Academy during his 12-year tenure as Headmaster. While there, Dr. Viswanathan taught English at Deerfield for a year while on sabbatical from Brown. At the behest of King Abdullah II of Jordan, she and Mr. Widmer co-founded King’s Academy in Madaba, Jordan, the Middle East’s first co-educational preparatory boarding school with financial aid, where she taught and served as the curriculum’s principal architect and dean of faculty. King Abudullah II personally awarded Meera the King Hussein Medal, Jordan’s highest honor, for her endeavors.

Dr. Viswanathan succeeds Elizabeth C. Speers, who departed June 30, 2015, as Head of School. Stephen J. Dunn is serving as Interim Head for the 2015– 2016 academic year and will remain in his role as Interim Head through June 30. He will work closely with Dr. Viswanathan in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.

Upon assuming her role as Head of School, Dr. Viswanathan and her husband will live on The Ethel Walker School’s Simsbury campus.

Photo courtesy of Ethel Walker School