First Female Head Of School Set To Lead Moorestown Friends

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Moorestown Friends School will begin its 233rd year next week, and it will do so under the guidance of the school’s first female leader. Julia de la Torre was appointed Head of School on July 1. She succeeds Laurence Van Meter, who retired at the conclusion of the 2017-18 school year.

de la Torre is the ninth Head of School in what is considered the “modern era” at Moorestown Friends. She previously served as Head of Upper School at Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, MI.

She has also been the Executive Director of Primary Source, a non-profit focused on global education and citizenship, from 2010-15. Prior to this leadership role, she also served as Program Director at Primary Source, where she developed and implemented professional development programs for teachers.

School begins on Wednesday, Sept. 5, with a full day of school for students in Grades 1-12, and a half day for preschool, pre-K and kindergarten students. The first full day for all students is Friday, Sept. 7. An all-school picnic will be held the day before school begins, on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

In all, 700 students from more than 60 New Jersey and Pennsylvania towns will attend Moorestown Friends School this year, according to school officials. Although the school was founded in 1785, its modern era is considered to be after the school re-consolidated into one property, after 1920.

The school’s first female leader is a Haverford College graduate who taught French and chaired the Foreign Language Department at Kent Denver School in Englewood, CO, before serving in the Peace Corps in Moldova. She is fluent in French and Romanian and proficient in Spanish.

She was the first member of her family to be born in America. With a German mother and an Argentine father, she was raised in a family that in her words “valued cultural understanding, empathy, and human connection through commonality and difference.”

“I have had the incredible privilege of traveling all over the world,” de la Torre said. “Each time I encounter a new culture, I am humbled by how much I don’t know and inspired by the new way in which I see my own world. I am reminded that we, as people, can connect on some level with just about anyone. Whether or not we share a common language, culture, or custom, there is always something that brings us together as human beings.”

After graduating from Haverford, she completed a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in International Educational Policy and a certificate in Non-Profit Management and Leadership at the Boston University Questrom School of Business.

“I credit my time at Haverford College as some of the most foundational years of my life,” de la Torre said. “It was there that I discovered teaching as my life’s work and it was there that I learned that honesty, collaboration, respect, and empathy were the key ingredients to supporting students in the classroom and beyond. Haverford was also my first introduction to Quakerism and to the kind of inclusive community that I want to always create in schools. In today’s complex world, the focus on academic excellence and ethical and spiritual growth at MFS is exactly the combination students need to thrive and contribute on a global scale.”

She brings a deep commitment and dedication to independent schools.

“I grew up in a small independent school community and have dedicated my teaching career to independent schools,” de la Torre said. “At the core of every independent school is the belief that relationships are what allow children to thrive, and it is that commitment to developing meaningful relationships with teachers, students, and families that keeps me coming back for more.”

The attached image of Julia de la Torre was provided by Moorestown Friends School