
Margarita Curtis
“Margarita is the embodiment of the qualities of judgment, knowledge, intelligence, leadership and empathy. Deerfield Academy achieved unparalleled heights as a direct result of her guidance and values.”
As an award-winning educator and scholar with over five decades of experience in various roles, including teacher, department chair, dean of studies, and head of school, Margarita is committed to fostering a team-driven pursuit of excellence, and to creating learning environments that not only promote personal achievement but moral distinction and an ethic of service. Currently, Margarita supports educators in aligning strategy and execution so they can fulfill their school’s mission.
Margarita’s hyphenated identity—Colombian-American, teacher-head of school, and woman-CEO—has honed her ability to navigate the complexities of a diverse school environment where multiple identities and cultures intersect. She brings an inclusive, cosmopolitan ethos to her work and a time-tested belief that the ability to forge connections and innovate across differences is the key to sustained success in education.
Margarita joined Strategic School Leadership, LLC, as a partner in 2022. She currently supports school leaders in crafting institutional visions that anchor emerging priorities in core foundational values, and aligning their administrative teams and communities around strategic priorities. She also leads board of trustee retreats on governance and strategic thinking, and facilitates head of school and board evaluations. As a certified Return on Character® Provider, Margarita guides heads and administrators in translating their school missions into observable behaviors, practices, and outcomes.
Margarita’s partial client list includes School Year Abroad, Milton Academy, Grace Church School, Trinity School (N.Y.), Marin Country Day School, Worcester Academy, Winchester Thurston School, The Island School (Bahamas), North London Collegiate School-Palm Beach, and the United World College- ISAK (Japan).
Background
After immigrating from Colombia for high school in New Orleans, Margarita earned a B.A. in French from Tulane University, a B.S. in education from Minnesota State University Mankato, and a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University.
A teacher at heart, Margarita earned numerous accolades for her classroom work, initially at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Mexico and Metairie Park Country Day School in Metairie, LA, and subsequently at Phillips Academy, Andover, where she rose to department chair and later Dean of Studies. While at Andover, she earned five Kenan Research Grants, published an award-winning book and several articles on Spanish and Latin American literature, and participated in over a dozen national and international literary conferences
During her thirteen-year tenure as head of school at Deerfield Academy, the endowment grew by $250 million, financial aid doubled, professional development funding quadrupled, and $140 million of capital improvement projects were completed. Margarita transformed long-range planning at the Academy, delivering the school’s first-ever Strategic and Campus Master Plans and stewarding these plans through the impact of both the Great Recession and a major investigation into historical sexual misconduct. In this latter challenge, Margarita established a new, higher standard for empathy and transparency with survivors and the media. At Deerfield, she also doubled the size of domestic and international travel-study programs and emphasized DEI, launching Deerfield’s first-ever Strategic Plan for Inclusion in 2016. For her distinguished service, she was awarded the Deerfield Medal, the highest honor conferred by the institution.
Upon her retirement from Deerfield, she served as interim president of her Alma Mater, Ursuline Academy in New Orleans, the first all-girls’ Catholic school in the U.S. where she oversaw all aspects of the academy’s operations and program, including a major organizational restructuring and the addition of an infant-toddler center anchored in the Reggio Emilia pedagogy. For her contributions to the world of education over the past fifty years, she received the Ursuline Academy Distinguished Alumna award in 2022.
Throughout her career, Margarita has served on several school accreditation visiting committees, as the president of the Eight Schools Association, and as a trustee of several not-for-profit organizations, including School Year Abroad, Global Connections, The Nogales School in Bogotá, Colombia, and Rostro de Cristo in Quito, Ecuador.
Margarita enjoys hiking, reading, gardening, cooking and spoiling her three grandchildren.