Meet New Head of School Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith still recalls the day that changed her life. It was in the fall of 1987, and Sarah, a scholarship boarding  school student at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter,  New Hampshire, was taking an ethics and justice class  taught by a twenty-four-year-old rookie teacher named Julie Duff. They were reading the work of Jonathan  Kozol, an author who spent decades chronicling the  deep disparities in educational opportunities available  to children in the United States.  

 

“(Kozol) was basically challenging the reader,” Sarah said. “In our society, we say education is the great  equalizer, the opportunity for social mobility through  which anyone can get anywhere. But if offered such vastly different educational options and opportunities  based on zip codes or birthrights, how does that work out? And what can we do to ensure that education can  be that gamechanger for everyone?” 

 

Sarah, just seventeen years old at the time, looked out the  class window, viewing the ivy-coated brick walls of Exeter  and pondered the profound and challenging words of Kozol—and the idea that education could be a powerful  lever for change and a meaningful professional choice.  

“I looked out on campus, and thought, ‘This is one of  the most elite high schools in America,’” Sarah said.  “Countless resources are being invested in me and my  classmates here, and that is not the case for students in  other communities. At that moment, I began to envision  a career that was rooted in creating greater access to  high-caliber, high-quality educational opportunities  like this one.” 

Flash forward to 2025, and Sarah is entering a significant  new chapter in her educational journey as the tenth Head  of School at The Bush School. Echoing the aspirations  she held years ago at Exeter, she remains steadfast in her  vision: to expand access to transformative educational  experiences and to lead with a deep commitment to  academic excellence and equity.  

“I love the work we’ve done to be a more racially and  ethnically diverse community, and I want to see us do  even more work to merge that with socioeconomic  diversity,” she said, highlighting efforts during her  tenure as Bush’s Assistant Head of School for Academics.  “I have a very clear goal of wanting to increase the  percentage of students on financial aid and having  Bush be a place where any qualified kid who wants to  come learn here, grow here, and commit to the values of  our community—that finances would not be a barrier  to that.”  

Born and raised in Virginia, Sarah, the youngest of three,  grew up in a very service-oriented family. Her dad was  an Episcopal clergyman, and both of her parents were  deeply involved in the civil rights movement. From a  young age, the ideals were instilled in her to be of  service in the world, to care and be kind, to work hard  for what you want, and to have a sense of community  and responsibility to others. 

“My parents were real role models for me around how  important it was to constantly be working for a more  just, compassionate and equal society,” she said.  

 

Spending her childhood years in Leesburg, Virginia,  academics and athletics became two of Sarah’s  mainstays. Her earliest memories were chasing her  sister and brother in the field by their home and honing  the game of soccer at four-and-a-half years old. In the  classroom, history became her favorite subject. She recalls the public schools of Loudoun County providing  her with lessons on how to think as opposed to what  to think.  

 

“(Between) discussions in the classroom and at the  dinner table at home, I really learned the ability to  listen deeply, consider all perspectives, think about the ‘middle ground’, and the importance of knowing your  own core beliefs and core values,” Sarah said. 

At age sixteen, Sarah earned a full scholarship to Exeter, where she spent her last two years of high school. Exeter  was where her professional educational dream took flight.  

“It was there it finally dawned on me how impactful  teachers were in this world,” Sarah said. “Almost every adult I was working with there, I really learned from. They also appeared to love what they were doing, and  held a sense of purpose in their work. To play that kind  of role in the lives of young people through education  became an aspiration of mine from that time forward.”  

 

Sarah attended the University of Virginia, where she studied American history and was on the crew team. In  1992 she headed out west with a friend and never looked  back. Seattle is also where she met her partner, Katie  Hester. They’ve been married for twenty-five years and  have two children together: Benjamin Hester ’25, and  Lucy S., a rising sophomore at Garfield High School.  

“Our first date was a coffee-tea conversation at Pike  Place Market over the holidays. We’ve got a nice balance,” Sarah said of her relationship with Katie. “She’s the  cook; I’m the dishwasher. She’s the math and science  tutor in the house; I’m the humanities tutor. She’s a  little more introverted but very present and connected  to people, and she definitely keeps me and our entire  family grounded.”  

Sarah explained that becoming a parent with Katie has  expanded her world in a multitude of ways and allowed  her a wider lens into the important partnerships with  parents in her professional life. 

“Having kids fundamentally changed how I approached  working with parents of students, because I understood  in a much deeper and different way what was happening  to their heart,” Sarah said. “It developed in me a profound  empathy for how scary it can be when our kids are  struggling, for how concerned you become if something  troubling is happening to your child. Whenever I’m in a  tough situation navigating kids and families, I try to put  myself in those parents’ shoes.” 

Following a few years in nonprofit youth work, Sarah  earned a masters in education from Stanford University  in 1996 and spent a number of years in Seattle Public Schools teaching history, English, and coaching  soccer before she had a unique opportunity to get in  on the ground floor of the founding team of a startup  educational endeavor called Rainier Scholars, an  organization with a mission to cultivate the academic  and leadership potential of underrepresented Students  of Color. Serving in many roles there over two decades,  her time as the executive director of Rainier Scholars especially harnessed Sarah’s leadership skills. 

Sarah explained that after twenty years at Rainier  Scholars, her first role at Bush as Assistant Head of  School for Academics was another serendipitous  moment. As a longtime partner with Bush through  Rainier Scholars and also a parent of Bush students, she  believed deeply in Bush’s mission, hands-on academic approach, and commitment to being a different kind of  independent school.  

“I came to Bush for three reasons: really respecting the  academic excellence as well as the work and vision in  the previous decade of diversifying the student body  and becoming who Bush is today; the Methow Campus  and the tremendous opportunity to develop a unique  program there; and third, the opportunity to work alongside Percy.” 

Self-described as intense but also someone who relaxes  and can “chill with the best of them”, Sarah loves a good  chocolate chip cookie, watching her kids compete on the  track and the soccer field, pouring through a good book  or podcast, waking up to a sunrise on a mountaintop  pass and surfing the highs and lows that life brings.  

“I love to laugh,” she said. “What you see is what you  get; there’s not a lot of pretense. I’m authentically  interested in the experience and perspective of others.  And I believe that we need to support one another in order to thrive.” 

A lifelong learner, Sarah’s love for the school and  curiosity about what could still be possible at Bush drew  her into the Head of School role, envisioning how she  could become part of the growth of Bush in the next one hundred years and instilling her passion for education  into others.  

 

“I am excited to lead us into this next century with an  emphasis on bolstering our science, math, and technology  offerings while maintaining a deep commitment to the  experiential-based excellence in programming we have  been known for in the humanities,” Sarah said. “The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education is crucial for us to address in our next strategic plan, as is a vision  for how we can best commit to being a force for good in our larger community while inspiring a commitment to  service in our students. At the heart of it all, I am excited about the opportunity to steward The Bush School as  we continue to evolve and grow into the finest version  of ourselves, which is what we want for every student,  family, faculty and staff member who enters our doors.” 

“She’s just a beautiful educator,” Dr. Abram said. “I know  when people see her in the full version of her leadership, they are going to fall in love with her the way she’s fallen  in love with The Bush School.”