After a long and suspenseful search for Lick-Wilmerding High School’s new Head of School, the position was finally filled by the new Interim Head Katie Titus. Titus was a two-year basketball captain at Middlebury College, and said, “I learned a lot about myself as a leader through sports. The development of a team is really important to me, so when I started teaching, I was just really excited about working with teenagers in the classroom and on the field. ” Titus is drawn to athletics, and grew up playing lots of sports. She said, “I played field hockey, basketball and softball. I loved basketball, and so that’s what I pursued at Middlebury College. I was a math major and played four years of basketball.”
After graduating from Middlebury, Titus later received her Master of the Arts in Educational Leadership from Columbia University.
Titus went on to work as a college counselor at Pingree School, located north of Boston. She later became their head of college counseling. While working at Pingree Academy, she met her husband, Stuart. They have two children, who are currently 17 and 20 years old.
Titus then decided to start working in boarding schools, as she and her husband wanted to intersect their “personal and professional lives more intentionally.”
Titus worked at St. George’s School and later at Mercersburg Academy, where she was the first female head of school since the Academy’s founding in 1893.
After five years as head of school at Mercersburg Academy, Titus was ready for a change. She said, “Before I first learned about Lick-Wilmerding, I had not intended to look on the West Coast. But when I first started hearing about LWHS, learned about the mission of the school and started talking to people, I felt really compelled by what the school stood for.”
While Titus will only be at LWHS for one year, she has big plans. She wants to emphasize community at LWHS. “Part of what I loved about working in boarding schools was the ability to authentically connect with the community while it’s living in the normal course of life. Being part of a community is part of the job,” she said.