Thea Francis Green came to Clarebourne after fourteen years in independent school education — first as a classics teacher at Ashford Country Day School in Connecticut, then as Upper School Dean at the Pemberton Academy in Philadelphia, where she redesigned the humanities curriculum around primary source inquiry and Socratic discussion. She holds a B.A. in Classical Civilizations from the University of Virginia and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
She was appointed Head of School at Clarebourne in 2011, at 38, and has since overseen the expansion of the financial aid endowment from $2.1M to $6.8M, the introduction of the Senior Thesis program, and the redesign of the Middle School advisory system. She teaches a single section of ninth-grade humanities each year — a decision she has maintained since her first year in post.
“Every school has a curriculum. What Clarebourne has is a conviction — that a student who has wrestled with Thucydides and Toni Morrison and Euclid is not just better educated than one who hasn’t. She is more free.”
Clarebourne since 2011