Tilton School is pleased to announce the appointment of Gara Field, PhD, as its inaugural Assistant Head of School for Strategy and Innovation.

A nationally respected educator and strategic leader, Dr. Field brings to Tilton an unusual combination of visionary thinking, operational discipline, and deep school-based experience. Across her career, she has led innovation initiatives, built entrepreneurial and experiential programs, guided cross-divisional strategy, managed significant budgets, cultivated key institutional partnerships, and transformed complex educational environments.

Most recently, Field has served at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is Senior Director of Innovation & Global Initiatives. In that role, she has served on the school’s Administrative Council and Strategic Action Team, built social innovation and entrepreneurship curricula, led strategic planning work, directed travel and immersion programming, partnered with development efforts, and helped create the conditions for creativity, design thinking, and interdisciplinary problem-solving to thrive across the school community. She also previously served as Interim Head of Upper School, leading day-to-day operations for grades 9–12. Earlier in her career, as principal of Pleasant View School in Providence, RI she led a dramatic school turnaround and helped transform the school into a model for blended learning and innovation.

As Tilton continues to enhance and augment its student experience, the Assistant Head of School for Strategy and Innovation will help lead work that lives across traditional boundaries: academics, student life, advising, athletics, and program development.  Dr. Field is especially well suited for this work. Whether being honored by the mayor of Providence or recognized by the President of the United States, Dr. Field (affectionately known as “Dr. G” among students) is an innovative leader and institutional trailblazer who values relationships and collaboration as key catalysts for positive, systemic change.

Dr. Field is well-versed in taking broad institutional goals and translating them into action. She has built entrepreneurial and social innovation programs, chaired strategic planning efforts, and led work that connects mission, program, culture, and community partnerships. She has also steered iterative processes with both imagination and rigor: testing new ideas, evaluating what is working, aligning people around shared priorities, and helping institutions stay disciplined about what matters most.

“Gara brings exactly the blend of qualities this moment at Tilton School calls for,” said Derek Krein, Head of Tilton School. “She is a creative and expansive thinker, but just as importantly, she knows how to cultivate and leverage meaningful relationships inside a school. She understands that innovation is thoughtful, mission-aligned, student-centered work that helps a school become more fully itself. Gara has the experience, the strategic instincts, and the relational presence to help Tilton do that work exceptionally well.”

Field’s appointment also carries a meaningful New England resonance. She is a Lakes Region native and began her career at New Hampton School, establishing a boarding school foundation that helped build her appreciation for the complexity, intensity, and possibility of all-school life in an independent school setting. From there she went on to become an administrator and coach at Pace Academy, an independent day school, in Atlanta, GA.  After graduate school, Gara served as an assistant professor at the University of Georgia from 2007–2011 before moving back to the northeast for a return to K–12 educational leadership.

Please join Tilton School in welcoming Gara Field, PhD to the community!