Rachel E. Stone P '23, '24

Appointed Canterbury’s sixth Head of School in 2016, Rachel E. Stone has dedicated her career in secondary education to advancing the mission of independent schools.

With her student-centered approach to leadership and in partnership with her senior administration team, Rachel directs the strategic agenda for Canterbury’s academic, athletic, and student life offerings. She has brought significant innovation to the curriculum, has built interdisciplinary strength across the educational program, has expanded opportunities for experiential learning, and has inspired a school culture that fosters inclusion and belonging.

Additionally, Rachel has further galvanized the School’s values-based mission by broadening student leadership programming and creating the D'Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice. Through the development of an ambitious campus master plan, Rachel has driven the expansion of the physical plant, most recently to include the new Steers Center—a 22,000-square-foot facility designed to support students’ intellectual, social, and ethical growth. She has played a key role in the $90 Million Mission & Momentum capital campaign and was integral in securing the two largest philanthropic gifts in Canterbury history.

Before joining the Saints community, Rachel spent 22 years at Blair Academy in Blairstown, NJ, where she most recently served as Assistant Head of School for Academics/Dean of Faculty. She began as a member of the Sciences faculty, teaching Freshman Biology, Introductory Chemistry, and Algebra II, and she eventually pioneered a junior/senior Epidemiology elective.

Well respected by her peers, Rachel was selected for membership in the Heads and Principals Association (formerly Headmasters Association) in 2022. She was appointed to the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Board of Directors in 2021 and currently serves as Chair of its Program Committee and a member of its Strategic Planning Committee. She has also presented multiple times at The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) Annual Conference, and in 2020, Rachel was invited to serve on the TABS Healthy Opening and Operations Committee. In her early years as an educator, Rachel received the Apgar Award for Teaching Excellence at Blair's 1998 commencement ceremony, which recognizes those in their first five years of teaching, and she earned a spot in the renowned Klingenstein Summer Institute.

Rachel earned her undergraduate degree in Biology from Yale College in New Haven, CT, and went on to earn her M.P.H. in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, NY. While at Mailman, Rachel centered her graduate school studies on matters closely related to her role as an independent school educator. Her master’s thesis, A Needs Assessment of a New Jersey Boarding High School, utilized focus groups and a school-wide survey to identify students’ key health and social challenges as a springboard to a new health curriculum.

Rachel lives with her husband, Jim Stone, Canterbury’s Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach, and their two sons, Cullen ’23 and Kip ’24, in O’Connor House.