Westridge Names 12th Head of School: Andrea Kassar to Join the Girls’ School in July 2022

The Westridge School Board of Trustees has appointed Andrea Kassar, current head of Upper School at The Nightingale-Bamford School in Manhattan, as the school’s next head of school. She will join Westridge in July 2022, succeeding Elizabeth J. McGregor upon her retirement.

“During our search process there was remarkable alignment across our community on the priorities we sought in our next head of school: a visionary thought leader with the ability to sustain academic excellence while promoting social-emotional wellbeing and a committed advocate for DEI and anti-racism work,” said Richard Fung, chair of the Westridge Board of Trustees.

“We are delighted, and grateful, to have found in Andrea a leader who exemplifies these characteristics and whose experience and personal vision perfectly aligns with Westridge’s priorities,” added Marc Harris, chair of the Search Committee.

“I am honored, humbled, and very excited to become Westridge’s next Head of School. I have loved getting to know the Westridge community,” said Kassar. “I believe deeply in everything that Westridge is: a school that is innovative and forward-looking, a school that empowers girls to question the status quo and to shape and change their learning community in the most important ways, a school that inspires students to be ‘intellectually adventurous thinkers and courageous, compassionate leaders.’ These are the very values that have always been fundamental to me as an educator. Westridge’s mission is also my own.”

Kassar has more than 20 years’ experience as an administrator and faculty member at girls’ schools in New York. As head of Upper School at The Nightingale-Bamford School, she has led the division through significant enrollment growth and the transition to an Advanced Courses program and worked to implement new and expanded student programs in the areas diversity and equity, and health and wellness.

Prior to Nightingale-Bamford, Kassar was with The Chapin School, an all-girls school for grades K-12. There, she taught English and served in numerous administrative capacities across all three divisions of the school and on the Chapin Administrative Team. Kassar also serves as an advisor to the semester school at Chewonki in Maine, a semester-away program for high school juniors that combines academic studies, meaningful work, and outdoor experiences.

She earned her undergraduate degree in English and psychology at the University of Chicago, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. She holds an MA in English and comparative literature from Columbia University and an MA in psychology from the New School for Social Research. She has done academic research at a psychology lab at The New School and in The Infant Studies Program at the University of Chicago. She is a graduate of Brearley, a K-12 girls’ school in Manhattan.

Click here to read Kassar’s full bio.

Westridge School, 324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena, (626) 799-1053 ext. 200 or visit www.westridge.org.