April 23, 2015

I write today with exciting news regarding Beacon Academy.  By unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees, I am pleased to announce a re-alignment of our key executives and founders beginning July 1, 2015, heralding the start of Beacon's second decade.  

Marsha Feinberg will be Beacon's Chief Executive Officer, a title conferred on her by the Board of Trustees at the start of this year in recognition of her strategic leadership and long-range vision.  Mervan Osborne will be named Head of School with functional responsibility for the 14-month program. Cindy Laba will assume the newly created role of Chief Program Officer, responsible for deepening our work and outreach with our ever-expanding cadre of graduates.  Part of her work will involve conceiving and implementing a new system to utilize their talents and influence beyond their school experience. 

This bold structural move was carefully considered and is in support of Beacon's 2014 Strategic Plan.  Chief among the plan's goals was ensuring our graduates' success by elevating our alumni program.  A secondary goal was to utilize our alumni's influence to inspire and create a deeper social impact than our twenty students per year suggests.  

After much discussion and debate about how to support these goals and ensure their success, the Board of Trustees came to the only true possible conclusion.  Freeing the inimitable Cindy Laba from the day-to-day management of the 14-month school in order to imagine, create and execute plans for our alumni became the obvious choice.  Mervan Osborne, with 25 years of professional experience in the field of education and a deep cultural understanding of independent schools from his roles as student, teacher, administrator and trustee, was the obvious choice to be our second Head of School.  Both will be supported and challenged by the deeply insightful and dedicated Marsha Feinberg, whose championing of Beacon in the greater world is unparalleled.

As we emerge from two years of strategic planning and implementation, Beacon's trustees, faculty and staff are 100% certain that our 14-month school is tested, proven and will continue to be an enduring success.  We launch into Beacon's second decade with the promise that our alumni program and its broader outreach will be equally powerful, successful and inspirational.

Most warmly, 

Pam Dickinson

Chair, Board of Trustees