Dr. Amy Witten Named Assistant Head of School for Academics and Student Services

Head of School Eric Lombardi shared with the FWCD community on Thursday, May 3, that Amy Witten, DrPH, will join the Falcon family as Assistant Head of School for Academics and Student Services, effective July 2023. 

A passionate and experienced educator and administrator, Dr. Witten comes from Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart (DASH) in Houston, where she has worked since 2014 as a Middle School and Upper School Learning Specialist (2014-15), Head of Curriculum and Learning Support (2015-18), Head of Middle School (2018-21), and most recently as Head of Academics, Innovation and Student Services. 

The Search Process
Of the more than 20 viable candidates for the position, Witten was one of six to visit Fort Worth, spending two-and-a-half days in Fort Worth with our Senior Leadership Team, the Division Counselors, our Academic Support Coordinators and the Curriculum Committee. “As the process unfolded, Amy rose to the top for the impressive and significant variety of her previous duties, for the amount of relevant school experience she has and for her genuine school smarts,” Lombardi said. “We know Dr. Witten will play a valuable role in continuing our commitment to being a school of significance.”

Excited to connect with our faculty, staff, students, Board of Trustees, families and alumni, Witten shared her enthusiasm. “From the moment I stepped on campus at Fort Worth Country Day, I felt such a strong sense of community,” she said. “I was so impressed as I observed in classrooms and walked through the campus. FWCD is an institution filled with top-notch educators who put children at the center of everything they do. I am thrilled to join and serve in this amazing community.”

Dr. Witten’s Background
Witten brings a vast educational background and a variety of experiences to FWCD. Her first experience in education was in a bilingual first-grade classroom, teaching math to three different groups of students each day. This experience set her on a journey of deep introspection regarding teaching and learning practices. As an educational diagnostician early in her career, she conducted psychoeducational and dyslexia evaluations; identified students struggling academically, socially and emotionally; helped develop tiered interventions; and assisted with campus intervention efforts by partnering with students, teachers and families to achieve success.

With a profound need to know, learn and give through every phase of her career, Witten draws upon what she learns from others with the goal of making herself a better practitioner. Beyond her professional experiences, a particular appeal of Dr. Witten’s candidacy is that she views leadership as relational and active. We know she is sincere when she says she looks forward to forming enduring and substantial relationships to help us continue to move FWCD forward. 

Job Responsibilities
The academic portion of Dr. Witten’s role at FWCD will be highlighted in work she will do alongside Head of Lower School Trey Blair, leading the School’s JK-12 Curriculum Committee. In addition to curricular work, she will oversee social and emotional initiatives to include faculty and student well-being, guide the School’s student support programming across all three divisions, and facilitate the work of the division Health and Wellness Counselors and Academic Support Coordinators. Witten will also guide faculty professional development with Division Heads and Department Chairs to enhance on- and off-campus offerings and focus on professional development that best supports teachers’ efforts to meet the many needs of their students. She will also work closely with Lombardi to guide the upcoming strategic planning and Portrait of a Graduate work the community will engage in in the 2023-24 school year. 

Witten earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in Linguistics and a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Bilingual Education from the University of Houston. In addition, she holds a Doctor of Public Health in Management, Policy and Community Health Practices, from the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health (Houston), and, lastly, she carries an Educational Diagnostician Certification. By the end of the summer, she will earn a Certificate in School Management and Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, having completed the Leading Change, Leading School Strategy and Innovation, Leading People, and Leading Learning modules. She is the mother of two young adult children, Caroline and Luke, both graduates of fellow ISAS and SPC school,  St. John’s School in Houston. Caroline is a graduate of Wellesley College, and Luke is a student at Olin College of Engineering.