Head of School Search
Process Overview
In November 2021, Lake Forest Academy Head of School José M. De Jesús P’22 announced his appointment as the next Head of School at The Dalton School in New York City effective July 1, 2022.
The Academy’s Board of Trustees announced a Head of School Transition and Search Committee to find the School’s next Head of School.
Process:
The Board of Trustees views the Academy’s talented and dedicated faculty and staff as one of its greatest attributes. Additionally, the Board feels there are many potential candidates for the next Head of School position currently on the Academy’s faculty and staff. The Head of School Transition and Search Committee has recommended and the Board has approved to begin the search for LFA's next Head of School internally.
Jessica Douglas ’96, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, will serve as Chair of the Head of School Transition and Search Committee.
The Committee is committed to an equitable search process and has developed a roadmap for community involvement in the Head of School search process.
The Committee’s and the Board of Trustees’ intention is to explore all internal candidacies. However, should no internal candidate fit the Board’s criteria for the Head of School position, the Committee is prepared to consult with an external executive search firm and the School will conduct an international search for LFA’s next Head of School.
Executive Search Partner, RG 175:
After interviewing several executive search firms, LFA has retained the highly regarded Resource Group 175 (RG 175) as the firm that will help us develop and administer the search process for all internal candidates and implement a schedule for the interview process.
Bob Henderson will be our consultant during the search process.
Contact the Committee:
The Committee will continue to communicate Head of School search updates throughout this process. As a reminder, if you have recommendations for the Committee, please email hos-search@lfanet.org.
Search Committee Background
Ms. Jessica P. Douglas ’96, Chair
Full Bio
Jessica Peale Douglas ’96, J.D., is a federal public defender for the central district of Illinois based out of Peoria, Ill. She was a bilingual English and Spanish-speaking practicing attorney and partner at the Schaefer Shapiro LLP law firm in Omaha, Neb., which specializes in the areas of criminal defense, federal defense, juvenile law, and litigation. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Occidental College and her J.D. at Creighton University School of Law before working as an assistant Douglas County public defender (2004-2007), assistant federal public defender for the District of Nebraska (2008-2011), and a felony prosecutor in Washington County, Neb., (2015). She is a member of the Illinois, Omaha, Nebraska State, and American Bar Associations. She has served on the LFA Alumni Advisory Board since 2006, where she was communications chair in 2014-2015. She lives with her family in Germantown Hills, Ill.
Mr. Charles T. Cooper ’96
Full Bio
Charles T. Cooper ’96 is currently the Executive Director, Private Wealth Management, at the J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Chicago, Illinois. Charlie’s background includes undergraduate (University of Colorado) and graduate (University of Chicago) degrees in economics and finance as well as service in the U.S. Navy. Charlie served on the LFA Alumni Council (AC), of which he was Chair 2011-2013, and is now a member of its successor organization, the Alumni Advisory Board (AAB). As the AC Chair, Charlie was an invited guest at the LFA Advancement Committee meetings. In addition, he has been invited to attend Board of Trustees meetings since 2011 as the alumni representative from the AC and AAB at which he made regular reports on alumni organization activities. Charlie and his family live in Lake Forest.
Mr. Jim C. Cowart ’69
Full Bio
Jim C. Cowart ’69 has been Principal of Cowart & Co LLC and Auriga Partners Inc. and their predecessors, private capital firms that provide strategic planning, competitive analysis, financial relations, and other services, since 1991. He has been Chairman of Clinical House MedTec GmbH since 2004. He founded QualPro Corporation, an aerospace components manufacturing company, and served as its Chairman from August 1999 to May 2001. From January 1993 to November 1997, he was the Chairman and CEO of Aurora Electronics Inc. Previously, he was a founding general partner of Capital Resource Partners, a private investment capital manager. During a 30+ year career in general and financial management, Jim has served as chairman, partner, director, and other various positions in investment banking, venture capital, and private equity with such firms as Lehman Brothers, Shearson Venture Capital, and Kidder, Peabody & Co.
Jim grew up in Canyon Texas and, after entering as a junior, graduated from Lake Forest Academy in 1969 as a National Merit Scholar. After earning his B.A. in computer sciences from Pomona College in 1973, he moved to Washington D.C., where he worked with Congress to produce an electronic voting system that expedited the way votes were counted in the House of Representatives. After Washington, Jim attended the Harvard Business School from which received his M.B.A. with distinction in 1977. For the past four years, Jim has appeared as a guest lecturer in the AP Economics classes at LFA each spring.
Jim resides in Laguna Niguel, Calif., with his wife and fellow Pomona graduate, Janet. They have a son, Jefferson, and the entire Cowart family are avid Anaheim Ducks fans.
Ms. Gloria Harper P’93
Full Bio
For more than three decades, Gloria Harper P'93 has served the Academy and her students with enthusiasm, energy and love. She began her LFA journey as a faculty member and administrator and continued with volunteer service as a Trustee and now as a Life Trustee.
Her leadership has extended beyond LFA to the Golden Apple Foundation, the Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center and the Global Youth Leadership Institute.
Ahmed Farag M.D., C.M., P’22, ’24
Full Bio
Dr. Ahmed Farag P'22, '24 is an American Board Certified Diagnostic Radiologist, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and President of Diagnostic Imaging Specialists of Chicago. A native of Montreal, Farag has lived and practiced in Chicagoland for nearly 20 years.
He received his bachelor’s degree in human physiology from McGill University in Montreal, where he also earned his MD and Master of Surgery degrees. He performed a rotating medical/surgical internship at the Royal Victoria and Montreal General Hospitals and completed his residency in Diagnostic Radiology at McGill’s Royal Victoria Hospital, where he was Chief Resident. Farag completed his fellowship training in Thoracic Imaging at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard University in June 2000.
In July 2000, Farag joined Northeast Radiology Associates, where he provided mammography and other diagnostic imaging and counseling services to the patients and physicians at Lake Forest Hospital and its imaging facilities. From 2003 through 2009, he served as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Radiology Department at Lake Forest Hospital, while also consulting to Siemens Medical Solutions on Dual Source CT Imaging in 2007/2008. In 2009, Farag opened new office space on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and launched Diagnostic Imaging Specialists of Chicago, working to provide comprehensive, fully-digital Women’s Imaging services – mammography and ultrasound – to Chicagoland physicians and their patients.
From 2009 to 2011, Farag served as an independent consultant to Virtual Radiologic Corporation. He was also a principal owner and medical director of SKAN National Radiology Services from 2011 to 2015. Farag has an additional interest in the genetics associated with breast cancer and has lectured on breast cancer genetics for Myriad Genetic Laboratories.
Farag is a senior member of the Society of Thoracic Radiology and a member of the American College of Radiology and the Radiologic Society of North America. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Primo Center for Women and Children and is Board President at Lake Forest Country Day School. Farag previously served on the Friends of Prentice Board at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
He and his wife, Melissa Zimmermann-Farag, are the parents of Lake Forest Academy student Isabella Farag ’22.They live in Lake Forest.
Mrs. Karin Fink P’22, ’23
Full Bio
Karin England Fink P’22, ’23 is a proven forward-thinking leader with diverse strategy, brand building and strategic planning skills having worked for over 15 years with top-tier businesses such as Omnicom and PwC as well as Walgreens, The Home Depot, General Motors and Dell. Over Karin’s career she has partnered with her clients to drive and deliver market-beating results. She has core expertise in understanding consumers, trends and developing growth strategies to address opportunities.
Karin was Head of Strategic Planning at Downtown Partners Chicago, an Omnicom advertising agency based in Chicago, leading all strategic initiatives with agency clients including Walgreens Company, Northern Trust, Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University) amongst others. In that role, Karin built out the strategic planning function for the agency. Karin also led new business efforts resulting in multiple new client wins for Downtown Partners. Prior to her leadership role at Downtown Partners, Karin was a Senior Strategic Planner at DDB Chicago, leading strategic planning for clients such as Dell, The Home Depot, Napster, ALLTEL and Qwest.
Karin began her career as a Senior Strategic Change Consultant with Price Waterhouse/PricewaterhouseCoopers. During her time at PW and PwC, Karin developed enterprise-wide corporate and change management strategies with clients such as General Motors, Alliant Foodservice, MEMC Electronics and Hart Schaffner Marx.
Most recently, Karin was Director of Marketing at Franklin Capital where she successfully repositioned and re-launched a financial institution with a fully integrated marketing platform with online, PR and traditional media components. Karin also recently consulted on the brand development and planning for the US rollout of a luxury European stationary goods brand.
Karin has a Masters degree in Foreign Policy with High Honors from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction from Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C. Her work has been published in An Historical Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict edited by Bernard Reich.
Passionate about education, Karin has continued to be involved as an alumni interviewer for Georgetown University and has been dedicated to supporting each of her four children’s schools throughout the years. Karin and her family have also contributed to schools in South Africa and Tanzania through the Africa Foundation.
Karin hails from Sydney, Australia and also enjoyed growing up in Wellington, New Zealand; Toronto, Canada; Paris, France and New Canaan, CT. As such, Karin’s accent is often at times “difficult to decipher.” In her free time, Karin enjoys spending time with her family, reading and perfecting the art of growing dahlias. Karin resides in Winnetka, IL with her husband, Nicholas, and their four children.
Schedule
All internal candidates were asked to submit a written expression of interest by December 17. The Committee and RG 175 are committed to being discreet and respecting the privacy of all internal candidates while providing transparent updates to the community as the search process advances.
For a couple of days during the week of January 3, 2022, Bob Henderson will be on campus to meet with stakeholders and to get to know the LFA community much better.
Additionally, in early January 2022, members of the LFA community will receive a survey from RG 175 regarding the Head of School search. Your responses will be used in evaluating the top characteristics the Committee will look for in our next Head of School and all responses will be held in confidence.