Leadership & Strategic Priorities
Head of School Office
Welcome from the Head of School
Welcome to the Lake Forest Academy website!
The LFA community is a truly special one. We are a global community with students from approximately 40 nations and territories, 15 states, and from all across the greater Chicago metropolitan area. We are extremely proud of our diversity and the work that we collectively do to ensure that our students feel like they belong while becoming global citizens. Our students never cease to amaze us with all that they accomplish on a daily basis!
And, like our student body, our dedicated faculty and staff come to LFA from all over the world. With a 6:1 student to faculty ratio and an average class size slightly above 12 students, our faculty really know our students. Our faculty and staff are some of the most caring and supportive people that you will meet, and they also take on the roles of coaches, advisors, dorm parents, and club sponsors in the daily lives of the students.
Founded in 1857, LFA offers a well-rounded, student-centered education that extends well beyond the classroom curriculum. We offer rigorous academic, arts, athletics, and service learning programs, but also offer a strong support system in order to make sure that our students are well known and cared for. And, when students leave LFA they remain a part of an extraordinary group of alumnae and alumni that live and work in every corner of the globe.
Having lived and worked at LFA for more than two decades, I can honestly say that LFA is one of the best boarding-day schools in the country. Now serving as its Head of School, I am honored, humbled and excited to serve the institution that I have come to love and call home. The Academy is positioned to do great things in the years ahead.
I hope that you will learn more about LFA as you explore our website, and I encourage you to visit our beautiful campus to experience for yourself the magic of Lake Forest Academy. I think that you, too, will fall in love with this community and all that we have to offer.
Go, Caxys!
Christopher O. Tennyson
Head of School
Head of School Office
Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees
Todd E. Altounian ’86
Bruce W. Anderson ’70, P’97, LT ’13
Eric Brown ’98
Molly Pearson Campbell ’04
Charles T. Cooper ’96, Vice Chair
J. Patrick Corsiglia P’15, ’17, ’20
Jim C. Cowart ’69, Member at Large
Jessica P. Douglas ’96, Chair
Dr. Ahmed Farag P’22, ’24, Treasurer
Karin Fink P’22, ’23, ’27
Katie Frekko P’21, ’24, ’27
Haji L. Glover ’92
David Gupta ’81
Gloria W. Harper P’93
Suzanne Isenberg ’83
Duane C. Jackson ’01
Ned Jessen P’01, ’05, LT’08
Scott W. Kaeser ’96
Allan M. Kaplan ’72, P’03, LT’04
Edward Kovas P’21
Margeaux McReynolds ’02
Scott Meloun ’77
Dr. Bancroft O’Quinn, Jr. ’72
Kristin Rey ’83
Emily Sammon ’91
Marianne Silver P’06, ’08, ’15, ’16, ’21
Thomas S. Wood ’78, P’23, ’24
Xiong Yin P’23
Richard L. Zhao ’04, LT’20, Secretary
Strategic Plan 2018
1. Increased Endowment Growth
- Increase the LFA Endowment, with a goal of $50 million by 2021, to improve the long-term financial strength of the school.
- Generate a significant and sustained increase in major and planned gifts.
- Identify and solicit donors to establish endowed support of Student Financial Aid, Faculty Chairs, and Speaker Funds.
- Establish the goal that at least 25% of all monies raised each year is put into the endowment.
2. Enhanced Faculty & Staff Quality
- Increase faculty and staff salaries and benefits over time to be commensurate with our place among the best independent boarding schools nationally.
- Expand and improve faculty housing to support the attraction and retention of faculty and increase the number of teaching faculty living on campus.
- Increase professional development opportunities.
- Increase the number of Faculty Chairs to stimulate innovation and faculty development.
3. Mission-Driven School Leadership
- Ensure the successful hiring and transition of a new Head of School who is committed to leading and advancing the school’s educational excellence, including the established focus on pluralism, a global educational experience, and a boarding school culture.
- Enhance efforts to recruit, mentor, and retain faculty, staff, and trustees who advance the LFA mission and mirror the demographic diversity of the student body.
- Examine the optimal size and composition of the student body, including a consideration of the benefits and costs of increasing the size of the school.
- Broaden the access to an LFA education, thereby advancing equality of opportunity and the diversity and quality of the student body.
4. Creative, Innovative and Personalized Education
- Strengthen the personalized educational experience of every student in order to prepare them for a successful college experience.
- Develop and implement a vision for innovative education specifically through academic technology, collaborative teaching, and interdisciplinary programs.
- Improve multicultural competencies and integrate and facilitate meaningful cross-cultural interactions in all areas of school life.
- Strengthen LFA’s commitment to and leadership of “Educating Global Citizens.”
5. Communication of Vision and Content
- Improve and expand the LFA website as well as other marketing and communication resources and materials, particularly for admissions, alumni relations, and athletics.
- Strengthen LFA’s identity, presence, and leadership in the local community.
- Increase and enhance LFA’s institutional identity in national and global markets.
