David Dougherty
DIRECTOR OF EXECUTIVE COACHING PROGRAM
With his retirement in 2012, David Dougherty completed 44 years of service in independent schools and now looks forward to serving the next generation of school leaders as an executive coach.
In 19 years, from 1993-2012, as headmaster of The Hill School (9-PG, boarding/day) in Pennsylvania, he was responsible for the successful co-education of that 165-year-old institution, while also introducing an Honor Code; overseeing the construction of a new academic building, dormitory, and a field house and hockey rink; and heading an $84.5M capital campaign. Previously, during his four years at North Cross School (PK-12 co-ed, day) in Virginia, David was responsible for leading the first-ever strategic and facilities plan initiatives there. He was prepared for the responsibilities of school leadership in his twenty-one years of service as a teacher and chairman of the English Department, assistant headmaster, varsity baseball coach, and dorm head at his alma mater, Episcopal High School (9-12, boarding) in Alexandria, VA. Also, from 1977 to 1987, he served as a trustee of Chatham Hall, a girls’ boarding school in Virginia.
After graduating from EHS, David earned degrees in English from Washington & Lee (AB); Georgetown (MA); and the Bread Loaf School of English of Middlebury College at Lincoln College, Oxford.
His work in boarding, day, single-sex, and co-educational schools as a teacher, administrator, and trustee offers him a distinctive perspective on life in an independent school.
