During her nearly thirty years in education, Donna Ruggiero has run the gamut of teaching and administrative work. Beginning as a novice special education teacher in Somerville, MA public schools, she first transitioned to independent schools at The Pennington School, NJ, as philosophy teacher and Assistant Dean of Students. Donna spent ten years as service coordinator and religion department chair at Stuart Country Day School, a K-12 girls’ school in Princeton, NJ, which took her to a brief stint as Assistant Program Director at the non-profit Princeton Center for Leadership Training while she worked on her second master’s degree. Thereafter she spent a decade honing her administrative skills as Dean of Students at Miss Hall’s School, MA, as Assistant Head of School at Purnell School, NJ, and as Associate Head of School at the Albany Academies, NY.
Donna holds a BA in Teaching from Wheelock College, an MTS in Theology from Harvard Divinity School, and an MA in Counseling from Rider University.
Originating from a small town in eastern Pennsylvania that is noted for its exceptional heart health because of the closeness of its community, Donna has taken this intrinsic “Roseto effect” to every institution in which she has worked. She knows that laying a safe and accepting community foundation is the key to a school’s success, and has finely tuned her skills in creating positive and inclusive schools that fortify student intellect, curiosity, and creativity.
