WordsWorth recently sat down for a conversation with Alexander Levey, the new Upper School (US) Director. In a time when the school community has been discussing the impact their voices actually have on the community, Levey made it clear that community is one of the most important things to him, especially regarding things he wishes to build upon at MFS. He expressed an interest in wanting to continue to grow and make the community at MFS closer.
“I think for me, community is everything,” said Levey. “I’ve been conditioned to work through the world and go through the world, and certainly to see the light in every person and really be excited by that.”
On Tuesday, April 7, Head of Moorestown Friends School Julia de la Torre announced that Levey will begin his post on July 1. This announcement came after a previous one just over a month earlier, on February 23, where de la Torre announced that Noah Rachlin, the current US director, will be leaving to teach at The Dalton School in New York.
De la Torre said that the traits they look for when hiring are collaboration, passion for their work, and an attachment to the values that the Friends Schools exhibit. De la Torre said that Levey embodied all these traits, making him a strong candidate for the job.
Meredith Godley, Associate Head of School and Academic Dean, noted that what made Levey stand out from other candidates was “his breadth of experience.”
Levey has worked at Maret School in Washington D.C. for the last nine years. Before that he worked at numerous other schools and also worked at Sidwell Friends and is an alumni from there.
Levey has experience as an eleventh-grade dean, a history teacher, a college counselor, and an admissions worker. Godley reflected on how helpful her own experience in college counseling was before she took the role of Upper School Director back in 2017, which made her even more confident that he would fill the role well with his prior experience.
“[Any new leader] impacts the community, because everyone is used to one leader and then a different person comes in, right? So it really depends on how quickly students are open to his leadership,” said de la Torre.
De la Torre was confident that, despite this change in leadership, Levey would do well in integrating into the new position here at MFS because of his warmth and lighthearted nature.
“You can feel Mr. Levey’s care for and passion for Upper School education really deeply when you talk to him,” said de la Torre.
It was at Sidwell Friends where Levey learned a deep appreciation for the Quaker values, which he considers a major part of his approach to teaching.
Levey described that a successful first year at MFS would be “a school community that is open and honest about things with [him and open about what] they want to maintain and voice, in a positive and respectful way, things that they’d like to see evaluated.”
Levey considers himself to be very collaborative when it comes to work, as well as fostering relationships with the student body.
“[I want to] move towards a place of meeting that, [where] I’m really getting enough diverse voices into spaces to consider their viewpoints, and hopefully in approaching each of those ideas of curiosity,” Levey said.
