Molly H. King
Each month RG175 does a "deeper dive" to get to know one of our Independent School colleagues. This month we are spotlighting our newest RG175 consultant, Molly King. Molly served as Greenwich Academy’s head of school 2004–2023. Previously, she was director of admission at St. Mark’s School and a member of the senior leadership team at Fay School. She taught and coached at Taft School and Greenwich Country Day School, and was a trustee and board chair for the School Participatory Action Research Collaborative, a board member for the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, and a member and former president of the Fairchester Heads Group. She serves as president general for the Cum Laude Society and was recently elected to the board of Milton Academy. In addition, she has recently joined the board of Bowdoin College, where she is a member of the Bowdoin Women’s Advisory Group.
Molly received a B.A. in American history from Bowdoin College and an Ed.M. in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. To read Molly's entire bio, click here.
Why did you choose RG175?
Professionally, I wanted to continue to be purposeful, and to advocate for schools and school leadership. Personally, I wanted to collaborate with colleagues whom I had long respected for their impactful work and who also had a natural optimism and sense of humor. I love the fact that the RG175 team takes their work—but not themselves—seriously.
What are you looking forward to most about being a consultant in a search?
Schools are naturally aspirational communities, and I'm interested in helping them to be the best version of themselves. And RG175 operates as a team, which has always been my happy place.
What are your thoughts on the search process?
Schools are living, breathing organisms fueled by the relationships that define them. A search provides a unique opportunity to nourish school communities, and the process must be properly scaffolded, lest the search become disruptive in a negative way. The RG175 team has lived the search process from multiple vantage points, an invaluable perspective to schools so the search process can lead to an outcome that tees up positive leadership change. Change is good and we need to model and embrace that.
What are some of your former achievements when you were a head of school?
Identifying the natural strengths of the mission and culture of Greenwich Academy and motivating the community to leverage those strengths brought tangible and positive change. My primary focus was getting the right people in place for the front lines of the student experience, and then secondarily, providing the trust and inspiration for those people to truly drive the program forward—including the creation of a nationally recognized STEM program, and the transformation of campus spaces.
What is most rewarding about serving as a mentor to a school head?
Mentoring is about helping to fortify a head's values and instincts so that they can approach their interactions and decision-making with confidence. It's not easy being a leader of any organization in today's environment and we should all be committed to doing all we can for those who have willingly stepped up.
Why are you doing this? Concerned with leadership in independent schools?
The current environment for school leadership is fraught with multiple external agendas weighing in and even disrupting school communities. My goal is to help school leaders develop and execute strategies that reduce ambient noise in order to promote mission-aligned values, voices and practices that build and sustain community.