President & Head of School
Meet Iswari Natarajan, President & Head of School
Iswari Natarajan, the eighth SMA President & Head of School, is a true visionary leader in the field of education. Her remarkable career path has taken her from engineer to teacher, principal, and now President of St. Mary’s Academy. She has an impressive record of accomplishments, making her a great source of inspiration for SMA's students, faculty, and staff. She believes that creating a vibrant, supportive school community is essential for students to thrive.
She understands the importance of fostering relationships between students, teachers, families, and administrators to create an environment where everyone can grow and learn. By providing opportunities for collaboration and communication among all stakeholders, Iswari hopes to create a sense of belonging where everyone can make meaningful contributions to SMA.
As a leader, female engineer, and person of color, Iswari comes with valuable experience, knowledge, cultural awareness, and a different point of view which assumes importance for each undertaking. Her leadership qualities, ability to devise person-centric solutions, fundraising capabilities and successful experience in executing large-scale educational projects have made her an inspiration to many.
2024-2025 Presidential Priorities
At St. Mary’s Academy, we promote a whole child education that considers the full scope of developmental growth, including social, emotional, physical, and neurological, as an integral part of the SMA experience. To this end, we are turning a sharp focus on our extracurricular programs and healthy use of technology. And, we will continue to embrace last year’s priority of unity as we reach a huge milestone in the founding of St. Mary’s Academy. Our theme for the year is Roaring into the Next 160 Years as we celebrate the 160th year of SMA.
1 - Revitalize Arts, Athletics, and Activities
Research continually shows the importance of performing arts, visual arts, and athletics toward whole-child health and lifelong skills. St. Mary’s Academy boasts incredible talent in our teaching staff and students who dedicate long hours to cultivate their passions and enrich their lives. This impacts their most important boosters, their families, also. As a Preschool to Grade 12 program, we are presented with extra programmatic and operational challenges to make sure we hum at optimum performance. Strategic work in these areas will include:
- Streamlining and organization of performing and visual arts schedules and performances/exhibits to provide a better experience for participants and families.
- Developing a first-class athletics program through our newly expanded staff led by five proven administrators, coaches, and role models. We are very excited to witness new heights for this program in our upgraded indoor and outdoor spaces, too!
- Evaluating our other myriad extracurricular activities and elevating ones that will ensure the highest satisfaction among participants.
2 - Lead with Technology Wellness
Student well-being and screen time have been an intense subject of research across the globe over the past several years. In addition to its effects on mental health, its impacts on academic achievement have also been under the microscope. I have set the topic of technology wellness — the pursuit of an intentional and healthy relationship with technology both in the workplace and in personal life — as a priority in the coming year. Strategic work in this area will include:
- Immersing in community learning about the negative effects of cell phone use among teenagers. This summer, our faculty and staff have been reading copies of “The Anxious Generation,” in which author Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and professor of ethical leadership at NYU, discusses the negative impacts on social and neurological development linked to screens. Rates of depression, anxiety, and self-harm are on the rise, and teenagers have withdrawn in different ways from the world.
- Evaluating and updating our policies on the use of digital devices in the classroom.
- Conducting faculty professional development on technology wellness.
3 - Integrate Neuroscience into the Classroom
Our collective focus on the burgeoning field of neuroscience began last year at SMA. Neuroscience is giving educators new insights into how students absorb, retain, and recall information. Understanding these processes is paramount to designing teaching strategies that align with the natural learning patterns of students’ brains; they impact every area of instruction with the ultimate goal of deeper student engagement, motivation, and learning. Strategies to be employed this year include:
- Educating faculty further on neuroscience strategies and cultivating adoption in the classroom.
- Evaluating general technology use in the classroom to ensure our learning spaces and time in the classroom are optimized for activities that foster choice, creativity, reflection, intellectual challenges, and immediate and high-quality feedback.
4 - Launch Strategic Planning Process
Our strategic planning process for St. Mary’s Academy will launch as planned in August with Bloom Planning. Bloom Planning has deep and respected experience in K-12 education, development, and facilitation with a mission to help schools improve and grow in ways that are transformative and change the world. The strategic planning process will involve all Academy stakeholders, including the Board of Trustees, alumnae and alumni, parents, faculty, and high school students.