RUMSON – Grace Yannakakis has joined Rumson Country Day School (RCDS) as its new head of Lower School. Yannakakis was recently head of school at The Tidewater School in Huntingtown, Maryland. She also served as Lower School head at The Calverton School also located in Huntingtown, Maryland. Yannakakis’ additional experience includes assistant head of school, teacher, program coordinator, and coach. She attended Syracuse University and received her B.A. in French and political science; an M.A. in French language and literature from The University of Washington. She has her M.Ed. in education leadership at Teachers College at Columbia University.
As head of the Lower School, Yannakakis will lead a team of 30 faculty members who instruct 200 students in Nursery (age 3) through Grade Four at RCDS. “It is in the Lower School that children learn to love school and they build habits of mind like curiosity, teamwork, creativity and perseverance,” said Yannakakis. “These are dispositions they carry throughout their lives. To have the opportunity to cultivate these qualities in young children – in such a supportive school community as RCDS – is indeed a privilege and an honor.”
Head of School Whitney Slade shared, “We chose Grace because she was a proven collaborative, creative thinker and demonstrated in the inter view process that she has a tremendous handle on best practices on early childhood and early elementary education. We are thrilled to have her onboard as our current Lower School head.”
Yannakakis succeeds Jayne S. Carmody, who retired this past spring after 37 years at Rumson Country Day. Last year, RCDS chose to recognize its departing Lower School head by expanding and renaming its program for students with language-based learning differences The Jayne S. Carmody School at RCDS.
